Media attendees at Rep. Doug LaMalfa's (R-Calif.) first town hall were left with a head-scratcher.
The Redding Record-Searchlight reported late Monday that a Tea Party group instituted a blackout during the scheduled Q&A section of LaMalfa's appearance. The paper claims that it was also asked to refrain from tweeting his comments, or face a potential ban from future events.
KRCR-TV adds that the following ground rules were set by a Tea Party organizer before LaMalfa's event: no filming of the congressman's introduction or the Q&A session, as well as a request for the TV station to exit before that latter portion of the event began. According to KRCR's Monday on-air report, Tea Party members wrote in Facebook posts that the restrictions were due to displeasure with the media outlet's past coverage.
LaMalfa took office in January after defeating Jim Reed in the 2012 House race for California's 1st District. He turned heads with September comments linking abortion to cancer.
"Research has shown there is that there is that higher level of incidence, there is that risk and so I would want women to be fully informed of all the aspects of it before they would make a decision like that," he said during a mid-September debate aired on KRCR-TV. "I think that shows more care for women then by simply shuffling them off to an abortion mill and so that's a very important distinction that needs to be made."
LaMalfa later backed off the claim, admitting in a statement that he was misinformed.
"After last night's debate I checked the most recent research on the question of a link between abortion and cancer and found that current research does not support the conclusion that abortion causes cancer," he wrote. "I hope that any woman considering this procedure discusses all the health consequences with her doctor and makes a fully informed decision."
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