Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) faced a hostile audience at a town hall meeting in his home district on Saturday and was even booed by constituents when the topic of health care came up.
A clip shared online showed members of the Houston-area audience chanting “Fix it!” at the congressman.
“The only way to fix it is to replace it,” Culberson said, causing the voters in the room to erupt in jeers.
At other times, the crowd chanted, “Do your job!” CBS affiliate KHOU reported.
Culberson was booed several times, including when he spoke about President Donald Trump, the Texas Tribune reported.
However, Culberson also told the crowd he was opposed to Trump’s proposed budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts and vowed to use “aggressive oversight” to ensure immigration enforcement “focused on felons and dangerous criminals.”
Angry voters have been turning up at town halls held by GOP lawmakers in recent months. Some politicians have blamed “paid protesters” while others have stopped holding the events altogether.
On Twitter, Culberson said he “enjoyed hearing the thoughts and concerns” of his constituents. The expressions on some of the faces in the audience suggest the feeling may not have been entirely mutual:
While Culberson easily won re-election to a ninth term in 2016, Hillary Clinton actually beat Trump by a narrow margin in his district, and some voters said their representative needs to reflect the will of a changing demographic if he hopes to keep his job.
“The ideology amongst the constituents is changing, and he’s still very hard-line Republican,” Abraham Espinosa, 26, told the Houston Chronicle.
Espinosa was among the audience of 700 people, with another 500 who couldn’t get into the town hall due to space. He became a citizen in November and warned that he’ll be voting soon.
Before You Go
