No one was expecting a love fest when Representative Mike Lawler, Republican of New York, faced constituents in his suburban swing district on Sunday night. Still, even he seemed surprised by the night’s first clash — over the Pledge of Allegiance.
“Please tell me you’re not objecting to the Pledge of Allegiance,” Mr. Lawler asked incredulously after some members of the audience inside a high school auditorium audibly groaned when he suggested reciting it.
They acquiesced, and several hundred attendees labored to their feet to say the pledge, but not without indicating why they believed its words had come to ring hollow.
“Authoritarian!” one man yelled, an apparent reference to President Trump.
“Support the Constitution!” bellowed another.
So it went for nearly two hours as Mr. Lawler, one of the House’s most vulnerable Republicans and a potential candidate for governor of New York, faced a torrent of criticism from liberal constituents over almost everything, from Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar tax cut plan to how brightly the room was lit.
It was a scene that has repeated itself across the country over the past two weeks for the small group of Republicans who have defied party leaders’ advice and convened feedback sessions with the people they represent, many of them anxious, angry and primed to vent over a president who they believe is acting with unchecked power.
By turns combative and catty, this particular civic exercise in New York’s 17th Congressional District looked less like the kind of respectful town-hall conversation Americans venerate than a shouting match where both sides accuse the other of acting in bad faith.
There were moments that offered attendees insight into Mr. Lawler’s thinking. One of the few Republicans who represent a Democratic-leaning district, he is poised to exercise outsize sway in the narrowly divided House this spring as his party tries to pass an enormous tax-and-spending-cut plan.
“When it comes to Medicaid, I have been very clear: I am not cutting benefits for any eligible recipient,” Mr. Lawler said.
He urged his questioners to disregard a budget blueprint he recently voted for that called for slashing $2 trillion in federal spending, potentially including to cuts to Medicaid. “That is as good as the paper it’s written on,” he said.
The congressman got a rare round of applause when he defended the use of vaccines and criticized Mr. Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has cast doubt on the efficacy of vaccination.
“The fact is, where I disagree I have no problem saying it and pushing back against the things they are saying,” Mr. Lawler said.
As if to prove it, Mr. Lawler said that he believed the Trump administration was wrong to deport a 2-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras and criticized the White House for ignoring court orders to return others already wrongly sent overseas.
But for much of the night, acrimony carried the room. Attendees provoked confrontations with fellow attendees, with Mr. Lawler’s staff members and with the police. No one was satisfied, including supporters of the congressman who mostly watched in silence.
“Whether people like the outcome of an election or not, the fact is that we are a strong, united country,” Mr. Lawler said in opening remarks, explaining that he saw it as his obligation to work with the president and Democrats.
Many members of the crowd broke out into outright laughter.
“Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” a large contingent chanted a bit later, drowning out the congressman as he defended aspects of Mr. Trump’s tariff policy.
Mr. Lawler, who relishes a fight, repeatedly struck back as he paced the stage in jeans and a blazer.
“If you’d take the opportunity to listen rather than yelling, you might actually hear what you want to hear,” he said, pointing out that he had said children deported by the administration should be returned.
The next questioner was not satisfied.
“You’ve told us what the administration should do,” she said. “Our question to you is, What is Congress going to do to help enforce what should be done?”
Another asked: “What specifically are you doing that warrants the label moderate?”
Mr. Lawler took a turn shaking his head when members of the audience chanted “Tax the rich,” a liberal rallying cry in opposition to Republicans’ plan to extend and expand Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
“Folks, taxing the rich is not going to close our budget deficit,” he said, offering a discursive explanation about why cuts to federal spending would be more effective.
Those upset with him were not moved.
“Just do it anyway,” one shouted.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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