The crowd packed into City Hall and filled an overflow room with one question, above all, for their Republican congressman: What did he think of Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn mission to shrink the federal government?
Their Atlanta suburb in a solid-red district was hardly a hub of the liberal resistance, but hundreds had shown up to confront Rep. Richard McCormick in person. Now each argument from the lawmaker brought a new round of shouts, groans and boos.
“If you’re going to just yell at me, that’s not going be an effective town hall,” McCormick said, five minutes into defending Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service.
“But we’re pissed!” a woman shouted.
Town halls this week for congressional Republicans from Georgia to Wisconsin to Oregon grew testy as voters showed up to vent, outraged at the firing of workers and the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to sensitive data. Protesters showed up around the country at lawmakers’ offices.
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The backlash extends far beyond federal workers in the Beltway, reaching purple districts that will decide control of Congress in 2026 and swing states like Georgia that helped return Trump to the White House. Layoffs just hit the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Funding freezes have halted clean-energy projects championed by President Joe Biden.
The crowd at McCormick’s town hall Thursday night was decidedly liberal. But new Washington Post-Ipsos polling suggests some of Trump and Musk’s moves are unpopular beyond the Democratic base. About 6 in 10 Americans surveyed were opposed to shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Musk bragged about feeding “into the wood chipper.”
Republicans have overwhelmingly backed DOGE’s mission and even moved to replicate it at the state-level, including in Georgia. But they’re also struggling to justify the scope of some cuts and scrambling to get exceptions for their constituents — in some cases lobbying the Trump administration to restore federal funding to their states.
Anna Foy teared up as she waited with her mother to watch McCormick’s town hall from overflow. The 33-year-old Army Reservist said the Bureau of Land Management had abruptly rescinded a job offer wrangling wild horses; she spoke to someone in McCormick’s office, she said, and was here to follow up.
“I’ve worked six years to develop my resume around this job,” Foy said. “I don’t know what to do.” When the town hall finished, she waited to speak with the congressman’s staff.
She didn’t want to talk about politics because of her Army role, she said — she just wanted her job back.
Their Atlanta suburb in a solid-red district was hardly a hub of the liberal resistance, but hundreds had shown up to confront Rep. Richard McCormick in person. Now each argument from the lawmaker brought a new round of shouts, groans and boos.
“If you’re going to just yell at me, that’s not going be an effective town hall,” McCormick said, five minutes into defending Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service.
“But we’re pissed!” a woman shouted.
Town halls this week for congressional Republicans from Georgia to Wisconsin to Oregon grew testy as voters showed up to vent, outraged at the firing of workers and the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to sensitive data. Protesters showed up around the country at lawmakers’ offices.
🏛️
Follow Politics
The backlash extends far beyond federal workers in the Beltway, reaching purple districts that will decide control of Congress in 2026 and swing states like Georgia that helped return Trump to the White House. Layoffs just hit the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Funding freezes have halted clean-energy projects championed by President Joe Biden.
The crowd at McCormick’s town hall Thursday night was decidedly liberal. But new Washington Post-Ipsos polling suggests some of Trump and Musk’s moves are unpopular beyond the Democratic base. About 6 in 10 Americans surveyed were opposed to shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Musk bragged about feeding “into the wood chipper.”
Republicans have overwhelmingly backed DOGE’s mission and even moved to replicate it at the state-level, including in Georgia. But they’re also struggling to justify the scope of some cuts and scrambling to get exceptions for their constituents — in some cases lobbying the Trump administration to restore federal funding to their states.
Anna Foy teared up as she waited with her mother to watch McCormick’s town hall from overflow. The 33-year-old Army Reservist said the Bureau of Land Management had abruptly rescinded a job offer wrangling wild horses; she spoke to someone in McCormick’s office, she said, and was here to follow up.
“I’ve worked six years to develop my resume around this job,” Foy said. “I don’t know what to do.” When the town hall finished, she waited to speak with the congressman’s staff.
She didn’t want to talk about politics because of her Army role, she said — she just wanted her job back.
