News · Press Release

Afraid of Getting Yelled At By The Public For Their Plan to Rip Away Health Care and Food From Families, House Republicans Decide to Hide

NBC News: “It’s 2018 all over again.”

After facing outrage from voters and failing to answer straightforward, legitimate questions from their constituents on why they support gutting Medicaid and slashing food assistance programs to pay for billionaire tax breaks, House Republicans are admitting they can’t take the heat.

Recent reporting from NBC News revealed internal guidance from Republican Party leaders on how House Republicans should handle dealing with the American public for the foreseeable future: Run and hide.

DCCC Spokesperson Viet Shelton:
“House Republicans are afraid to face the public because they know how deeply unpopular and damaging their budget is to the American people. Fortunately for everyone, they won’t have to hide forever, because next year voters will sweep them out of office and help Democrats retake the House Majority.”

Read more from NBC News below.

NBC News: House Republicans hit the brakes on town halls after blowback over Trump’s cuts
Melanie Zanona, Jonathan Allen, Matt Dixon | February 25, 2025

  • House Republicans are becoming weary and wary of in-person town hall meetings after a number of lawmakers have faced hometown crowds angry about the Trump administration’s push to slash government programs and staffing.

  • A GOP aide said House Republican leaders are urging lawmakers to stop engaging in them altogether.

  • The town halls, and the rash of negative headlines, have been the first bit of public blowback for members who face voters next year. And the new reluctance to hold them indicates there are bubbling concerns about the impact the cuts could have on the GOP’s chances of holding its thin majority in the House next year.

  • The viral nature of video clips spreading from one district to another means a bad confrontation in safe Republican territory could influence voters in battlegrounds.

  • The GOP-led House is trying to enact even deeper spending and tax cuts through legislation that could add as much as $4.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

  • Lawmakers are spooked enough about the prospects of heated exchanges that most of them do not want to do town halls anyway, this Republican said.

  • A chief of staff to a House Republican […] compared the dynamics with tough town halls in the 2018 midterms.

  • “It’s 2018 all over again,” the aide said.

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