FREDERICK, Maryland — Reps. April McClain Delaney (D-MD) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) did little to satisfy ticked-off voters Wednesday during a town hall event outside of Washington, D.C.
The constituent event with several hundred residents marked the latest instance of congressional Democrats confronting frustrated constituents who say the party isn’t doing enough to combat President Donald Trump.
But instead of the raucous and contentious in-person events with shouting constituents that other lawmakers have faced, Wednesday’s affair featured little drama as a guarded Delaney and Raskin trod carefully with prescreened written questions that allowed them to avoid subjects that could rile a crowd.
“It was a feel-good moment listening to Raskin. But I’m still like, ‘Ugh, what are we going to do?’” a 57-year-old female federal worker in attendance, who was granted anonymity out of fear for her job, told the Washington Examiner. “I need to know we’re to do ‘this’ and ‘this’ is going to happen. I don’t think we’re in that position.”
Mike Morse, 87, and his wife, Sea Raven, 80, were irritated Delaney did not address her vote for the Laken Riley Act, a Trump-backed Republican bill to crack down on illegal immigration that she and several dozen other congressional Democrats supported.
“I think Delaney, in some respects, hid behind [Raskin],” Morse said. “She is our representative. We voted for her and are very, very, very disgruntled about her votes regarding immigration. She’s basically thrown immigrants under the bus.”
The event was held in Delaney’s district, with Raskin billed as a “special guest.” The two split the nearly hourlong event between dunking on Trump and Republicans vs. answering eight prechosen questions submitted by audience members. There was scant substantive discussion about the elephant in the room: what are Democrats doing to resist the administration’s overhaul of the federal government?
“I share your frustration, and I share your fury over what is happening,” Delaney, whose district the town hall was held, said seconds into her opening remarks. “I am there, and I’m here to stand up and to tell you what we’re doing, what we’re doing about it in our district.”
Delaney and Raskin repeatedly emphasized the role of the federal judiciary, suggesting their best hope to provide a check on the administration was through the courts. They pointed to recent rulings by judges on Trump’s sweeping federal workforce layoffs.
But in at least one instance, the administration has sidestepped a verbal order from a judge to halt additional migrant deportations via plane because his written order had not yet been filed.
There were audible grumblings as attendees departed about the lack of questions for a room full of hundreds.
“I’m happy to hear there’s so much activity in the judiciary. That’s great,” Roebuck said. “But if it’s not being listened to, what else are we going to do? How are we going to implement and enforce that? That’s where my question still is after this.”
On several occasions, Raskin referenced class action lawsuits as possible remedies for fired federal workers and other actions taken by the administration, such as the Department of Government Efficiency accessing people’s sensitive personal data through systems like Social Security.
“In the big picture, this is not the struggle of two days, or two weeks, or two months, or even two years,” Raskin said. “This is the fight of our lives, my friends. We’re in it together until the end.”
There was but brief passive acknowledgment by either lawmaker of the civil war playing out among Democrats over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) breaking with House Democrats to help Republicans pass a stopgap funding bill and avert a shutdown.
In her reasoning for opposing the spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, Delaney appeared to conflate it with a separate budget process known as reconciliation, in which House Republicans have proposed steep cuts to Medicaid.
Raskin said the funding bill to prevent a shutdown “implicitly validated all of their lawless attacks on the federal government.”
“I know that the Senate leadership has come under a lot of criticism,” Raskin said. “What we have is our numbers, and we must be unified, and it’s not too much to expect of Democratic leadership that we get together before these events, before these votes, and we work together.”
Schumer was forced to trade in his book tour for damage control duty to address the fallout and calls from within the party for him to step aside. He’s argued that Democrats faced a lose-lose scenario between shutting down the government or being seen as enabling the Trump administration.
But a shutdown, Schumer has warned, would only further fuel Trump’s dismantling of federal jobs and programs while leaving it to Republicans to determine when to reopen.
HILL REPUBLICANS GET TO KNOW DOGE — AND THE BUSINESS TITANS RUNNING IT
That sort of messaging resonated with the federal employee who was granted anonymity.
“I understand we were in a no-win situation,” she said. “That was a difficult decision. I was OK with them saying, ‘You know what, we’re going to vote no all the way.’ I was OK. But I’m in a different position as a federal employee because I could retire.”