Senator Tom Cotton Held a Town Hall Last Night. Thousands of His Constituents Showed Up. It Didn’t Go Well for Him.

‘Without the Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions I Will Die’

Republican freshman U.S. Senator Tom Cotton Wednesday night held a town hall. Thousands of his Arkansas constituents showed up at a theater in the Springdale High School. It did not go well for him. Cotton, a former Army Captain who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, defeated Democrat Mark Pryor in 2014 after running as a hard core conservative, and he is among the furthest right wing members of the Senate.

In a conservative state like Arkansas, some might think his town hall would have been easy. But Republicans in congress are waking up to the fact that, despite all their false claims about Obamacare, people actually like it. They need it. And they don’t want it repealed. 

Some, like this eloquent young woman who shared her story, truly need the protections the Affordable Care Act has given them. 

“Without the coverage for pre-existing conditions, I will die,” Kati McFarland, speaking from a wheelchair, told Sen. Cotton. “That’s not hyperbole.”

Arkansas Online adds, “McFarland will turn 26 on Sunday, she told the senator, losing her eligibility to be carried on her parents health insurance. She has incurable Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or EDS, which weakens her heart and veins.”

“You want to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which does my cancer screening,” McFarland said. “You and your party talk a lot about repeal of the ACA, but you don’t talk much about what you will replace it with,” she said. “What are you going to replace it with?”

RELATED: ‘Do Your Job!’: Angry Constituents at Town Hall Force Sen. Joni Ernst to Flee 45 Minutes Early (Video)

“I don’t see replacement having the commitment of members of your party as much as their commitment to repeal,” McFarland also told Cotton.

(UPDATE: There is an online fundraiser for Kati at YouCaring.)

Another woman wanted to know how Republicans are going to do better than a plan that costs $29 a month for her husband who she says is dying, and $39 for her. And why she contacted him many times asking to meet and all she’s gotten is a form letter from his office.

She wasn’t the only one who held Cotton’s feet to the fire.

This woman wanted to know why Cotton doesn’t care President Trump hasn’t released his tax returns. She didn’t care for Cotton’s answer, nor did the audience. “I mean, the former president showed his birth certificate,” she reminded him.

And still another woman unhappy with President Trump told Cotton she is not a paid protestor, and she’s concerned because “it appears that this administration is trampling our constitutional rights.”

And then there was this seven year-old named Toby who said “Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important to people who are in Arkansas,” and said his whole family likes Mexicans – the audience cheered. He then said Trump is taking away PBS kids “just to make a wall.”

“He shouldn’t do all that stuff for just the wall.”

Cotton went on to say America is a “melting pot and we are all one people.”

An audience member shouted out, “prove it!”

 

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Image by Greg Leding/Twitter