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Why Does Congress ‘Even Exist?’: GOP Representative Blasted at ‘Hostile’ Town Hall
In one of the first town halls since House Republicans narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” that would gut Medicaid and SNAP, force cuts to Medicare, and provide tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy, U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, a Republican of Nebraska, was showered with criticism.
Constituents in the auditorium expressed anger over cuts to the social safety net and incursions against America’s system of checks and balances, as KMTV reported. The local Nebraska outlet called the event “hostile.” Rep. Flood was repeatedly asked why he and the GOP Congress are not standing up to President Trump.
“At what point—even though you’re a Republican and he is a Republican—are you willing t0 break with him?” one constituent asked. “What does he have to do?”
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“My question is regarding your oath of office,” declared another audience member (video below). “So you have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution from enemies, both foreign and domestic. And you’ve up until now abdicated all of your rights as Congress to the executive branch. And if you don’t act as a check and balance on the executive branch, when they are in violation, not only of the Constitution, but also of judicial orders, what exactly is the purpose of Congress? Why do you even exist?”
Other constituents were equally challenging.
“There’s a dichotomy between what you do and what you say when you come up here on stage, and what you vote for,” charged a constituent. “So, like today, you say, ‘Oh, this is the number one most important thing.’ But you voted for a bill that increases the deficit by $4 trillion.”
“You say, “Oh, I care about the rule of law, but you voted for a bill that contains a provision that would gut the checks the judicial branch has, and you didn’t even read it?” he added. “It’s ridiculous.”
“Why should we trust you when you come out of here and say things, but then you vote against the things that you say that you care about, that you believe in?”
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On the $800 billion cuts to Medicaid in the bill Flood voted for, he insisted that most Nebraskans will not be affected, unlike, he alleged, states like California, which allows undocumented immigrants to access the program. The cuts to Medicaid are also expected to be achieved, in part, by imposing stricter work requirements.
“Question for the audience,” Flood declared, according to NBC News, “do you want illegal immigrants to get tax-funded benefits?”
“Yes,” was the crowd’s loud response. Flood replied: “I would say that is not the majority opinion of most Nebraskans, however. Next question.”
Flood also received harsh criticism for voting for the portion of the bill that makes it far more difficult for judges to hold parties in contempt of court — a provision some believe was designed to help President Trump.
The Nebraska Republican was forced to admit that he had not read that part of the bill, as NBC News also reported.
“This provision was unknown to me when I voted for the bill,” Flood told his constituents, to “loud yells” from the audience.
“I am not going to hide the truth,” he continued. “This provision was unknown to me when I voted for that, and when I found out that provision was in the bill, I immediately reached out to my Senate counterparts and told them of my concern.”
NBC noted that “Flood’s words did not calm attendees, who continued their shouting.”
KLKN spoke with several attendees after the town hall.
“I’m not sure how truthful he really was,” said one.
“Never spoken to that man until I came to these town halls, and he doesn’t listen,” said another.
Watch the video below or at this link.
READ MORE: ‘He Is Not in Charge’: Trump Mocked After Asking What’s in His Own Executive Order
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
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