Protesters swarm Chaffetz town hall
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Thursday faced a flood of protesters during a town hall in his home state.
Demonstrators repeatedly disrupted the House Oversight Committee chairman, challenging him over his treatment of President Trump.
“If you want to continue to look into [2016 Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary Clinton, I don’t care,” an attendee named Noor Ul-Hasan asked Chaffetz, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. “But why aren’t you checking out your own president?”
{mosads}“You’re really not going to like this part,” Chaffetz responded. “The president, under the law, is exempt from conflict of interest laws.”
Chaffetz was a key player in the Benghazi and email investigations that plagued Clinton, a former secretary of State under President Obama. Shortly before Election Day, Chaffetz said he believed the committee had two years’ worth of material on her. Now he’s facing added pressure to apply the same level of scrutiny to Trump.
The Tribune reported Thursday’s event at Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, was at capacity, with police warning some would not be admitted into its 1,080-person auditorium.
Demonstrators repeatedly booed when Chaffetz mentioned Trump’s name, it said, and some held up signs reading “disagree” at the Utah lawmaker.
“If you want me to answer the question, give me more than five seconds to do it,” Chaffetz said after one interruption. “I’m trying to be as representative as I can.”
Cong Chaffetz Town Hall crowd chanting “Do your job!” He’s having a hard time answering over crowd noise @UtahIndivisible @IndivisibleTeam pic.twitter.com/gO0BXybGy5
— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) February 10, 2017
Crowd outside Cong Chaffetz Town hall chanting “Bring him out.” Police arrested one person so far. @UtahIndivisible pic.twitter.com/3ub0AkXAkM
— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) February 10, 2017
#Chaffetz just announced time’s almost up, cutting his town hall by an entire hour. Quitting early @UtahIndivisible @IndivisibleTeam
— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) February 10, 2017
Again, #Chaffetz says he wants Trump to release his tax returns, “but it is not required by law.” Reaction: pic.twitter.com/KF6rX8Ei3J
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) February 10, 2017
In the wake of Trump’s election, Republican lawmakers have faced an onslaught of protests.
Chaffetz and Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) earlier Thursday urged the Office of Government Ethics to recommend disciplinary action against Trump’s top White House counselor.
Kellyanne Conway ignited controversy that morning when she promoted a line of clothing and accessories from Ivanka Trump on Fox News after reports that department store Nordstrom would stop selling the products due to low sales figures.
“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, is what I would tell you,” she said on “Fox & Friends.” “I’m going to give it a free commercial, go buy it today.”
Conway did not apologize during another Fox appearance that evening, saying President Trump “supports me 100 percent.”
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