George Soros denies funding town hall protests

George Soros’s Open Society Foundations is denying Republican claims that the Democratic mega-donor and the nonprofit have been funding protests at GOP lawmakers’ town hall meetings.

“There have been many false reports about George Soros and the Open Society Foundations funding protests in the wake of the U.S. presidential elections,” a spokesman for the foundation said in a statement. “There is no truth to these reports.”

The rebuttal comes at a time when crowds of constituents and activists are showing up to the town hall meetings of GOP lawmakers to voice concerns over President Trump and the congressional Republicans’ policy agenda.

{mosads}Trump and some Republican lawmakers have dismissed the protests as the work of “liberal activists.”

Vice President Pence echoed that sentiment on Thursday during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, saying that “liberal activists” at town hall meetings could not prevent Republicans from repealing the Affordable Care Act.

“Despite the best efforts of liberal activists at town halls around the country, the American people know better,” Pence said. “ObamaCare has failed, and ObamaCare must go.”

Soros has long been a subject of ire on the right. The billionaire investor has spent millions of dollars underwriting Democratic and progressive causes and political campaigns.

— Updated at 10:17 a.m.