Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) got an earful from constituents at a town hall on Thursday while defending massive federal spending cuts by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In a video posted to X by Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein, one of McCormick’s constituents could be heard telling him that Congress controls spending not the president.
“And you are doing us a disservice to set that down and not stand up for us,” she said as the audience cheered.
McCormick told the audience that it is being “litigated” which earned him another round of shout downs.
“Stand up for us,” another audience member yelled, “and don’t bend over.”
Another attendee criticized recent cuts at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asking, “Why is the supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?” McCormick responded that “a lot of the work they do is duplicitous with AI.”
“If we continue to grow the size of government and we can’t afford it, it’s going to have shortfalls in your Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security,” he added.
An attendee then accused the administration of using a “chain saw approach” to layoffs that it was “jammed down the pipe, so rushed and sloppily.”
McCormick insisted that there some thought process being put behind the hasty firings by DOGE which earned him another round of loud protests with attendees shouting “No!”, and one person yelling: “Elon Musk is deciding.”
Others declared “we’re pissed” and “don’t bend over,” and chanting “shame.”
McCormick was also asked how he plans to “rein in the megalomaniac in the White House” by an attendee who referenced Trump’s Truth Social post earlier this week declaring himself king.
“When you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected,” McCormick responded.
His response earned another round of boos from the audience.
