Top Republican Brutally Heckled at Town Hall Over Trump Not Following Supreme Court Order: ‘I’m Pissed!’
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was relentlessly heckled during a town hall event in Lee County, Iowa, Tuesday, by voters angered at the Trump administration deporting and imprisoning migrants in El Salvador without any kind of due process in the court system.
“You’re interested in border security?” Grassley asks the woman in front of him to begin the exchange.
“Yes. I believe very strongly in my Christian faith. I preach on Sundays, and I believe very strongly that we welcome the stranger,” the woman replies to applause.
“And that is what we’ve been taught, and that is what the Gospel tells us. And I think turning away people who have come here for asylum is one of the most shameful things we are doing right now,” she said to further applause, adding:
I just want to know, for you as a senator, as my elected senator, is there anything you can do so that we can follow international law better? Our, just the ideals of our country to be a place of hope for others, where they can come when they are searching for a home because they have no place else to go.
Grassley, who is 91 and the chair of the Judiciary Committee, replied, “Everything that we can do legally under our laws, we welcome refugees, that’s the legal status.”
The audience erupted in condemnation, saying, “No! Not now.”
“Right now, we’re not, I mean that right now we’re not that, these changes have been taking place and that’s what concerns me so much,” replied the woman who asked the question.
“There’s no due process!” shouted a man in the crowd.
“Yeah, okay, I would welcome refugees and I’ll welcome people for asylum,” Grassley added.
“Are you going to bring that guy back from El Salvador?” yelled another man, referring to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Supreme Court ordered be returned to the U.S.
“Why not?” shouted another as Grassley added, “Well, because that’s not our, that’s not a power of Congress.”
The room erupted again in heckling as people shouted:
The Supreme Court said to bring him back!
Appointing judges are!
The Supreme Court said to bring him back!
The president isn’t upholding the Constitution. He’s defying the Constitution!
You’re on the Judiciary Committee!
Trump don’t care!
If I get an order to pay a check for $1,200 and I just say no, does that stand up? Because he’s got an order from the Supreme Court and he’s just said no!
Grassley tried to speak, noting, “I’ll be able to answer your question–”
“You ignored my letter!” a woman shouted over him as he tried to regain control of the room.
“Speak up, please, we can’t hear you,” another member in the audience yelled.
Grassley finally noted, “The president of that country is not subject to our U.S. Supreme Court.”
“Uhhhh! No!” shouted more audience members in reply, adding:
I’m pissed!
We’re paying them to keep them down here, we don’t have to pay them.
“Excuse me, Senator. Senator, excuse me, on that same subject. Excuse me. Senator Grassley. On that same subject, the Constitution, the framers of the Constitution said that every person, not citizen, every person within the jurisdiction of the United States has due process,” said another man, adding:
We would like to know what you, as the people, the Congress, who are supposed to rein in this dictator, what are you going to do about it? These people have been sentenced to life imprisonment in a foreign country with no due process. Our government can’t do anything!
“Why won’t you do your job, Senator?” yelled another person, as someone else added, “Trump’s not obeying the Supreme Court, he just ignores them.”
“Yeah, screw it!” shouted another man.
“Let the senator answer,” demanded a woman as Grassley pushed an audience member to clarify his question.
“What is a constitutional crisis? What does that consist of? A constitutional crisis exists when you have a president who ignores the Supreme Court,” said the man in the crowd, adding:
You have a Congress who fails to rein in a third branch of our government, who is now violating our Constitution. You took an oath, ‘I do solemnly swear or affirm,’ do you remember that, sir? Yes sir. ‘That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of office of which I am about to enter so help me God.’ All right, sir. Are you acting upon your oath?
“I’ll wait until the clapping is done. I thought when I answered this guy’s question, I was doing what the Constitution requires. I’m trying to recapture the Constitutional authority of Article 1, Section 8, one of the 18 powers of Congress to regulate interstate and foreign commerce by introducing the bill which is a bipartisan bill,” Grassley said to approval from the audience – referring to his bill to restore the power to levy tariffs to the Congress.
Grassley then added, “To fix some of the mistakes that the Democratic Congress has made in 1963–” The room again erupted in loud heckling and condemnation.
Watch the full clip above via C-SPAN.
