Republican Rep’s Town Hall Goes Sideways as Voters Demand Impeachment

On Monday, Representative Doug LaMalfa of California became the latest Republican to face furious constituents, at an in-person town hall in Chico.

Many Republicans haven’t held such events for months—GOP leaders advised lawmakers to avoid them earlier this year—so the handful who’ve decided to break the advised embargo in recent weeks have endured fierce confrontations with their constituents.

But LaMalfa hasn’t appeared in Chico for an in-person town hall for much longer than that: Before Monday, it had reportedly been eight years since his previous one in town, as Chico City Councilmember Katie Hawley noted early in the event. At that point, LaMalfa had already been berated by the audience, including with shouts of “No fascism in America!” and “You need to be impeached!”

Hawley remarked, “If Chico City Council was a public event only once every eight years, I think we would have a room exactly like this.” She continued, “The less frequently you show up and have town halls like this, I believe that the harder it will be to facilitate the conversations.”

Throughout the event, LaMalfa faced raucous jeers, as well as tough questions and criticisms.

One resident, who identified himself as the son of Holocaust survivors, said, “People being kidnapped without arrest warrants, without trial, without recourse, by the president of the United States’s ICE armies is clear evidence of how a fascist, authoritarian government works. We are not headed toward an authoritarian fascist government; we are already there.”

Another resident called Trump’s spending plan (the so-called “one, big beautiful bill”) the “big bullshit bill” and was chastised by LaMalfa for their language. “Fuck you!” replied several in attendance.

Multiple people voiced concerns about SNAP and Medicaid cuts under the plan—with one pointing out that people in the area depend on those services to “help keep them alive.” Another common cause of concern was Israel’s war on Gaza, on which LaMalfa maintained a staunch, pro-Israel stance.

Trump’s efforts to defund PBS and NPR also elicited outrage from the attendees. LaMalfa responded to one such comment with, “Well, the people have many, many choices to receive media,” only to be met with resounding boos.

Another resident expressed concern about Trump’s tariffs. “Article 1, Section 8 talks about the power of Congress to regulate foreign trade,” he said. “It doesn’t say anything about the president unilaterally creating tariffs.”

Several in attendance also registered their worries about public education under Trump. LaMalfa, for his part, suggested that the more pressing issue regarding public schools is that they need “to be focused on what the children really need”—the so-called three R’s: reading, writing, and arithmetic—instead of on “ancillary things” like “climate change” and “LGB.”

A particularly interesting question came toward the tail end of the event, when a resident asked if LaMalfa supports the ongoing GOP attempt to gerrymander Texas in order to tilt Congress in his party’s favor. The move has led California Democrats to propose retaliatory redistricting that could possibly sound the death knell for LaMalfa’s political career.

“Texas shouldn’t be doing that,” LaMalfa said. “California shouldn’t be doing this. This is going to start a grass fire all across the country. Every single state will try to change it based on a political outcome.”