GOP Rep. Mike Lawler booted two veterans from a furious town hall after they protested against ICE.
The New York Representative was speaking at the event in Rockland County when the subject turned to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and their heavy-handed approach in Minnesota.
As Lawler spoke, members of the audience started chanting: “What’s your line? What’s your line?”
This was the start of an increasingly rowdy town hall. “Answer the f--king question!” one audience member demanded of Lawler, one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress, owing to his representation of one of the most competitive swing districts in the country.
After the young man’s missive, he paused the event for several minutes, The New York Times reported. “Hey, bro, you can leave now,” Lawler demanded. “You want to act like that? Goodbye.”
A Rockland County sheriff’s deputy escorted the man out as audience members chanted, “Let him stay!” and “Shame!”
Local publication Lohud reported that the man said he was both a constituent and a U.S. Navy veteran.
At another packed town hall meeting in Somers in May last year, Emily Feiner was also booted from a Lawler event after asking about what she called President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional actions. She was also at the Rockland County event on Sunday night.
Feiner, a retired social worker for the Veterans Administration, said she was sitting just two rows from the veteran who was ejected alongside another man, who also reportedly served in the armed forces.
“Tonight (Lawler) had two U.S. veterans removed for demanding that he actually answer constituents’ questions rather than grandstanding and gaslighting us,” Feiner said after the town hall. “As a retired VA social worker this is shocking to me.”
Lawler on Monday, Feb. 2, said that “the folks were removed for their conduct, not their questions. In each instance, they were removed for continually disrupting, screaming, and using profane language.”
Lawler has previously called the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota “tragic” but “preventable.” He repeated this sentiment at the rowdy town hall.
He said he didn’t agree with some Trump administration leaders labeling the pair “domestic terrorists,” but added, “I also believe it is wrong to call ICE the Gestapo.”
Lawler, who previously defied Trump by rejecting his “affordability hoax” comments, also asserted that ICE agents should not be wearing masks. He explained that Congress would continue discussions about the immigration task force “over the next two weeks.”
