Rep. Mike Lawler faced a hostile crowd as the New York Republican tried to defend Donald Trump’s war in Iran at a town hall event.
Multiple audience members at the event, held at Mahopac High School on Sunday night, booed Lawler as the congressman answered questions about his support for the Middle East conflict.
One man was escorted out of the town hall after accusing Lawler and the rest of the GOP of being “spineless” for not trying to impeach the 79-year-old president, who is becoming increasingly reckless as the Iran war drags on.
Lawler, who has been met with furious audience members at several in-person town halls, blasted those who heckled him at Sunday’s event. “We’re in a high school auditorium, and high school students act a lot better than you are acting,” Lawler told factions of the raucous crowd, The Journal News reported. “Actually, act like an adult, and stop.”
Lawler saw strong pushback from the angry crowd as he defended voting last month against a war powers resolution that would have allowed Congress to intervene in the Iran war.
Lawler suggested Trump was within his rights to start a military operation in the Middle East, and that Congress can intervene if it drags on past 90 days—a deadline that will be reached on May 29.
He claimed that the war is necessary because the U.S. needs to do “everything we can to ensure that this regime never gets a nuclear weapon.”
The next person to question the Republican then launched a furious tirade about his stance on the war and his support of Trump.
“You say that when you disagree with Trump, you will tell him so, but that’s not enough,” the man said, prompting cheers from the crowd.
“You must impeach. He’s a fraud, he’s corrupt, he’s an incompetent psychopath. The Republican Party and you are enabling him. You’re all cowards, and you’re spineless.”
Robert Jimison, congressional correspondent for The New York Times, shared a video of the man yelling, “The Republican Party is morally bankrupt” as he was escorted out of Lawler’s town hall.
Elsewhere, Marion Walsh, who described herself as both a military mother and daughter, accused Lawler of having “abdicated your responsibility” to his constituents by supporting Trump’s deeply unpopular multibillion-dollar war.
“You have in fact endangered our young people, our service members of our country, and killed civilians by not standing up to Trump on this unjustified war,” she said, according to The Washington Post.
Lawler is one of the few Republican lawmakers still willing to appear before disgruntled voters and take questions. Sunday’s 90-minute Q&A event was his third town hall of 2026 and his seventh since Trump returned to office last year.
Other town hall events hosted by Lawler have also descended into chaos. During an event in Somers in May 2025, an elderly woman was carried out by law enforcement while Lawler was answering a question about Trump’s tariffs.
In February 2026, two military veterans were removed from Lawler’s town hall in Rockland County as the debate addressed the aggressive tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota.
The crowd chanted, “Shame! Shame!” as an audience member identified as a U.S. Navy veteran was escorted from the room.
The Daily Beast has contacted Lawler’s office for comment.
