Rep. Victoria Spartz went to a Friday town hall in Indiana thinking she’d have a friendly discussion with her constituents. Instead, she was nearly booed off stage.
The Republican lawmaker was bombarded by the jeering crowd after she refused to call for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s resignation after his team was caught discussing highly sensitive attack plans on a messaging app that accidentally added a journalist.
“Will you demand the immediate resignation of Pete Hegseth, Michael Waltz, and the rest of the group chat?” one woman asked Spartz.
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The crowd rose to their feet and cheered, but Spartz quickly shot down the suggestion.
“So let me just address, no I will not demand their resignations,” Spartz said in a video aired by CNN.
On Monday, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeff Goldberg published a Signal group chat in which top Trump administration officials—including National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—discussed plans to bomb Yemen.
They began heckling Spartz even as she admitted the government needs to “do a better job” in sharing the information.
“The government needs to do a better job giving us tools where we can communicate with each other,” she said. “A lot of Democrats and Republicans are using Signal because we don’t have any other tools.”
Spartz’s solution was none other than Elon Musk himself.
“With all the technology happening in the real world, it’s sad that government is so behind on every single technology. And actually that’s what Elon is trying to do — he’s trying to bring technology into government,” she said.
Spartz was also booed when she brought up Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and defended the billionaire CEO’s role in slashing the federal government.
“No Musk!” the crowd chanted loudly.
“I obviously can tell you don’t like DOGE,” Spartz said to the crowd as they continued to boo.
The representative then grew frustrated.
“If you just came here to scream, then we’re not going to have a conversation,” she said to the raucous opposition.
The crowd also chanted “do your job!” several times as the congresswoman attempted to answer tough questions. Spartz will also be having another town hall Saturday afternoon.
Spartz has been a longtime supporter of Musk and backed the “special government employee” even before Trump took office. In December, she said she would spurn the GOP caucus and help Musk instead.
“I will stay as a registered Republican but will not sit on committees or participate in the caucus until I see that Republican leadership in Congress is governing,” Spartz posted on X. “I do not need to be involved in circuses. I would rather spend more of my time helping @DOGE and @RepThomasMassie to save our Republic, as was mandated by the American people.”
Spartz’s chaotic town hall came only weeks after Speaker of the House Mike Johnson advised Republican lawmakers against holding town halls.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Johnson said at the time. “They’re professional protesters ... So why would we give them a forum to do that right now?”
President Donald Trump also dismissed those expressing anger at the GOP town halls.
“Paid ‘troublemakers’ are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings,” he wrote on Truth Social. “It is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it’s not going to work for them!”Earlier this month, President Donald Trump dismissed the party’s growing anger at certain lawmakers.
