It isn’t just Republicans getting an earful at local town halls in the wake of President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s federal job and spending cuts.
From Colorado to Maryland, Democrats, too, have faced fired-up crowds this week who want them to step up their fight against Trump. The anger has intensified since Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led a group of Democrats to help advance a Republican government funding bill backed by Trump to avert a government shutdown, prompting questions about whether party leaders are up to the task.
Several Democratic lawmakers also distanced themselves from Schumer, dumping further criticism on his strategy during the funding fight.
At a town hall Wednesday evening just outside Denver, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., found himself on the receiving end of anger and criticism from voters for being too passive when it comes to battling Trump.
One attendee tore into Bennet for voting to confirm several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, including Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
“None of this feels like you’re fighting for us, for Colorado, for our kids, for our grandkids,” an attendee told Bennet as the crowd cheered. “The words are great, but I’m really not seeing any action.”
Toward the beginning of the event — which Bennet held in Golden, Colo., alongside Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo. — attendees shouted for one full minute as Bennet attempted to calm the crowd.
“Hey. Hey! We’re not going to do it this way,” the Bennet yelled, before repeatedly shouting, “Stop it!”
Bennet was also pressed on whether Schumer should remain Senate Democratic leader. He referenced his call for then-President Joe Biden to step aside during the 2024 campaign.
“In dodging your question, let me just say it’s important for people to know, you know, when it’s time to go,” Bennet said. “And I think in the case of Joe Biden, and we’re going to have future conversations about all the Democratic leadership.
On Tuesday, Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., was also grilled on how Democrats would confront Trump and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“We need to see ‘hell no,’ one attendee told the genteel Ivey at a town hall he hosted this week in Suitland, a suburb outside of Washington. “And thank you for being polite with us, but when it comes to fighting these fights, we need you to be a little bit less polite, a little bit more hell no, instead of a little bit no.”
In a separate exchange, another attendee repeatedly interrupted the two-term congressman as he tried to answer someone else’s question: “The House is on fire. It is not business as usual. … This is outrageous. … This is bulls—.”
But Ivey drew loud applause when he became the first Democratic member of Congress to call for Schumer to step down from his post as party leader.
“I respect Chuck Schumer. I think he’s had a great, longstanding career. He’s done a lot of great things, but I’m afraid that it may be time for the Senate Democrats to pick new leadership as we move forward,” Ivey said.
And in Arizona on Monday, Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego appeared before a less hostile crowd, but faced pointed questions from attendees about how they would protect programs they rely on. Kelly encouraged them to make phone calls and go to the offices of Republican members of Congress.
“You show up in front of their office, tell them how pissed off you are and how bad this is for our country and how there are people inside the house that you were trying to burn down,” Kelly said.
A Democratic ‘tea party’ movement?
The town hall events underscored the increased pressure Democratic members of Congress are under from their base to use every tool possible to block Trump’s agenda, even as they are limited in their role as the minority party in Washington. The scenes mirror the events of 2009, which were directed simultaneously at the Democratic governing trifecta in Washington and at members of the Republican minority who were accused of being too passive in opposition.
A recent NBC News poll found that 65% of Democrats want their elected representatives to stick to their positions and hold the line against Trump, while 32% favor compromising with him. That’s a dramatic shift from Trump’s first term: an April 2017 NBC News poll found that 59% of Democrats favored compromising with Trump, while 33% said lawmakers should stick to their positions.
That’s also led some progressive activists to call for new leadership in Congress. It’s a matter several Democrats declined to directly address this week while offering criticism of Schumer.
At a town hall in Lowell, Mass., this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Schumer’s decision to allow the GOP funding bill to move through the Senate “wrong,” but didn’t say whether he should remain the party’s leader.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., dodged a question on Schumer’s future at a press conference in San Francisco, saying he doesn’t “opine on internal caucus politics.”
“We’re going to have to do a lot better the next time a key issue like this comes up,” Schiff said.
For his part, Schumer canceled a plan book tour this week amid the backlash, citing security concerns. But he has continued to defend his funding strategy in TV interviews, saying that a government shutdown would have resulted in a worse outcome for federal workers and further empower Trump and Musk. And he’s brushed off calls to step down from his leadership position.
“I’m the best leader for the Senate,” he said Tuesday on CBS Mornings.”
Frustrations mount with lawmakers in both parties
Meanwhile, few Republican lawmakers held town halls this week during the congressional recess after drawing angry and frustrated crowds of their own earlier this year. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, advised members against holding in-person town halls.
One who did though, Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., faced heckles and boos Wednesday night in Laramie, Wyoming, as she tried to downplay concerns about Trump and Musk.
“It’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government,” Hageman said, adding that the attendees’ “hysteria is just really over the top.”
And note every Democrat who has held a town hall in recent days received an icy reception.
At a Wednesday town hall in Frederick, Maryland, Democratic Reps. April McClain Delaney and Jamie Raskin faced a largely friendly, energized crowd that cheered lines about protecting Medicaid and Social Security and stopping DOGE in the courts, as well as hints of impeaching Trump if Democrats retake the House in 2026. (Raskin is the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and any impeachment push would start in his committee.)
Still, several constituents told NBC News they were frustrated by a lack of “substance” at the town hall.
Juliana Lufkin, 33, a self-employed resident of Hagerstown, said the lawmakers were “tooting their own horns” when she would’ve liked to hear a strategy for combating Trump.
“I would’ve liked to hear the plan, instead of a little bit of tooting their own horns and saying the things they’re doing and the things that we can do. This is not the leadership that we all hope for,” Lufkin said.