Rep. Jason Chapputz's Town Hall Meeting 2-9-17 Streamed

Crowd chants "Do your job" at the 20:00 minute mark or so and again later when the ethics committee comes up. 

Pretty rowdy crowd. People were mad when they closed the doors with 3-4 rows in back still empty.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/9/1632117/-Jason-Chaffetz-is-gett...

"Jason Chaffetz is getting his a## handed to him at his town hall right now UPDATE: He left early"

Thanks for going, Jen. I got off work late and knew the crowds would be bigly huge.

From the 20 minutes or so I watched so far, it looks like the public lands advocates got a few folks in.

Chapputz's reception is being talked about nationally. Stories on HuffPo and Daily Koz. It'll be interesting to see the reaction.

Here's this morning's story in the SL Trib. http://www.sltrib.com/news/4896676-155/watch-utahns-instigate-while-chaf...

"Charlie Luke, a Democratic member of the Salt Lake City Council, wrote on Facebook that the harassment Chaffetz faced "ensured his reelection for as long as he chooses to run."

"It will embolden his majority Republican district," he wrote. "We need to resist, but let's be smart in the way we do it."

330,000 views so far on the stream.

^^^Bluest, I loved the line about mailing Chapputz his balls back.

Clips of the meeting made the CBS Evening News and PBS Newshour.

The local church-owned TV station, who works with the church-owned daily newspaper, just reported this: 

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=43144461&nid=148&title=chaffetz-says-town-hall-c...

Chaffetz said the crowd that filled the auditorium at Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights and spilled over into a protest outside included people brought in from other states to disrupt the meeting.

"Absolutely. I know there were," he said, suggesting it was "more of a paid attempt to bully and intimidate" than a reflection of the feelings of his 3rd District constituents.

.....The congressman said while it's "important that people have an opportunity to voice their concerns, I think they should be somewhat embarrassed by how a lot of people handled themselves."

Chaffetz said he was trying to provide that opportunity by holding the town hall meeting.

"And I did hear them, but it was hard to hear through all the shouting and yelling," including, he claimed, during the Pledge of Allegiance.

BS to the "out-of-staters" charge.

I just played the video and I didn't hear any booing during the pledge. Good participation, with emphasis on "indivisible" and especially "with liberty and justice for all". But no booing.

Regarding Utah's congressional districts, Jen hits the nail on the head. The Repugnantkins divided the democratic stronghold of Salt Lake County into four pieces and joined them with large swaths of rural Utah, which means we may never have a democratic representative in congress again. Salt Lake City hasn't had a republican as mayor for years (though it's supposedly a non-partisan race) and Salt Lake County's mayor has been democratic for the last 12 years. Non-sensical gerrymandering has eviscerated the democratic party in Utah for federal elections. 

>>>In reality, most people that were there are likely not even represented by him

Strawbud, I see your point, but then again, if he is running the ethics committee of the nation's House of Representatives, he does represent you, and you have every right to speak up to him.

Nino, welcome to Utah politics. The most moderate republican we've ever had in Utah was Jon Huntsman and because he had daddy's money behind him, he didn't have to kiss the usual ass to get campaign funding. So he could act a little more independently. His educated worldview had him bring much needed reform to Utah 's liquor laws, sold under the guise of inviting tourism. Problem is he was a little too liberal for most Utah repubs, so to get through the repub convention, he had to include on the ticket a man from Utah County who never graduated from college and was head of one of the most anti-environmental organizations in Utah. Meet current Governor Gary Herbert, who came to power when Barack tapped Huntsman as ambassador to China. 

In the last election, I registered as a repub so I could effect their primaries in the future.

Strawbud, sorry. I didn't see you already posted the out of state link from KSL. Duh. My bad.

SL Trib's Pat Bagley

Huntsman actually mentioned running against Hatch for the Senate, but then said he wouldn't do so until Hatch decides not to run. After he said that, he trounced Hatch in a head to head poll.

And now Utahns aren't swallowing Hatch's claim that his power and influence benefits Utah. Most think it's time for him to hang it up. Not that it matters, but the Salt Lake Tribune said it's time to step down in a recent editorial.

A poll last August was 71 to 19 to retire, including 62% of the repugnantkins polled.  A poll in late January with all voters came up 62-21 in favor of Huntsman head to head with 16% undecided. 

And now the monkey wrench. New headline in today's Trib saying Huntsman is "under consideration" for a job with the State Department or an ambassadorship. Hmmm, Trump's way of clearing the deck for Hatch and currying favor? I don't think Huntsman would quit that post to run against Hatch. http://www.sltrib.com/news/4928565-155/huntsman-in-line-for-top-state  

Thanks Jen. After I posted, I noticed the top one was the old map with just three districts, but the division of the Salt Lake area is similar and clear on the other. 

And the grammar police missed the effect/affect mistake.

Here's Tribune Editorial writer George Pyle discussing Chapputz in a column which will publish tomorrow on how he's different in Utah than he is in DC.  http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/4924563-155/george-pyle-chaffetz-seems-ver...

And respected local political writer Robert Gehrke has a column in today's paper "Town hall anger is unproductive without a clear goal" but there's no link I can find. It's not online yet.  

Gehrke's column finally appeared.  http://www.sltrib.com/news/4928578-155/gehrke-town-hall-anger-needs-dire...

From the column:

By Friday afternoon, about half a million people had visited sltrib.com to watch the train wreck in its entirety, because apparently it's hard to get your fill of shrieking and mayhem when Real Housewives isn't on.

Picking through the wreckage of the town hall, however, it's hard to see what was accomplished and how anyone benefited but Chaffetz. 

He has managed to use the backlash to make himself the victim. And it's easy for him to do. While those who packed the town hall hailed it as a victory, the optics for outsiders were starkly different.

Chapputz is so full of shit, as usual.

But he's right that it was online beforehand as both sides, the resistance and republicans, tried to rally folks to attend.

There was even a story in the paper a day or two before talking about the rallying efforts, so it was pretty obvious it would be a contentious shitshow. Which is one reason why I didn't go. 

Looks now like the resistors may have gotten played by Chapputz, and though they may have felt powerful for 75 minutes, long term, for his base, he's the winner.

The Hill just posted this story with video an hour ago on the town hall protests across the country.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/chaffetz-crowd-used-bullying-and-...

"When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor."

— John Lennon

The LDS church-owned media finally refutes Chapputz's claims of booing during pledge. 

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=43161359&nid=148&title=utah-lawmaker-chaffetz-ou...

While the stream of the pledge was up on the SL Tribune website Thursday evening, they waited til Saturday afternoon to refute it. Smaller audience.

They said someone who was there sent them a video. What, the media outlet couldn't access the web earlier to check it out? 

This link also covers a town hall style meeting where Democratic legislators call out Chapputz.

From that story:

"He's out of touch with reality. He's out of touch with the political reality on the ground," said House Minority Leader Rep. Brian King.

"If he thinks that there have been out-of-state people paid to come in and demonstrate or cause a ruckus or cause a fuss — really? What's the basis for that information?" King asked. "You can't say that kind of crap."

He said Chaffetz's response was "offensive on such a fundamental level," by not taking accountability or providing substantial information to back up his claims.

"This is the problem we've got with public officials in this country at this time," King said. "That line comes from Kellyanne Conway. That line comes from Donald Trump. That line comes from Sean Spicer. It's crap and we ought to call it out."

When asked if he knew if there any paid protesters, Cottonwood Heights Police Lt. Dan Bartlet said: "Not that we could tell."

Cottonwood Heights police also reported Saturday that a small group of protesters were carrying firearms (allowed under open carry laws) and wearing bandanas over their faces outside of the town hall meeting, attempting to incite the crowd.

"They were telling people, 'We should rush the cops,'" Bartlett said, but he added that the group dispersed when police officers walked over to watch them.