By THOMAS BEAUMONT
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Rep. Mike Flood has gotten an earful throughout a public assembly in Lincoln geared toward discussing his help for the large tax breaks and spending cuts invoice that handed Congress and was signed into regulation by President Donald Trump.
Flood, a second-term Republican who represents the GOP-leaning district that features the College of Nebraska, on Monday braved the ire of a faculty city viewers dominated by tons of of individuals intent on expressing their displeasure mainly with cuts to Medicaid advantages and tax reductions tilted towards the rich.
He described the regulation as lower than excellent however stood agency on its Medicaid and tax provisions, fueling a 90-minute barrage of jeers and chants in a situation Home Republican leaders have particularly suggested GOP members to keep away from.
“More than anything I truly believe this bill protects Medicaid for the future,” Flood mentioned, setting off a bathe of boos from the viewers of roughly 700 within the College of Nebraska’s Kimball Recital Corridor. “We protected Medicaid.”
How voters obtain the regulation, handed with no Democratic help within the narrowly GOP-controlled Home and Senate, might go a protracted strategy to decide whether or not Republicans hold energy in subsequent yr’s midterm elections.
Flood was determined on his place however engaged with the viewers at instances. Throughout his repeated discussions of Medicaid, he requested if individuals within the viewers thought able-bodied People ought to be required to work. When many shouted their opposition, he replied, “I don’t think a majority of Nebraskans agree with that.”
Dozens shaped a line to the microphone to talk to Flood, most asking pointed questions concerning the regulation, however many others questioning strikes by the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, training spending and layoffs throughout the federal forms.
Some got here ready to confront him.
“You said in Seward you were not a fascist,” one man stood in line to say. “Your complicity suggests otherwise.”
Flood shot again, “Fascists don’t hold town halls with open question-and-answer sessions.”
Requested if he would block the discharge of recordsdata associated to the intercourse trafficking case involving the late Jeffrey Epstein, Flood mentioned he helps their launch as a co-sponsor of a nonbinding decision calling for his or her publication. Flood additionally mentioned he helps requiring a deposition from Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who argues she was wrongfully prosecuted.
Flood’s viewers was gathering greater than an hour earlier than the doorways opened. And as individuals lined up within the heat August air, he sauntered by, introducing himself, shaking fingers and thanking individuals, together with retired Lincoln instructor and faculty administrator Mary Ells, for attending.
“I believe Congressman Flood listened in a socially appropriate way,” Ells mentioned after expressing considerations to Flood about her grandchildren’s future. “I do not believe he listens in a responsive, action-oriented way for citizens in Nebraska that do not agree with the national playbook written elsewhere but being implemented here.”
Contained in the corridor, a lot of that decorum vanished.
Throughout Flood’s dialogue of his help of the regulation’s tax provisions, which he argued would profit the center class, the viewers exploded in a deafening chant of “Tax the rich.”
Different refrains included “Vote him out!” and “Free Palestine!”
Hecklers typically drowned out Flood, making a rolling cacophony with solely occasional pauses.
Republican lawmakers’ city halls have been few and much between because the invoice handed early final month, partly as a result of their leaders have suggested them towards it. Trump and others say the regulation will give the economic system a jolt, however Democrats really feel they’ve related with criticism of a lot of its provisions, particularly its cuts to Medicaid and tax cuts tilted towards the rich.
Flood later downplayed the confrontation as “spirited” however “part of the process” throughout an impromptu press convention.
“It doesn’t mean you can make everybody happy,” he mentioned. “But, you know, if you feel strongly about what you’re doing in Congress, stand in the town square, tell them why you voted that way, listen to their questions, treat them with respect and invite them to continue to communicate.”
In contrast to dozens of different Republicans in aggressive districts, Flood hardly has to fret, as Republicans brace for a problem to their razor-thin majority within the Home subsequent yr. Elected in 2022, Flood was reelected to the seat final yr by profitable 60% of the vote in a district that features Lincoln in Democratic-leaning Lancaster County but in addition huge Republican-heavy rural tracts in 11 counties that ring the Omaha metropolitan space.
Initially Revealed: August 5, 2025 at 12:46 PM EDT
