Nazi gets booed...... Nazi has no words...

Frustrated residents boo Calif. Republican at latest town hall

After months, the conservative congressman finally met with constituents. Many expressed their disapproval.

By Anabel Sosa

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, California’s second-longest tenured Republican congressman, held his first public appearance since Donald Trump’s second term began at two long-awaited town halls in Chico and Red Bluff on Monday. LaMalfa represents a district with a solid Republican majority; however, the reception he received at the town halls was anything but welcome.

The House Republican has represented the Northern California district since 2013, where he enjoys a safe red pocket for Republicans, given its significant registration advantage year after year for almost two decades. While many Democratic think tanks are fixated on several Republican districts, LaMalfa’s district has not been a point of focus for them as much as other districts, including those of Reps. Young Kim, David Valadao and Ken Calvert, which are considered more competitive.

Yet on Monday, LaMalfa struggled to get a word in. The town hall comes on the heels of a high-stakes summer session for Congress. Frustrated residents shouted over the seven-time elected congressman as he attempted to defend cuts to Medicaid and the social safety net, among other policies imposed under Trump’s highly contested budget bill.

LaMalfa spoke to a crowd of around 800 attendees at Chico Elks Lodge on Monday morning and again in the evening to a smaller, reportedly less rowdy crowd at a community center in Red Bluff, a city north of Chico with a population of less than 15,000 people. 

Members of the crowd in Chico, captured in recorded footage, could be seen holding up red and green colored pieces of paper, which are often used in town halls to signal signs of support or disagreement when someone is speaking.

When LaMalfa spoke, some attendees began booing the congressman, waving red pieces of paper and shouting, “You need to be impeached.” 

In response, LaMalfa said, “Put that finger down, that’s really immature.” 

LaMalfa’s staff was anticipating a strong reaction from Democrats, whom they blamed for the uproar. Butte County, home to Chico, has the largest number of registered Democrats in California’s 1st Congressional District, with about 42,500 registered Democrats, according to February registration data. Despite this, LaMalfa continues to appeal to the Republican majority, which makes up about 45% of registered voters in the district compared to about 27% of total registered Democrats.

“The democrat response was expected and unsurprising,” said Mark Spannagel, the chief of staff for LaMalfa, in an email to SFGATE. 

Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, warning signs of red districts flipping blue in next year’s midterm elections have been surfacing, as residents continue to express increasing concerns about federal cuts. While LaMalfa’s district is considered a safe Republican district, all eyes are on Republican-held districts where even conservative voters could turn against the party at the ballot box in 2026, as they face the brunt of cuts to social services. 

LaMalfa hosts town halls every year, typically in August, September and October. Monday’s gatherings were among the first of five he plans to host this week, Spannagel confirmed, without disclosing their locations. Only local media will be granted access, he said. 

At Monday’s town hall in Chico, the congressman’s comments on the Texas and California redistricting efforts were barely audible over the shouts from the crowd. “No matter which side of the aisle you’re on, it doesn’t look good,” LaMalfa said at one point, as someone in the audience could be heard shouting, “Blah, blah, blah.” 

One woman, who introduced herself as a Chico city councilmember, urged elected representatives to be as public-facing as possible. She said that the less frequently town halls are held, “the harder it will be to facilitate effective conversations.” The crowd cheered.

When another woman spoke, referring to the GOP budget bill as the “big bulls—t bill,” the congressman leaned into the microphone to say, “Watch your language.” That immediately incited an uproar of anger from the crowd, who continued to shout profanities toward the stage. Soon after, LaMalfa attempted to place blame on Gov. Gavin Newsom for the state’s immigration woes, to which members of the crowd responded, “Liar!”

The commotion settled down when a man shared his personal experiences as a veteran struggling to receive health care. LaMalfa acknowledged the limited access and understaffing for the Department of Veterans Affairs but did not admit that funding is being cut. 

LaMalfa “did not expect democrats to boo and cuss at our local veterans posting the flag, doing the flag salute, or leading the invocation,” Spannagel said, adding that “they owe the VFW [the Veterans of Foreign Wars] an apology.”

Constituents asked LaMalfa about the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, a controversy that has involved public speculation about whether President Donald Trump was at any point involved in the child sex trafficking scheme. LaMalfa said it was a “bad look” to have those files be “suppressed.”

Regarding tariffs, the congressman said he hopes they “can end soon … I want to believe at some point we’ll end up with very low or zero tariffs with all these countries,” KCRA-TV reported. He also signaled disapproval for Texas’s redistricting efforts, saying it would start a “grass fire all across the country.”