GOP Rep. Rich McCormick Faces Furious Locals in Town Hall DOGE Mega Backlash

The Georgia Republican who recently told CNN that school kids should be sent to work to earn school lunches was met with outrage and fury from residents at a town hall meeting on Thursday night.

Rep. Rich McCormick announced last week that he would be hosting an in-person constituent town hall at Roswell City Council.

On Thursday night, lines overflowed outside the town hall, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter and NBC News contributor Greg Bluestein was on hand to capture the events as they unfolded.

It got heated quickly over McCormick’s support for the sweeping federal budget cuts made in recent weeks by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

According to Bluestein, who posted numerous videos to X, McCormick faced boos and “catcalls” as residents pushed back on Trump’s erratic governing style.

In his article for AJC, Bluestein reported “hundreds of critics” descended on the meeting and that McCormick’s staff “seemed caught off guard” by the sheer force of the pushback. Crowd members shouted “we’re pissed” and “don’t bend over,” according to NBC News.

In one video, a resident called out McCormick for “doing us a disservice” and “not standing up for us.”

McCormick replied: “If you all are just going to yell at me, that’s not going to be an effective comment.”

A representative for McCormick did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

In another video, the moderator cuts off the crowd and pleads for the audience to be respectful. “We’re all trying to get through this,” he says.

Then, in another, one resident questions McCormick, saying, “It’s clear from all the writings of our Founding Fathers that our great republic was never meant to be ruled by a dictator or a king.” The comment was greeted by a large round of applause.

“So you can imagine my shock and pure horror when I woke up to find that our president had given himself unprecedented executive powers and then in a few days named himself King to his followers,” she continued to more applause, before being prompted to ask a question.

“Tyranny is rising in the White House and a man has declared himself our king, so I would like to know, rather, the people would like to know, what you, congressman, and your fellow congressmen are going to do to rein in the megalomaniac in the White House?” The woman received a standing ovation.

“When you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected,” McCormick replied, to a chorus of boos, including screams of “Come on!”

McCormick then brought up the Jan. 6 insurrection, before another shocked response from the crowd.

“Shame, shame,” they shouted. McCormick tried to move on but the crowd demanded answers.

“If you stop yelling, I will answer,” McCormick says.

“The REINS Act, which reins in executive powers for both parties—whoever is in power—and I think it can be tweaked actually to be much better. I don’t think executive privilege should be as strong as it is. I think we’re out of balance right now," McCormick said.

“I don’t want to see the president make all the decisions, I don’t,” McCormick said, despite pleas from the crowd that he wasn’t answering their questions surrounding Trump’s “king” comments.

“Do you not want to hear that I just said, I answered it directly, I said I don’t want to see any president too powerful.”

GOP Rep Wants No Free School Lunch: ‘Send Kids to Work’EARN IT

Julia Ornedo

McCormick blamed the failure of the passing of the REINS act on the Biden administration and “democratically-controlled Senate.”

McCormick said the crowd were “all screaming at me” and “I’m telling you how you solve this, and you’re saying no we don’t want to hear that.”

At one point a crowd member screamed: “We want to work with someone better!”