Barrett stays silent as pressure mounts for a town hall

(This story has been updated. Because of a reporting error, an earlier version of the story estimated the crowd of protesters at nearly 250.  That was based on information provided by the protest sponsor, the Livingston County Democrats.  City Pulse did not independently verify that number. We regret the error.)

“Town hall now,” chanted a crowd Monday outside the office of U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte. Five representatives from the Livingston County Democrats were allowed in the office to speak with staff.

But Barrett’s staff insisted that a conversation between the congressman and the disgruntled constituents would be unproductive.

The decision followed a surge of angry voters attending Republican-led town halls across the country. Town halls have grown increasingly charged as backlash mounts against the Trump administration’s budget cuts, which have been fueled by senior presidential adviser Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

On Saturday, for instance, a woman was handcuffed and dragged out of a Republican-led town hall in Idaho after repeatedly interrupting speakers. On Thursday, a crowd chanted “shame!” at U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Georgia, at a town hall.

Judy Daubenmier, chair of the Livingston County Democrats and an organizer of Monday’s protest, said constituents’ anger did not excuse Barrett’s silence.

“I guess talking to constituents who are mad at him isn’t on his radar or something he thinks is part of his job,” Daubenmier said. “People all over the country are having town halls, so we think we deserve one here.”

Barrett’s press secretary, Michael Gordon, insisted Barrett “is not hiding.”

Gordon said a representative from Barrett’s office had declined to organize a town hall after jeering protesters convinced him a public dialogue was pointless.

“They asked him about a town hall, and he said that if all everyone wanted to do was yell and not discuss, then it wouldn’t be productive,” Gordon said. “He walked outside, and somebody screamed in his face about being a traitor to the nation, and he said, ‘See, how is this productive?’”

Gordon did not name the staffer in question. Barrett was flying back to Washington at the time.

“The congressman is very much willing to meet with constituents,” Gordon continued. “That’s what he was doing all last week.”

Daubenmeier said she recalls a protester heckling staff through the window during the group’s meeting with Ron Kendall, Barrett’s district director. But she said an organizer stepped between the protester and told her not to behave that way and that Kendall complimented the constituents’ civility.

Organizers voiced concerns about the impacts of Trump administration budget cuts on federal staff, veterans, education and research grants for Michigan universities.

Janice Foster, a small business owner, told the crowd after the meeting that she had “spoken with Representative Barrett’s staff about how tariffs are going to kill small business.”

Monday’s protest came on the heels of another protest outside Barrett’s office on Friday, organized by Indivisible Michigan 7. The protests were uncoordinated, but they shared common goals.

Friday’s “Musk or us” protest came after leaders of Indivisible Michigan 7 requested a meeting with Barrett and received no answer. Organizers came with a list of demands for Barrett, including voting against budgets that give power to Trump and Musk and holding public town halls. Barrett, who was in Michigan at the time, did not appear to be present.

Both protests follow other high-profile grassroots protests in Lansing. Hundreds gathered at the Capitol Feb. 5 as part of the decentralized, nationwide 50501 Protest. The event, which came together in just four days, garnered national coverage. And when the 50501 organizers called off a planned “Not my President’s Day” protest on Monday because of severe winter weather, another new group called MI Resist jumped in to stage a demonstration anyway, with hundreds turning out. Much of the leadership behind both protests were first-time organizers.

Grassroots organizations also protested outside Barrett’s Lansing office and met with Kendall on Feb. 10, urging Barrett to curb Musk’s power.

Shelley Cichy, an organizer of Friday’s protest, attributed the uptick in new grassroots movements to a lack of leadership from the Democratic Party.

“It’s like the Civil Rights Movement or the Vietnam protests,” Cichy said. “If your leadership isn’t doing anything about it, it’s up to us.”

Fears about Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration motivated Cichy to organize: “We don’t know what DOGE is or how much power it has. And Musk immediately took over the funding arm that Congress is supposed to have, so we’re concerned about that.”

“When a multi-billionaire takes over the reins of government and funding and decisions over hiring and firing, that’s going to cause some problems,” she added. “He has so much power and wealth. It feels like the oligarchy is taking over.”

Another Indivisible organizer, David Hopkinson, echoed Cichy’s concern that Musk and DOGE have superseded the congressional power of the purse.

“Traditionally, the U.S. House of Representatives has a role in our representative government, and they are not currently performing it,” he said. “We would like our representative to act like a U.S. House member.”

Indivisible Michigan 7, which organized Friday’s protest, is part of Indivisible, a national network of organizations that implement the techniques of the Indivisible Guide. The 2017 online handbook by congressional staffers offers methods for getting congressional members’ attention. When local groups organized to try those methods, the first Indivisible groups were formed.

“Originally in Lansing, there were probably five groups that formed and were active in those years,” Cichy said in reference to the first Trump presidency. “Now in this area we’re just one group, with a pretty big email list and active people.”

“Everybody’s looking for a way to fight back,” said one protester.

Another protester on Friday was David Castro, 75. Castro is worried about the Trump administration’s cuts to National Institutes of Health research grants and diversity, equity and inclusion programs, both of which helped his Mexican-American daughter succeed as a clinician treating multiple sclerosis.

“The hospital she is working with, where she started the clinic, had been on a three-year search to find someone who could treat multiple sclerosis,” Castro said. “There’s already a shortage, and it’s just going to get worse.”

Castro fears that the Trump administration’s budget cuts will exacerbate such shortages by decreasing access to medical education.

“We are all recipients of the kinds of programs that are being cut right now,” Castro said. “These are the benefits we get when our money is spent well. This is what we’re going to lose when it’s taken away.”