By Lyn Jensen, Carson Reporter
Rep. Nanette Barragán hosted a town hall June 1 in the auditorium at Stephen M. White Middle School in Carson, but it was disrupted by about two dozen Trumpers from the Beach cities and Orange County.
Barragan’s standard town hall format is a 15- to 20-minute recounting of her biography after she’s been introduced. Then she opens the meeting up to questions from the audience.
The 90-minute town hall started at 6:30 p.m. with an estimated 200 in attendance, including Carson Mayor Albert Robles (who introduced Barragán), Councilman Jawane Hilton, former Mayor Jim Dear and former Mayor Vera Robles-DeWitt.
Barragán started her first town hall in Carson by recounting her biography as a student in the city’s school before the Trump contingent interrupted her.
“You’re disrespecting our flag,” they shouted, as they stood up and said the pledge of allegiance. About half the room joined in.
Barragán continued her introduction, remarking that she was the daughter of immigrants from Mexico, who went on to college. Only about 10 percent of students in “this district” go to college, she said.
“We have a president who’s acting like he can do anything,” Barragán said.
The group in Trump gear started chanting: “Build that wall, build that wall” and “We want Trump” and “Respect our president.”
Some other audience members boo’ed and shouted at them. Barragán kept on talking into the mic but nobody could hear hear over the shouting and chanting.
These Trumpers clad in Trump shirts, hats, flags and signs were led by right-wing gadfly Arthur Schaper.
Schaper’s group received better treatment in Carson than they did at Rep. Ted Lieu’s and Rep. Maxine Waters’ town hall meetings. In each of those cases, Schaper’s group were verbally shut down and/or were booted from the meeting by the representatives.
In Carson, former city commissioner, Rick Pulido, spoke quietly to the Trump-sign group at some length.
“You have a right to speak, but let’s be orderly about it,” he told this Random Lengths News reporter when asked what he said. “Let the congresswoman speak her talking points, then we’ll all get a chance to speak.… Let’s be orderly about it … If you want to yell, let’s go out to the lobby.”
For a few minutes things quieted down — until Barragan attempted to take questions. Two mics were available. The representative used one and another was at a stand on the left side of the room. Rather than simply requesting people to line up at the mic on the left side, she said people could ask questions using the mic on one side [the left], but she would also pass the other mic to people with questions from the floor on the other [the right] side of the room.
At least three Trump people lined up at the mic on the left side of the room. People yelled at them to sit down.
“You don’t know how to conduct a town hall,” one of the Trump people yelled at the congresswoman.
Instead of responding to the right-wing Trumpers on the left side of the hall, Barragan acknowledged a woman on the other side. The woman had a rambling question that was difficult to hear or understand over the shouting. Eventually, Barragan invited her to come and speak into the same mic Barragan was using.
In response to the woman’s question, which appeared to be about gaining Democratic house seats, Barragán first launched into a speech about the sacrifices our veterans made. She spent much of this meeting voicing support for vets. Then she said this meeting was in her official capacity as a member of Congress so she wanted to try and keep this more “in our official capacity,” not get into politics.
One man who boasted he voted for Trump and Barragán was allowed to ask a question using the representative’s mic. He said he was poisoned, possibly at a base in Alabama, as part of a long “question” about our veterans poisoned by nerve gas and agent orange, and no other senator or congress member would help him but “Barragán listened to me for two and a half hours.”
Barragán continued to focus on Veterans’ Affairs, introducing her staff and praising them for how they “reach out to vets and the VA.”
Out of the blue a Trumper shouted, “You disrespect our president!” and “You apologize!”
“If you’re waiting for an apology for that, you’re going to wait for a long time,” Barragán shot back — the only time she took the bait during the meeting.
One of the Trump supporters at the left-side mic had a “question” that was essentially a rant about “illegal aliens.” He was greeted with shouts of derision from several other audience members. When he said he was from Orange, some people shouted this wasn’t his district.
Barragán, talking over the commotion, defended undocumented immigrants, saying, “They live in this country, they pay taxes.”
She tried an angle that perhaps was intended to build bridges. She said that you can sign up to serve your country, maybe even get killed, and then come back and be deported.
“I’m going to Mexico to visit a deported veteran,” she added, referring to an action the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was undertaking. (The men she was referring to reportedly had green cards.)
She also said, “If you’re a serious violent offender you should be deported,” then abruptly changed the subject, to introduce Carson Councilman Jawane Hilton.
No matter what Barragan said, the Trumpers continued to shout her down. Eventually Barragán, a sheriff’s deputy, and perhaps about 10 people clustered around her, spoke quietly with each other.
“There’s another room we can move to and people [who] want to have a civil conversation can join me there,” she announced.
“We’re going with you,” one Trumper shouted.
At about 7:40, Barragán and a cluster of about 10 or 20 people—including some staff and at least one sheriff’s deputy–were walked up the aisle (the aisle was ordered cleared) and the Trumpers followed. They moved across the quad, to a room called White Hall.
The front door was left open (protocol for a public meeting) but at least one sheriff’s deputy was blocking it. The only people who were admitted were people who could show identification that they were from Carson or another city in Barragan’s district.
The Trumpers were not admitted because they were mostly from Orange County. They pressed around the open door, chanting, “Let us in! Let us in!” About six more sheriff’s deputies arrived to control them.
The 20 to 25 people who were admitted listened to the congresswoman finish her speech (her talking points, according to Pulido) but no one could hear much over the noise at the door. The congresswoman was able to finish her speech and close the meeting without further incident.