Constituents go Cotton pickin' at Springdale town hall

Your correspondent is a bit too white-line zombified after the long haul from Springdale to do much in-depth coverage tonight, but the digested version is this: If Sen. Tom Cotton hoped to find even a semi-welcoming crowd by situating his town hall in the Republican-friendly confines of Springdale, he was sorely mistaken. Other than one guy in the crowd displaying his Trump/Pence yard sign and a few others, friendlies were in short supply tonight.

Cotton, cordial to a fault, emerged before the raucous, capacity crowd at the 2,200 seat Pat Walker Performing Arts Center at Springdale High to a mixed chorus of clapping and boos. Other than polite applause when he introduced his mom and dad and a still moment as he led the crowd in a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, his night didn't get much better from there.

Climate change? It's real, but what we need is more nuclear power and clean coal, because "the wind doesn't always blow, and the sun doesn't always shine." A question from a gravely ill young woman about whether he'll commit to keeping the Affordable Care Act ban on pre-existing conditions intact, with no gap in coverage between Obamacare and the GOP's promised replacement? "Let's take a couple more comments and questions about healthcare." (which led to gales of boos and chants of "DO YOUR JOB!&quot Trump's tax returns? That was an issue during the election, and Trump won. Russian interference in the election? As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he's already helping look into that, but it's classified. How can he talk about exploding deficits in the face of Trump's gazillion dollar great wall? Border security is critical! Yeah, the crowd doesn't like Trump, but sixty percent of the Arkansas electorate voted for Trump, so...

More


http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/02/23/constituents-go-cotton-pickin-at-springdale-town-hall