Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was repeatedly booed during a tense town hall meeting in his home state of Utah as he described contacting the General Services Administration about President Donald Trump's potential conflict of interest as both tenant and landlord of the Old Post Office building at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
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Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz had a tense town hall meeting in his Utah district on Thursday, with many in the crowd booing him over his investigation of President Donald Trump's conflicts of interest.
Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sometimes had difficulty answering questions amid constant booing and jeering inside a high school auditorium on Thursday about 10 miles south of Salt Lake City. Constituents jeered Chaffetz for what they perceived was his failure to investigate Trump's potential conflicts of interest.
Crowds inside and outside the auditorium yelled "Explain yourself," "Do your job" and "America is better than this," while Chaffetz urged the audience to allow him to respond by repeating remarks such as "hold on" and "give me a second."
"You're really not going to like this part: The president, under the law, is exempt from the conflict of interest laws," Chaffetz responded to a question.
The crowd erupted in a chant of "Do your job."
"There's no case to be made that we went soft on the White House," Chaffetz said. "In terms of doing my job, that's what I'm supposed to be doing."
The crowd also booed Chaffetz for saying he hoped Trump would repeal southern Utah's newly named Bears Ears National Monument, despite many who fear repeal could lead to mining and drilling on the land.
The crowd agreed with Chaffetz for saying that Kellyanne Conway was "wrong, wrong, wrong" for promoting Ivanka Trump's clothing line during a Fox News interview.
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., also had a tense meeting with constituents on Thursday. In a video posted on social media, crowds heavily booed Black as she was escorted out after the event.
Some Republican lawmakers have canceled planned town hall events. For example, Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., called off an event scheduled in April because of "liberal activists" who planned to turn the event into "a disruptive show for their own political theater," his spokesman said.
