March 4 (UPI) -- Several prominent Republican officeholders are cautioning GOP lawmakers to avoid in-person town halls due to the potential for paid activists hijacking them.
National Republican Congressional Campaign chairman Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., on Tuesday cautioned GOP House members against holding in-person town halls and instead opt for virtual meets or none at all, unidentified sources told Politico, ABC News and NBC News.
Hudson and the NRCC held a closed-door meeting with GOP House members on Tuesday ahead of President Donald Trump's address to the nation in the evening.
After that meeting concluded, House Majority Leader Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters paid activists are hijacking GOP town halls and said it would be unwise for GOP House members to give them the opportunity to do so.
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"These are people who do this as a profession," Johnson said. "They're professional protesters."
Johnson suggested members instead hold "tele-town halls" that can't be hijacked by paid political activists, Political reported.
President Donald Trump on Monday suggested opposition Republican lawmakers have encountered during recent town halls are from paid activists hired by supporters of the Democratic Party.
"Paid 'troublemakers' are attending Republican town hall meetings," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "It is all part of the game for Democrats, but jut like our big landslide election, it's not going to work for them!"
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate against Trump, said he would travel to congressional districts on behalf of the Democratic Party.
"If your Republican representative won't meet with you because their [sic] agenda is so unpopular, maybe a Democrat will," Walz said Tuesday in a post on X.
"If your congressman refuses to meet," Walz said, "I'll come host an event in their [sic] district to help local Democrats beat 'em."
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he is traveling out of his congressional district to confront GOP lawmakers in other districts to challenge layoffs spurred by the Department of Government Efficiency and alleged cuts to Medicaid funding.
"Starting March 24th, I will be going to three red districts in California to speak out against DOGE's mass firings and the Republican's Medicaid cuts," Khanna said in an op-ed published Tuesday by The American Prospect.
The American Prospect describes itself as an "independent voice for liberal thought" and says it promotes "informed discussion on public policy from a progressive perspective."
Although Khanna referenced Medicaid funding cuts, Newsweek fact checkers confirmed there is no mention of Medicaid cuts in the proposed extension the the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that the House approved last week.
Former Biden administration adviser Bobby Kogan is the senior director of federal budget policy at American Progress and suggested a proposed $880 billion in budget cuts contained within the budget resolution only could occur via Medicaid cuts after the GOP said it would not reduce Medicare spending.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Khanna and other Democrats repeated Kogan's claim.
The alleged Medicaid budget cuts and DOGE-spurred firings have triggered opposition among Democrats and activist groups alike.
