Gardner Faces Hostile Tele-Town Hall Audience

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by: Colorado Pols

On Monday, Sen. Cory Gardner conducted an unannounced “tele-town hall” phone conference with a select group of Coloradans contacted by the campaign to participate. The call was held in the mid-morning hours local time, which further limited the rate of participation.

Nonetheless, as you can hear in the recording above, Gardner got much more than he bargained for. Question after question from the audience expressed nervousness about the future, and condemnation of President Donald Trump’s various excesses since taking office. Notably, Gardner doesn’t make an attempt to defend Trump’s cozying up to Russia, and pays solid lip service to the idea that Russia is not America’s friend or partner–even referring to Russia as a “thugocracy.” Gardner also said in the abstract that it’s wrong to attack individual judges, clearly putting distance between himself and Trump’s haranguing of the federal judge who halted his Muslim travel ban.

What Gardner has great difficulty doing is specifically condemning what Trump has said and done. Nearly all of his statements are in the abstract, as if he is having a theoretical discussion instead of responding to the very real actions and statements of the President of the United States.

The unofficial recording above starts about ten minutes into the call. Gardner keeps his cool throughout the session, but the gap between what Gardner had to offer worried constituents and what participants wanted was painfully large. This was especially evident in Gardner’s responses on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Gardner encouraged callers to look into the “details” of plans offered by Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, but didn’t divulge which of those plans he actually supports. That’s important since Ryan’s plan in particular directly relies on cutting benefits and privatizing the Medicare system, things Gardner has repeatedly promised wouldn’t happen.

You can definitely understand from this recording, which we feel confident Gardner never wants the public to hear, why Republicans like himself and Rep. Mike Coffman are so nervous about holding public events right now. Even in the case of this surprise conference call, which gave usual-suspect political opponents no time to organize a response, Gardner overwhelmingly faced blowback for his and his party’s actions.

The moral of the story? Faking constituent engagement isn’t going to cut it anymore.

10 thoughts on “Gardner Faces Hostile Tele-Town Hall Audience”

Moderatus says:

February 8, 2017 at 11:55 am

Way to punish a lawmaker for reaching out.

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1. bullshit! says:
  
  February 8, 2017 at 12:27 pm
  
  Punish? You mean by telling him what they think? What the fuck is the matter with you?
  
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2. unnamed says:
  
  February 8, 2017 at 12:55 pm
  
  Aw. I'm sorry Moldy!! You mad because the voting constituents of Colorado were being mean to your friend by venting their frustrations about how he's doing his job? Do you and he and all your other sensitive snowflakes need a safe space because Coloradoans are unhappy with Gardner and Trump?
  
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3. ajb says:
  
  February 8, 2017 at 1:45 pm
  
  Stop being such a snowflake, Moddy.
  
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Republican 36 says:

February 8, 2017 at 4:51 pm

I may be wrong about what was meant by ". . . with a select group of Coloradans contacted by the campaign to participate" in this thread, but it seems to imply that Senator Gardner attempted to invite only friendly voters identified by his campaign apparatus. I have friends who are avid Democrats who were invited to participate. Again, my interpretation may be incorrect but I believe his invitation cast a wider net than this thread seems to imply.

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1. Davie says:
  
  February 8, 2017 at 5:16 pm
  
  You mean Cory Gardner PAID those protesters to attend his Tele-Town Hall?
  
  (Since those seem to be the only ones that object to his policies according to Cory)
  
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2. unnamed says:
  
  February 8, 2017 at 6:15 pm
  
  I am curious. Yes he dissembled a number of times but other than someone yelling "That's bullshit" in the background when discussing the Supreme Court vacancy and Merrick Garland, I didn't hear anything that sounded inherently bad to a fence-sitter. He was short on specifics to be sure. But it didn't seem that heated.
  
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mamajama55 says:

February 8, 2017 at 6:16 pm

Wow. I was listening to Con-man Cory rationalizing why Judge Merrick Garland never got an up-or-down vote, and while he was 'splainin' to his female caller that maybe Garland wouldn't have been able to be seated on the court with the time left in the court's term, I was yelling, "Bullshit!" (Garland was nominated 3/16/16, never got even a hearing, and finally expired on 1/3/2017. The Supreme Court is in session from October until June each year)

A caller can also be heard yelling, "That's bullshit! Bullshit!" at 15:30-15:31 on the tape. Great minds think alike.

That wasn't the only time Gardner boldly lied.

At about 23 minutes in, he claims that "health savings accounts" were not allowed under the Affordable Care Act. Also that people couldn't purchase insurance across state lines" under the ACA, which is an old sounds-like-it-means-something-but-doesn't meme.

I can't listen to the entire 1 1/2 hour town hall, and surprise! I wasn't invited to participate. I probably would have been that woman yelling "Bullshit!"

This is one slick-talking mofo. When he gets voted out, he should get a job as a spokesperson, like Kellianne Conway. He has the gift of gab, able to natter on for minutes at a time while saying almost nothing of consequence.

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JohnInDenver says:

February 9, 2017 at 10:28 am

If his office controlled the invitations and he's still getting this sort of feedback – perhaps he'll recognize there is more opposition than what he considers the message of "paid protesters."

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1. Duke Cox says:
  
  February 9, 2017 at 11:11 am
  
  I don't know, JID…Cory is riding the gravy train just now and about the only thing he can hear is the sound of gold coins clinking together and he can't see anything but dollar signs.
  
  If he gave a shit what his constituents need, he wouldn't be the Koch whore that he is…and right now he is having so much fun there is nothing gonna get our boy Cory down. He won't start worrying about what voters think for at least three more years.
  
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