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Screaming Town Hallers Take On Moran, Dean, Each Other

Rachel Slajda | August 26, 2009, 2:27PM


Abortion opponent Randall Terry and others shout down Howard Dean at a town hall with Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Aug. 25, 2009

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Health care, Howard Dean, Jim Moran, Town halls

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Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) knew last night's town hall -- held just 20 miles from Washington, D.C., and featuring universal coverage supporter Howard Dean -- might get ugly.

Hours before the event, Moran told a local news station he was concerned. "I hope that they leave their guns behind," he said.

There are no reports of people bringing their guns, but nearly 3,000 people packed a gymnasium in Reston, Va., many of them intent on either shouting down the night's hosts, or each other. The majority seemed to be supporters of health care reform -- but that didn't mean the meeting was quiet.

Despite the rowdiness, Dean said today on CNBC that meeting was "exciting," and that he enjoyed it. No one was really rude, he said, adding that Moran did a good job keeping control.

Moran's office had tried to pre-empt shouters by passing out copies of George Washington's "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior," to no avail. Audience members began shouting halfway through the opening prayer; they screamed, "under God!" during the Pledge of Allegiance; and interrupted Moran's opening remarks several times, even as he was asking for a civil debate.

"Dissent is as American as apple pie," he said. "The freedom of speech, the first amendment, is clearly the foundation upon which our country was built. The voices of the American people should not be silenced [but] it doesn't provide one with the right to shout down or otherwise interfere with someone else's right to be heard."

Video after the jump.

Many people cheered the sentiment. A few minutes later, Moran was booed while explaining how questions would be chosen from the audience.

"Please," he said. "That wasn't a controversial thing to say."

He spent about an hour talking about health care reform bill, aided by slides about myths such as care for illegal immigrants and "death panels," to various cheers and boos. Then, he introduced Dean. As the former governor started speaking, the crowd kept screaming.

Moran tried to restore order as a handful of people, including vocal abortion opponent Randall Terry, chanted, "We won't pay for murder!"

"These folks are not from the 8th district, they don't belong here and I'm gonna ask them to leave," Moran said. The people kept chanting and the crowd roared around them, to the point that Moran was screaming into the microphone.

Then Moran called Terry out by name. "Please leave, Mr. Terry." He then offered to allow Terry to have five minutes to ask the first question -- but Terry kept screaming, "You're a baby killer, Howard Dean!" Cops appeared to escort him out, as most of the crowd chanted, "Kick him out!"

Once the crowd calmed down, Dean spoke and then the two took questions.

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6 comments

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Richard in SanJo

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August 26, 2009 4:58 PM   

From the Department of Give Him Enough Rope to Hang Himself: Moran did an excellent job of managing Terry by inviting him to ask a Q & speak for 5 minutes; thus allowing Terry to show that he (& his) are not interested in dialogue, but perpetuating lies.

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JoshQuasimoto

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August 26, 2009 7:14 PM   

This is exactly what we need more of. Hell if Howard Dean wants to show up down here in a big venue (maybe 1000-2000) I am sure the Obama/health-care supporters would show up. And there for all to see would be the disrupters/anti-health-care activist. You know what usually happens to people who disrupt speeches or Q and A with government officials, they are escorted out, possibly arrested for disturbing the peace or in the case of one unlucky Univ of Florida student Tazed. It must really burn conservatives up inside to see the shoe on the other foot. There for all to see are the radicals in our society, those that are the GOP base, those who disrupt the opportunity to have public discourse with our public officials.

It is eye-opening to see people say things like, "I want my country back!" Where the fuck was their outrage when we went to war with a country based on false evidence (No "Slam Dunk") We may be the biggest economic power on the globe, but what kind of confidence/message does it send to the other powerful economies/countries when you go to war based on bad intelligence. GWBush screwed up, he and his government let the American people down and their decision resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans (who served in our military and private busineses/contractors) and hundreds of thousand Iraqi's. From another shore our actions as a nation under GWBush seemed at odds with reality.

GWBush exploded the federal deficit and increased government spending while at the same time ensuring a tax break on those that our fortunate in our capitalist system. Where was your outrage then. GWBush was supposed to be a GOP conservative, right. So where was his small government ideals when it came to passing laws that intruded on our individual rights. His government is not accused of spying on foreigners and Americans, he did spy on both. Where was our constitution then. Maybe these people are not comfortable (whatever their personal biases) with our national debt, but where was their outrage when Bush was increasing our debt to heights it had never seen. As I see it the greatest achievement of the GWB presidency is his selection of Gen Patreus. However, he can not take all the credit, after all Gen Patreus is a self-made soldier asked to do a job (of which he seems to be more than capable).

I did not learn that our nation was judged by its strength but the strength of its conviction to fulfill our US Constitution.

I am ready to see our country move forward and face its most pressing issues (issues such as health-care, issues such as fostering a competitive economy (where we have healthy competition instead of a few big players (look at our Media), issues such as our national defense, issues such as immigration etc. I have seen how the GOP treats these issues, they can not pass immigration reform, they can not decrease our growing economic inequality, they can not solve our education, and they can not solve our national debt. I believe it is time to look to the other side of the isle. I believe that the GOP has to re-define what kind of party it is. I believe that it is ignorant of GOP voters to vote for officials who do not believe in Government(while running for government and when in office acting as a government officials). (Look at what happend at Sen Coburn's town hall the other day. Sen Coburn, who also happens to be a doctor, when plead to by a constituent because of a lack of funds for her ailing spouse due to health-insurance refusal to pay for health-services. His reply was that his office would try to help the lady (that is great), he is a member of the US Government, and then when on to say that we should not count on the government for help. WTF? If he helps her, then his actions would support the idea that government provides solutions, albeit individual in this case. Is this the type of government he envisions? One in which it only works when citizens plead fir help? That is not the government I envision. The government I envision is one which takes care of its people, those better and worse.

I am ready to fight for health-care. Health-care for Teddy!

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Matt Jones

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August 26, 2009 7:20 PM   

Am I a bad person for wishing that Mr. Terry could have had his very own re-enactment of "don't taze me bro"? Excessive force to be sure, but I can't think of anybody more deserving...

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admiralmpj

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August 26, 2009 7:33 PM    in reply to Matt Jones

No.

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Redshift

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August 26, 2009 11:29 PM   

Thank you for covering this event in my home district, but frankly, I'm pretty disappointed. We complain a lot here about how no matter how many of us come out to support health care reform, the story in the traditional media is about the right-wing screamers. And now, here at TPM, the story is exactly the same.

Randall Terry came to my congressman's town hall for openly declared purpose of disrupting it and to try to make the story about himself, and you gave him exactly what he wanted. Despite the fact that he and his little mob's unintelligible screaming wasn't even about the issue at hand, you illustrate a story about my town hall with his ugly mug, and the only clip you have of the entire event is his disruption of it. Even worse, the title of the clip says that he "shouted down" Dean and Moran, without making clear they were only briefly "shouted down" and the five minutes of the clip is the entire length of their disruption of the two-hour event.

Most disappointing is that nearly three-quarters of the meeting, covering the policy discussion we all say we want to hear more about in the press, is summed up in one sentence, "Once the crowd calmed down, Dean spoke and then the two took questions."

So for the record:

- The people who were "intent on either shouting down the night's hosts, or each other" were the anti-reform activists. There were dueling chants before the event began, and we cheered loudly when the opponents booed elements of the "Myths" presentation or answers to questions, not to shout them down but to make it clear that the sentiment of the crowd was in support.

- Though briefly shouted down in this one instance, Rep. Moran, I thought, did a very good job of keeping control of the event and presenting the facts.

- The "Myths" presentation was very effective. While it drew howls from the opponents, it seemed to make it more difficult for them to bring up the common scare tactics during the Q&A period.

- The questions and responses were actually quite good. Even many of the questions from opponents were actually substantive, and provided opportunities for Rep. Moran to explain his position and sometimes express honest disagreement with audience members on issues such as for-profit insurance, the relative importance of tort reform.

- Constituents spoke out in favor of the single-payer bill, asked questions about the how reform would affect the Medicare prescription drug progam, and advocating for supporting the role of pharmacists and other non-physicians in health care.

Overall the meeting showed a district whose residents are engaged in the health care reform debate, and like most of the country, are strongly in favor of reform. It would have been nice if the reporting here had reflected that.

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keke

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August 27, 2009 2:24 AM   

Thank you. Redshift! Your account of what happened at
the meeting is exactly what I was hoping to learn from
the original post, but didn't. Your frustration with the focus on Terry is entirely justified. I'm glad that you
took the trouble to fill us in on the rest of the story.

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