Jason Chaffetz Says Voters Are Bullying HIm

From Cosmopolitan

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, is perhaps best known as the driving force behind congressional investigations into Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state. In fact, Chaffetz, who heads up the House Oversight Committee, is still investigating Clinton's use of a private email server - while refusing Democrats' requests to look into President Donald Trump's potential conflicts of interest.

After the presidential inauguration - where Chaffetz took a moment to shake hands with Clinton - he threw some serious shade at the former secretary of state on Instagram.

Now Chaffetz claims he's being bullied - by voters in his home state.

In recent weeks, angry voters have poured into town hall meetings hosted by their representatives in Congress. They've directed tough questions at lawmakers about President Trump, the fate of the Affordable Care Act, education, and other issues.

Forty-nine-year-old Chaffetz, who just won reelection for the fourth time, has been at the receiving end of some of that hostility. During a town hall earlier this month in Utah - where people packed a high school auditorium as protesters amassed outside - Chaffetz received a chorus of boos as well as tough questions on a range of topics.

Chaffetz said the people attending his town hall were there to "bully and intimidate" him. During a recent appearance on the Kilmeade and Friends radio program - which CNN highlighted - Chaffetz said of his constituents:

In other words, Chaffetz is saying some people didn't vote for him (about 25 percent of voters, by his estimation), so the angry constituents represent people who aren't his supporters. "They're welcome to come to the meeting, I thought it was a bit over the [top] - the continuous yelling and screaming and not allowing the dialogue," he continued. "I went there so I could hear dissent and have a discussion about the issues, but that's not what they were interested in."

Republicans have sought to dismiss many of these angry town halls as orchestrated events. Trump has called them "liberal activists," while White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer described it as "a bit of professional, manufactured protest." (Although he also allowed that some of the dissent is genuine dissatisfaction.)

This line of defense echoes that of the Obama administration, the Washington Post pointed out. In 2009, then-White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs described Tea Party protests at town halls as "manufactured anger." A year later, Tea Party members and sympathizers helped sweep Republican lawmakers into congress, retaking the House for Republicans and setting the stage for Trump's eventual rise to power.

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