Georgia Rep. Richard McCormick was heckled and booed by an angry crowd at a recent town hall meeting following comments he made about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and whether or not schoolchildren should receive free lunch.
McCormick held an in-person town hall meeting on Thursday night at Roswell City Council, allowing constituents to confront him with their concerns directly. The event had a large attendance, with journalist Greg Bluestein from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that the crowd was spilling out of the venue.
During the event, crowd members began to heckle McCormick by shouting at him, including the phrases “we’re pissed” and “don’t bend over.” The crowd also began hurling insults at President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also leads DOGE.
Videos of the event also demonstrate attendees calling McCormick out for “doing us a disservice” and “not standing up for us.”
One crowd member asked McCormick about the Trump administration’s downsizing of staff at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), questioning why “the supposedly conservative party is taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?”
“A lot of the work they do is duplicitous with AI,” McCormick responded, attempting to justify the recent dismissal of 1,300 probationary workers at the CDC, according to NBC News.
“If we continue to grow the size of government and we can’t afford it, it’s going to have shortfalls in your Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security,” McCormick added.
One crowd member asked McCormick about Trump’s recent behavior, questioning how the Georgia representative planned to “rein in the megalomaniac in the White House.”
“When you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected,” McCormick said, earning him boos from attendees.
“I don’t want to see any president be too powerful,” McCormick added.
This follows the backlash McCormick received for stating that schoolchildren should work to earn lunch during an interview with Pamela Brown on CNN.
“When I was in high school, I worked my entire way through,” he said at the time. “You’re telling me that kids who stay at home instead of going to work at Burger King, McDonald’s during the summer should stay at home and get their free lunch instead of going to work?”
“Who can actually go and produce their own income, who can actually go out there and do something that makes them have value and work skills for the future?” he continued. “I mean, how many people got their start in fast-food restaurants when they were kids?”
Originally published by Latin Times.
