Marco Rubio Scared to Get Heckled at Town Halls

Marco Rubio told CBS4-Miami’s Jim DeFede that he won’t participate in town hall meetings because political activists will crash them to create a media spectacle of people who “heckle and scream at me in front of cameras.”

“They are not town halls anymore,” Senator Rubio said. “What these groups really want is for me to schedule a public forum, they then organize three, four, five, six hundred liberal activists in the two counties or wherever I am in the state.”

Rubio told the station that activists are instructed to go to town halls early and “take up all the front seats. They spread themselves out. They ask questions. They all cheer when the questions are asked. They are instructed to boo no matter what answer I give. They are instructed to interrupt me if I go too long and start chanting things. Then, at the end, they are also told not to give up their microphone when they ask questions. It’s all in writing in this Indivisible document.”

While Rubio won’t go and face his constituents, former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head during a constituent meeting, took to Twitter to tell representatives to “face your constituents.”

“I was shot on a Saturday morning. By Monday morning my offices were open to the public,” Giffords said. “To the politicians who have abandoned their civic obligations, I say this: Have some courage. Face your constituents. Hold town halls.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie echoed that sentiment during an interview with Jake Tapper on Sunday morning on CNN. “Welcome to the real world of responsibility,” he said to Republicans who don’t want to hold town halls. Christie said he himself had held more than 160 town halls during his two terms.