NORTHWOOD — A standing-room only crowd of about 125 people jammed into the Olson Community Room in Northwood this morning for a town hall meeting with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. Grassley faced tense town hall meetings in Hampton last month and in Fort Madison earlier this month, and the atmosphere was similar in his Worth County meeting.
Members of the crowd were on edge against each other when the topic of the deportation of Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador came up.
Grassley says while meetings as of late have been tense, it’s nothing new. “If you thought this was not so pleasant, I would say Obamacare in 2009, maybe when Trump was first elected in 2017, maybe things like that, it was tense times even then.”
Republican leadership advised members of Congress to stop holding such town hall meetings. Grassley says he won’t be critical of his Senate colleagues adhering to that advice, but he does encourage them to get out and meet with the public. “I would advise people if they do do town meetings not to stop it just because of this environment that we’re in now. It’s probably more important than ever to show the principles of representative government ought be practiced now probably more than times that are more quiet.”
After the meeting, Grassley was asked by reporters if having a civil discussion in town hall settings was a thing of the past. He says most of the discussions he has with Iowans are civil and don’t have people exchanging barbs using foul language, as was the case today. “The bottom line of it is the language you heard here, and I heard, was stronger than it’s been anyplace I have been, and I don’t think it’s typical of Worth County. It’s not typical of most town meetings I have, and let’s just say this is an outlier.”
During the meeting, Grassley also addressed topics like the Farm Bill, tariffs, and DOGE cuts.
