350+ constituents attend in-person, nearly 1,000 more tuned into livestream
TEMPE, ARIZONA—Rep. Greg Stanton took questions for two hours in Tempe on Wednesday night from constituents concerned and scared about actions being taken by Donald Trump, Elon Musk and extreme House Republicans in Washington. More than 350 constituents attended the town hall in person, and nearly 1,000 more tuned in live on YouTube.
Video of the town hall in its entirety is available HERE. Photos are available HERE.
“The reason why we’re having this town hall is because the people, you, have been demanding it. I have received in my office literally tens of thousands of calls over the last four, five weeks when people have come to the full realization of what a serious moment we are in right now,” Stanton began. “I’m old-fashioned—I believe in the separation of powers. I believe in the independence of the branches of government. That’s the way our founding fathers set this whole thing up. . . And I know the people in this audience and the people that reach out to my office are adamant: [we don’t have] a perfect form of government, but it’s better than any other form of government on planet earth and it’s worth fighting for. It’s worth defending.”
Stanton took questions from constituents concerned about cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; Elon Musk and DOGE’s dismantling of federal agencies and firing of federal workers, including those at the Veterans’ Administration and the Department of Education; the Administration’s disregard for rulings by the courts and more.
The town hall was hosted at Connolly Middle School, a Title I school, one day before President Trump is expected to sign an executive order eliminating the Department of Education. Title I obligates supplemental federal funding to states to ensure that all children, regardless of their income status, receive a high-quality education.
Stanton was joined by Tempe Mayor Corey Woods, who highlighted how chaotic funding freezes have undermined planned investments including transportation projects like the pedestrian bridge over the Rio Salado and water conservation infrastructure.
“The concern I have when I think about something like what’s going on with DOGE is having people who don’t necessarily understand government, who’ve been there for maybe ten minutes and are going through some kind of spreadsheet and just typing in keywords in a search function and saying we’re going to delete these things because we think they’re tantamount to waste fraud and abuse. That frankly sounds like people who need to stick to whatever their day job was previously and leave the business of government to the people who actually know what’s going on,” Woods said.