Nebraska Republican Representative Mike Flood was criticized following his incredulous response to a crowd that chanted "Tax the rich!" during a town hall meeting.
The Columbus High School auditorium hosted the town hall on Tuesday evening, drawing "nearly 380" attendees, according to local network KETV Omaha. The event was lively, with Flood facing both sharp criticism over Trump administration policies and some appreciation for showing up in person.
A 21-second clip, originally filmed by C-SPAN2 and shared by X account NewsWire, captured a moment when a portion of the audience broke into chants of "tax the rich."
A visibly annoyed Flood commented:
“So your proposal to solve this [the national debt] is to tax the rich?”
The cheers he received in response to that statement couldn't be clearer: That's exactly what these people want.
You can watch what happened in the video below.
And here's a video showing just how loud the chants were in the room.
Many nodded their heads in agreement, praising the attendees while calling out Flood's response.
Flood also faced tough questions about his ties to President Donald Trump. At one point, a man pressed him, asking if Flood agrees that "your constituents are the boss of you, not President Trump." Flood responded, "Absolutely," emphasizing, "I am accountable to you."
- YouTubeyoutu.be
Over the course of the 90-minute event, many in the audience directly challenged the congressman—but so much for that accountability Flood mentioned. For instance, one attendee asked if there is anything Flood will do to "stand up against Trump." Flood sidestepped criticism, stating, "A great majority of Nebraskans voted to elect Donald Trump as president in this state."
Trump himself has dismissed GOP voters' concerns, claiming baselessly in a post on Truth Social that the audiences at their town halls have been made up of "paid troublemakers" that are secretly Democrats—a likely story from someone who has made clear they don't much care at all.
