U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen faced a rowdy crowd at a town hall in the Burlington-Edison High School gymnasium Monday night, where audience members repeatedly interrupted him with shouted accusations of complicity in Palestinian genocide in Gaza.
Larsen paused his opening remarks — where he detailed his and Democrat efforts to push back against the Presidential administration — to acknowledge the protests.
“We call on this administration as well as the government of Israel to negotiate, in good faith, the release of all remaining hostages, as well as appropriate political prisoners, while they continue to work toward a permanent cease fire in Gaza,” he said.
Still, the first audience question centered on Gaza and what can be done right now.
“We do need to resume efforts on the cease fire and the U.S. should lead on that. I am not confident this President wants to do that,” Larsen said. “We need to resume efforts for humanitarian aid and I signed a letter last week to the President with other members of Congress and asked for that. Those are immediate. I do think there is a gap in my thinking because beyond that, my focus is on continuing my support for a two-state solution where Israel — the country of Israel — is secure and has secure borders and the people who live there are secure and there is a secure Palestinian state that Palestinians can live in — a Palestinian homeland. We have to stay focused on that regardless of who our President is and regardless of who the head of the Israeli government is. I don’t think that is in the cards right now with the leaders of either country, but we have to stay focused on those end goals.”
While members of the live audience and people watching on Instagram and Facebook live streams continued to question Larsen’s commitment to peace in the Middle East, the conversation in the room moved on to other topics.
Larsen singled out Congressional Republicans’ budget proposal that he said would result in 13.7 million people losing Medicaid benefits. To put that in real terms, he said 60% of the children born in Skagit County in 2023 were born into a family that uses Medicaid as a form of health benefits. That’s higher than Whatcom County, at 50%, and statewide at 40%.
“We need to think about this stuff personally,” he urged.
Another audience member said that while Skagit County is an agricultural center for the state, farmworkers weren’t represented in the town hall meeting room. They asked Larsen what he was doing to defend people who were being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Larsen took the opportunity to criticize the President for saying he would target the “worst of the worst” criminals, but instead arrested roofbuilders and union organizers.
“That’s not the worst of the worst,” Larsen said, describing farmworkers as largely contributing members of society who now fear sending their children to school in case they’ll be taken — and whose children fear going to school in the event they come home to discover their parents have been taken.
“You don’t have to be a citizen to have due process rights,” Larsen said flatly.
Yet another constituent asked Larsen about the President’s decision to accept a $400 million airplane from Qatar, a move that Larsen described as an effort by a necessary ally to buy American friendship.
Toward the end of the evening, one audience member asked a forward-looking question after a discussion about DOGE and the long term impacts of government cuts. What, they asked, are we going to do to rebuild our civil service?
“I love that word, ‘rebuild’ because I’m already thinking about that,” Larsen said, adding that Congress can’t wait another year to think about rebuilding. “I’m not waiting for this administration to end, I’m not waiting for the election next year to end, I’m thinking we are going to have an agency that’s in charge of international development on behalf of the U.S. in the future. … It’s a necessary thing for the United States to be out in the world and competing with China about who is going to be helping the world develop. We are going to understand that we need that, so that is going to come back.”
Kari Mar: kari@laconnercommunitynews.org. Kari is editor and publisher.
