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Republican Senator Roger Marshall ended a town hall early this weekend in rural Kansas, blaming a rowdy crowd. Calen Moore of High Plains Public Radio says things got testy over President Trump's budget cuts and foreign policy.
CALEN MOORE, BYLINE: President Trump won the rural northwest Kansas county of Logan with 85% of the vote. But concerned Kansans, both Republicans and Democrats, from across the state gathered in the town of Oakley to express their discontent with the current administration's actions.
(BOOING)
MOORE: The boos started from the moment Republican Senator Roger Marshall walked into the room. And the Senator threatened to end the meeting after just five minutes. But they went on and things grew more heated over the Senator's position on Ukraine.
ROGER MARSHALL: Americans want there to be a swift peace, and I think that that's President Trump's goal as well. But personally, I think we've done enough.
MOORE: Shouts continued as Marshall expressed his support for federal funding freezes and federal worker firings led by Elon Musk's government efficiency project. Chuck Nunn, a local who attended the meeting, said that he appreciated the Senator coming but feared federal cuts could hurt veterans.
CHUCK NUNN: I think that the way that we are going about it is so wrong because there are unintended consequences.
MOORE: Some of the cuts could hurt government operations that are vital for rural communities, like the Department of Agriculture and the National Weather Service. In a post on Truth Social, President Trump blamed the disruptions at town hall meetings on paid troublemakers. Senator Marshall's office echoed this, saying in a statement that Democratic operatives had sabotaged the local town hall. And the crowd pushed back against Senator Marshall trying to dismiss people who weren't from northwest Kansas.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You represent us all.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: You represent us all.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: You represent us all.
MOORE: Some attendees from eastern Kansas said they have been trying to get Marshall to come to town hall meetings in more populated or left-leaning parts of the state, but to no avail. Locals felt their chance to speak with their senator was taken advantage of by people from out of town. Rodney Bates, a Logan County native, is on the board for a local nursing home. He said he felt like none of his concerns were properly addressed due to the chaos.
RODNEY BATES: The amount of people who want to scream against Roger Marshall when all he's doing is trying to represent the area.
MOORE: For NPR News, I'm Calen Moore in Oakley, Kansas.
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