Republican Behind ‘Abolish’ EPA Bill Is Taking Heat. His Armed ‘Friend’ Wants To Quiet Protesters.

Rep. Matt Gaetz’s upcoming home constituency event in Florida
could be the most disrupted yet.

02/15/2017 02:50 pm ET

Alexander C. Kaufman
Business & Environment Reporter, The Huffington Post

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the freshman congressman who introduced a bill to “completely abolish” the Environmental Protection Agency, has a packed morning scheduled for Feb. 23 in the suburbs of Pensacola, Florida. Starting at 7 a.m., he plans to visit the local Kiwanis Club for coffee, do a radio segment, attend a county commissioners meeting and play “civics teacher for a day” at a middle school. At noon, he caps it all off with a lunchtime rally at Grover T’s BBQ.

Things could get hot at the rib joint.

Throngs of protesters, organized by the local Democratic Women’s Club, plan to meet him there to demand he end his crusade against the embattled EPA. A local Tea Party agitator vowed to muster militiamen to prevent “these Marxists” from “disrupting” the event. A faction of Bikers for Trump ― the loosely affiliated group of motorcyclists who rallied after last month’s inauguration to counter the Women’s March on Washington against President Donald Trump ― pledged to show up, too.

Link to tweet

Republican lawmakers have faced fierce protests at town hall meetings across the country in the last few days. On Thursday, in Utah, protesters booed Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight Committee, a demonstration that became highly publicized. On Friday, in Georgia, demonstrators shouted “shame” at Republican aides during a meeting about the future of the Affordable Care Act. And on Saturday, in Florida, voters erupted after Rep. Gus Bilirakis claimed the law, known colloquially as Obamacare, required elderly folks to go before “death panels.”

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