Hageman, GOP lit the fuse for raucous Laramie town hall

Words are important to Harriet Hageman. We know this because Wyoming’s congresswoman carefully uses them to get precisely what she wants from friendly crowds in her home state: rapt attention, agreement about whatever she does and disdain for common “woke” enemies.

But not in Laramie last Wednesday.

If Hageman had opened her eyes to the unabashed assault on core American principles during the first three months of President Donald Trump’s return to power, maybe she would have realized this wasn’t the time or place to read her old stump speech.

Faced with questions from justifiably angry and scared constituents, she bizarrely clapped when boos rained down after her condescending non-answers. She mockingly gave the audience 30 seconds “to just scream it out, scream it out of your system.” 

When asked about the fate of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks when so many probationary employees are being laid off, Hageman’s response deservedly drew some of the most astonished jeers of the night.

“It’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with the federal government,” she said, before calling her detractors “hysterical.”

People have a right to express their opinions, especially when the country is on the brink of a constitutional crisis, with a president who refuses to recognize judges’ orders and the legislative powers of Congress. 

How can you not be irate when thousands of federal employees were illegally terminated at the whims of Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and unelected “co-president,” who wants to tear the federal government down while pocketing billions himself?

Hageman, however, didn’t read the room, probably because she was too busy basking in the spotlight.

While highly unlikely, I wish Hageman would throw away the canned remarks and actually listen to people being hurt by the power-mad Trump administration and members of Congress who acquiesce to his every command.

The latter includes the 10 cowardly Democratic U.S. senators who last week gave away the little leverage the minority party had, caving in to a Republican bill stopping a potential federal government shutdown by giving Trump even more power over the budget.

The president will use it to keep pushing his radical agenda after handing the keys to the executive branch to Musk, his largest campaign donor. Shutting down the Department of Education. Closing the doors at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Privatizing the U.S. Postal Service and National Weather Service. Shrinking the size of the Internal Revenue Service, Veterans Administration and Social Security Administration. 

And on and on, all to the horror of Americans — and many Wyomingites — panicked by the wrecking ball Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” is taking to institutions that provide services we all depend on.

If Hageman feels like she walked into a buzzsaw in Laramie, it was one of her and her own party’s making. Any true representative of the people should have seen it coming and been prepared to explain her votes and defend Trump’s actions.

Doesn’t Hageman care about her constituents who want protection from threats to Social Security, which Musk calls “a Ponzi scheme,” and Trump’s blistering criticism of Medicare and Medicaid? Even though 75% of Wyoming voters who bothered to show up at last year’s election supported Trump, there is unmistakable fear on some of their faces, too.

Hageman’s performance in Laramie was the equivalent of Mad magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman: “What, me worry?”

Of course she’s not worried. Hageman was effectively installed as our congresswoman the day Trump endorsed her to replace one of his biggest political enemies, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, in 2022. As long as she toes the line and remains in his favor, Hageman believes she will only rise in MAGA hearts and minds.

Hageman claimed there’s nothing to fear about DOGE. A woman who was fired from her job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture told her she worked with Wyoming farmers to combat drought.

“In a state where so many farmers rely on government programs for drought and disaster relief, Trump’s plans to cut these programs and the people who administer them, coupled with the tariffs, will decimate Wyoming farms in rural communities,” the former USDA employee said.

“What are you doing about that?”

“I disagree,” Hagmeman said, launching into her pat answer that everyone will thrive when they are not over-regulated by the federal government.

Much of what Trump promised leading up to his election was phony. Grocery prices that were supposed to drop on “day one” continue to rise. Tariffs he guaranteed would usher in a golden economic age have insanely targeted two of our strongest allies, Canada and Mexico, who are fighting back with tariffs on American goods.

The people who are being hurt by Trump’s disastrous economic policies include many Republican and independent voters who wholeheartedly believed they would have better economic opportunities with Trump in the White House and the GOP in control of Congress. They didn’t expect plummeting stock markets to send their retirement funds into a tailspin.

A man asked Hageman how she and the GOP can claim to be upholding the Constitution when Trump declares protests on college campuses illegal.

“You forgot a word,” Hageman said. “The word is ‘peaceably.’”

That brought a cascade of “January 6th” chants to remind her about the vicious U.S. Capitol riot by Trump supporters in 2021.

Someone asked Hageman how she plans to protect transgender and nonbinary individuals in Wyoming.

“I don’t even know what that is,” Hageman said. Really? She’s onstage at a political event in the city where gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in 1998, and can’t answer a question about LGBTQ rights?

So, what can we expect when Hageman hosts a town hall Friday at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne? If she naively anticipates an audience that will politely sit and chuckle while she recites a list of questionable humanitarian USAID programs — many of which she misstates — she will be quite disappointed. 

So should the rest of us. Even people who strongly disagree with her on nearly every issue have praised Hageman for showing up in person, unlike Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, who won’t get anywhere near a live audience.

But that’s her job. Hageman noted Laramie marked her 74th town hall, and good for her. It’s much easier for politicians to meet people who never put them on the hot seat and ask softball questions.

Hageman is capable of independent thought; at least she was in 2016 when she was a delegate to the National Republican Convention and fought Trump’s presidential nomination. She chose pointed, inflammatory words to describe him then: “racist and xenophobic.”

Now, Hageman is at a career crossroads. She could stand by the man who made her a political force to be reckoned with or go down with Trump if his presidency craters.

There’s another possibility that some observers are not-so-quietly suggesting: Hageman gets tired of fighting the feds from the Beltway and runs for Wyoming’s open seat for governor. She finished third in the 2018 GOP primary when she lost to Gov. Mark Gordon, who is limited to two terms.

I encourage people to come to LCCC armed with thoughtful questions about their top concerns for Wyoming and the country. Give her a chance to respond. But if she tells you to “just scream it out” for half a minute so she can return to her poor explanations about how much good she’s supposedly doing for her constituents, keep screaming until she listens.