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U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga hosts town hall in Muskegon

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga portrait
votesmart.org

U.S. Representative Bill Huizenga hosted a town hall Wednesday evening in Muskegon, answering a number of questions from a somewhat contentious crowd. Addressing a mostly full auditorium at Orchard View High School, Congressman Bill Huizenga answered a number of questions for roughly an hour and half. The majority of the questions focused mainly on Huizenga’s support of repealing the Affordable Care Act, and his support of President Donald Trump on a number of issues. WGVU spoke with Huizenga after the town hall, and he said he agreed with President Trump that more troops were needed to win the war in Afghanistan. 

“If we just whole cloth pull out, like we did in Iraq, that vacuum will be filled with folks that clearly want to destroy us,” Rep. Huizenga said. “Everybody agrees that Afghanistan is the cradle of that radical Jihadist movement that happened under the Taliban. So this is not nation building, you know we are not sending 100,000 troops in. It’s really about trying to give the Afghans space, to make sure they can run their own country.”

A number of people asked Huizenga about his support of President Trump after the President said both sides were to blame for the violence in Charlottesville. Huizenga, who called out President Donald Trump for not taking a harder stance on hate groups like the KKK on his Facebook page, reiterated he denounces any form of hate, and condemns the recent string of racist graffiti that has taken place in West Michigan.

“It is unacceptable. We cannot have that as a society,” Huizenga said. “And we need to name it. We need to identify it, we need to make sure that that message is sent clearly, that it is unacceptable as a society.”

Huizenga also spoke about having to address a number of contentious people in the crowd who shouted at the Congressman during the meeting.

“I understand there are people here who have come to every in person town hall, and all they want to do is shout and scream and yell, and that is their right to do that,” Huizenga said. “What I don’t accept those is that it makes it so disruptive that others can’t even participate. Hopefully they see that they’re being disrespectful; to their fellow citizens. Not to me,” he said.

The town hall was the fourth in person town hall on Representative Huizenga’s “listening tour,” having previously held town halls in Baldwin, Grand Haven, Wyoming and online, and he says they will continue.

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