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Rhode Island Resisters Confront 'Coward' Paul Ryan on Behalf of Wisconsinites
As House Speaker dodges hometown constituents, the resistance meets him elsewhere
"We're here in solidarity with our friends in Wisconsin who've been trying for months to get a town hall meeting with him." (Photo: Stacey Mink/Working Families Organization)
Paul Ryan couldn't make time for his Wisconsin constituents during last week's congressional recess, so locals asked people around the country to hold the GOP House Speaker accountable as he visited other states.
On Thursday in Rhode Island, members of the resistance did just that.
According to the Associated Press, "[a]round 200 people chanted "Coward!" and booed as...Ryan attended an event in the heavily Democratic state." They carried signs that read, "No Ban No Wall" and "Hey! Wisconsin we found him!" They expressed concern over Ryan's plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and added their voices to the growing call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions' resignation.
"He wants to cut Medicare, he wants to cut Social Security, and he wants to get rid of the ACA, and those are all things that we as Americans need to protect our health and well-being," protester Rachael Jarosz told Rhode Island Public Radio.
"No matter where he goes, wherever he takes his radically dangerous Ryan-Trump agenda, the resistance will be there to meet him," state Rep. Aaron Regunberg, a Providence Democrat, reminded the crowd.
Dozens of people in downtown Providence protesting the visit of House Speaker Paul Ryan to Rhode Island this afternoon. @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/CL82lyEl3I
— Caroline Goggin (@CarolineGoggin) March 2, 2017
"We want him to hear loud and clear that his values are Wall Street values, they're not Rhode Island values," added Georgia Hollister Isman, the state director of Rhode Island Working Families, to the AP. "We're also here in solidarity with our friends in Wisconsin who've been trying for months to get a town hall meeting with him."
The Providence Journal reports that the rally, "organized by Rhode Island Working Families and Resist Hate RI, also included a 'Paul Ryan, Phone Home' event, where callers in the crowd FaceTimed with constituents in Ryan's home state."
Meanwhile, hundreds of Kenosha, Wisconsin, residents held a town hall meeting without Ryan on Sunday, directing their "wrath and disapproval," as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put it, to an empty chair.