Weeks after encouraging fellow GOP representatives to avoid face-to-face meetings with constituents enraged by the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the federal government, Rep. Richard Hudson employed the strategy himself at a tele-town hall on Tuesday.
The tele-town hall was a stark contrast to many recent in-person events of such nature, characterized by terse exchanges and jeers from angry attendees, like the town hall held by a Republican Florida congressman earlier this week. But at Hudson’s town hall, rather than shouting in unison, constituents navigated the awkwardness of speaking through their phones. They apologized for their barking dogs in the background and asked “can you hear me?” before launching into their questions.
Throughout the call, Hudson’s office also repeatedly administered a telesurvey, a voice prompting participants to “press 1 for jobs and the economy” and “press 2 for immigration and border security,” and so on. The query repeated five times at intervals throughout the town hall, reminiscent of a customer service hold loop.
It is unclear how moderators chose the questions, or to what extent the intermittent surveying played a role in question selection. Nearly half of the 11 questions Hudson addressed were about military and veterans issues. Still, Hudson did not completely escape answering for increasingly unpopular actions of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Hudson tackles a few hardballs
Hudson represents North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, which encompasses the northwestern part of Cumberland County, including Fort Bragg and parts of Fayetteville, as well as all of Hoke, Moore, Randolph and Alamance counties. Of the 11 constituents who asked questions, all but one were residents of Cumberland County or Hoke County. Many were Fayetteville residents who identified themselves as veterans.
Hudson only fielded one explicit question about Musk during the town hall, from a Fayetteville veteran concerned about the billionaire’s efforts to slash federal government jobs and agencies.
“I’ve worked on Fort Bragg,” the veteran, Sam, said. “I’ve been to Europe fighting. And you know, I’m just wondering what you are going to do about an unelected official who is ransacking our government. You are an elected official and I just hope that you do something.”
Hudson refuted that Musk, the world’s richest man, was responsible for firing thousands of federal employees across agencies. Musk’s DOGE has led a crusade of mass firings across the board at federal agencies. In some cases, agencies had to rehire employees that were accidentally fired by DOGE while working on essential projects like bird flu prevention. Federal judges have also ruled the government must reinstate some fired workers.
“He [Musk] makes recommendations to each agency, and those cabinet secretaries have the authority then to take those recommendations, consider them, and make decisions,” Hudson said. “In some cases, maybe they move too fast. And so I’ve asked some questions about some specific moves in certain agencies, but overall, I think the process has been good.”
Hudson also addressed a question from a Fayetteville woman named Sylvia, who said she had been a teacher in the area for 16 years, but recently became unable to work because of disability. The woman said she was able to get medical assistance because of the state’s recent expansion of Medicaid to include more single adults like herself. She accurately stated that her coverage would be under threat if Republicans chose to slash federal funding for Medicaid; even small dips in federal funding could trigger North Carolina’s automatic rollback of Medicaid expansion if the federal government doesn’t cover 90% of the state’s costs.
As a high-ranking Republican lawmaker and a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is being tasked with cutting $880 billion in spending from the programs under its jurisdiction, including Medicaid, Hudson is likely to be a key decision maker in determining the cost-cutting measures.
Hudson denied speculation that Republicans would cut Medicaid funding, but suggested that there should be changes to the program to cut out “waste, fraud and abuse,” a tagline of DOGE.
“There’s been a lot of rumors that Republicans in Congress are going to cut Medicaid. That’s just simply not true,” Hudson said. “But what we are going to do is we’re going to look and see how many illegals are on Medicaid and we’re going to stop giving them the benefits. We’re going to look at able-bodied adults. And if you’re an able-bodied adult with no dependents and you can work, then you either need to be looking for a job, getting an education or working.”
Hudson strays from Trump
Hudson broke with positions taken by Trump at times during the town hall. The president recently called for deporting U.S. citizens convicted of violent crimes to prisons in El Salvador, a move that legal experts say is unconstitutional and illegal. Hudson said it wasn’t a good idea for the country to deport its citizens.
“American citizens should not be deported,” Hudson said in response to a question about his support for the idea. “I don’t know what the president meant when he said that. I intend to ask him.”
Fielding a question about his continued support for Ukraine, Hudson called Putin a “dictator” — a term Trump has been reluctant to ascribe to the authoritarian leader of Russia while at the same time using it to describe Ukraine’s president. He refuted the president’s false claim that Ukraine started the war.
“I believe he has evil designs on Europe,” Hudson said of Putin. “I believe we ought to believe him when he says the worst foreign policy disaster of the last century was the breakup of the Soviet empire.”
A happy ending
As Hudson shrugged off concerns from constituents about recent actions of DOGE and the Trump administration’s gutting of the federal government, he also answered many questions within his comfort zone: those about notorious delays in care at medical centers run by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, concerns about “forever chemicals” contamination, and questions over his support for military families and caregivers. He profusely thanked the many constituents who identified themselves as veterans for their service and gave out contact information for his office to help with their concerns about the VA.
At one point during the town hall, Hudson and a like-minded constituent casually discussed the idea of censoring the media, which has been branded the “enemy of the people” by Trump.
The tele-town hall concluded after 50 minutes and 11 questions from constituents. Even the congressman himself acknowledged the brevity of the conversation.
“This time has really flown by, but I appreciate everybody for taking the time to join us,” he said.
Government accountability reporter Evey Weisblat can be reached at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
Did you find this story useful or interesting? It was made possible by donations from readers like you to the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation so CityView can bring you more news and information like this.
