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Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., fields questions from an audience at the Tower Theatre in Roseville, Calif. on Feb. 4. He faced a rowdy crowd and had to be escorted out by police. | AP Photo

At a closed-door meeting, House lawmakers discuss strategies to counter potential violence.

By Rachael Bade

02/07/17 11:49 AM EST

Updated 02/07/17 07:45 PM EST

House Republicans during a closed-door meeting Tuesday discussed how to protect themselves and their staffs from protesters storming town halls and offices in opposition to repealing Obamacare, sources in the room told Politico.

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers invited Rep. David Reichert, a former county sheriff, to present lawmakers with protective measures they should have in place. Among the suggestions: having a physical exit strategy at town halls, or a backdoor in congressional offices to slip out of, in case demonstrations turn violent; having local police monitor town halls; replacing any glass office-door entrances with heavy doors and deadbolts; and setting up intercoms to ensure those entering congressional offices are there for appointments, not to cause chaos.

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The message was: One, be careful for security purposes. Watch your back. And two, be receptive. Honor the First Amendment, engage, be friendly, be nice, said Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker (R-N.C.). Because it is toxic out there right now. Even some of the guys who have been around here a lot longer than I have, have never seen it to this level.

He later added: For those of us who have children in grade school and that kind of thing, theres a factor in all of this, saying: How far will the progressive movement go to try to intimidate us?

The conference discussion comes as Democratic activists around the nation ramp up protests against Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare. Protesters have disrupted town halls and other public events, jeering and yelling at Republicans just as conservatives did to Democrats when they were writing the law eight years ago. Conservative protesters in 2009 and 2010 were accused of spitting on and hurling racial epithets at Democratic lawmakers ahead of their votes to pass Obamacare. Republicans denied the accusations at the time.

Last weekend, conservative Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) similarly had to be escorted out of a town hall meeting by a half-dozen police officers after the crowd turned angry. And just as Republicans were leaving their conference meeting Tuesday, more than 100 protesters showed up at one of Rep. Martha McSally's Arizona congressional offices, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Also discussed at the closed-door conference meeting was how to engage Democratic constituents to ensure they feel theyre being heard. After Reichert (R-Wash.) spoke about the security side, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) stood up to talk about how to engage constituents in a congenial manner.

Asked about the intensity of the protests during a news conference after the meeting, Ryan said he hopes the demonstrations remain nonviolent.

Peaceful protests are something we honor in this country, he said. I just hope people keep it peaceful.

Democrats, meanwhile, dismissed Republicans security ramp-up as an attempt to shield themselves from criticism.

I think what youre seeing is Republicans trying to use security to try to hide themselves from their constituents because they have no plan for a replacement and very little support from Donald Trump, said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). Theyre going to use so-called security to keep people away.

But the potential for violence is serious enough that the House sergeant-at-arms has asked congressional offices to notify the office of any potential threat, sources told Politico. The office will also be passing out manuals of best practices to keep staffers safe.

McMorris Rodgers last week pulled together a group of lawmakers, including Reichert, to strategize on how to best manage and respond to the spreading protests. The Washington Republican who during an early January speech was drowned out by protesters shouting Save our care! asked Reichert to present some pointers to the full conference.

Reichert, in a brief interview after the conference meeting, said lawmakers are dealing with more than just unruly town hall meetings. He said organizers are coming into their offices unannounced, showing up with signs and flooding offices with phone calls. Reichert said he told lawmakers they should make sure you have a back door in your office if there is some sort of danger.

Its not that you run from protesters, but if someone presents some sort of physical threat or are espousing a verbal threat that could lead to a physical threat, if you feel that youre in danger and your staff is in danger, call 911 and leave and go out the back door, he said.

Reichert also encouraged them to make sure you have a hard door, not a glass door that can shatter, and install an intercom system with a camera at the front so you can see who is there.

The world is sometimes not a friendly place, he said, specifically noting what happened to Gabby Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was shot in the head at a constituent event in 2011. There is a mission out there right now amongst some people to disrupt the offices of certain members to make us look inaccessible, unresponsive and like were not doing anything. There is a list of things you can do to make sure your people are safe.

Reichert also recounted how several angry constituents bum-rushed into his office several years ago, blowing past a staffer. Afterward, his office reached out to the organizers of the local group and asked them to come back in groups of eight to 10 to hear their concerns. He suggested lawmakers take a similar diplomatic tack in their own districts.

The biggest thing we can do is reach out to these people, Reichert said. When you have 40 to 50 people show[ing] up with protest signs, there is no way were going to have an opportunity to exchange ideas and thoughts. So youve got to build a relationship so you dont get to the level where they feel they need to threaten or antagonize you or try to get you upset and get a YouTube moment.

At one point, GOP leaders showed a video of what happened to McClintock (R-Calif.) this weekend during his town hall meeting. Lawmakers teased McClintock What did you do to get arrested? one asked. But then the conversation turned back to safety precautions.

One member who asked not to be named said the meeting also touched on threats against lawmakers.

The presentation was particularly important, those in attendance said, because its not just the most politically vulnerable, moderate members being targeted by protesters. Conservatives have also seen Democratic activists show up at events, including one recently hosted by Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who ousted former Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Many of these lawmakers in safe districts have never dealt with such severe blowback.

Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) said it was important to address the matter.

If you look at what the left is doing, he said, they can endanger your constituents or your staff who are just trying to do their jobs.

This story has been updated to reflect that the alleged misbehavior at the 2009 and 2010 protests was disputed.

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Republicans fear for their safety as Obamacare protests grow - Politico - Politico

Mayors and first selectmen were outraged in December when their all-important education funding was cut mid-year, forcing administrators to scramble to make cuts in the public schools.

Republican legislators offered a plan Tuesday to close that gap completely, but Democrats did not agree amid squabbling at the state Capitol. As a result, the issue remains unresolved heading into Wednesday's budget address by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy as the state faces even bigger problems in the next fiscal year.

"Towns deserve to know what they can count on from the state so they can plan for their own budgets and give local taxpayers predictability," said Rep. Melissa Ziobron, the ranking House Republican on the budget-writing committee. "This proposal would restore vital funding to municipalities for our children's education needs and ensure that unpredictable state cuts are not placed on the backs of local taxpayers."

Republicans were working on a bipartisan plan as late as Monday, but said the proposal suddenly blew up Tuesday without a solid explanation why. Lawmakers, however, said there is hope they can still work together in the coming weeks to provide about $20 million in relief for cities and towns.

The state's major cities, including Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, New Britain, Stamford, and Waterbury, were all cut by a maximum of $250,000 each that was placed on the lowest-performing school districts. In Greenwich, however, the cut was far higher at $1.3 million for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends on June 30. Simsbury was cut by about $145,000, while Litchfield was reduced by $58,000.

The Republican plan calls for relatively small cuts statewide totaling $31.4 million - compared to an annual state budget of $20 billion. The cuts would be spread across 25 state departments and agencies, ranging from the prisons to the state library. One of the largest proposed percentage cuts Tuesday was 10 percent of the operating budget of the Connecticut Television Network, which provides live television coverage of the state House of Representatives and Senate.

But Malloy's budget spokesman, Chris McClure, said the Republican plan does not work.

"Given their ongoing sanctimony about so-called 'structural' budget fixes, it's laughable that Republicans now want to spend every last nickel in the current year budget, even with a very small projected surplus," McClure said. "If Connecticut Republicans were actually fiscally-responsible, they would put any surplus into the rainy day fund at year's end. Instead, they want to eliminate our surplus, and risk putting Connecticut back into a current year deficit. All of this from legislators who said the current year budget spent too much. This isn't a serious proposal. It's an attempt to pander and get headlines."

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said that a compromise is still possible.

"It's potentially a workable idea, but the details still need to be fully assessed," Aresimowicz said. "With the current budget year in balance, making a minor adjustment to avoid these cuts is certainly worth looking at. We offered to sit down to go over their proposal, but were told an announcement was already set. I'm still willing to meet and govern together."

While lawmakers are trying to help the cities and towns in the current fiscal year, they will also be tackling a larger deficit that is projected by Malloy's budget director, Ben Barnes, at $1.7 billion in the next fiscal year.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney of New Haven said the Democrats had offered to continue to meet on the idea.

"The Republicans instead chose to hold a press conference and play politics as usual, much as they did last week on the pension refinance bill," Looney said. "Rather than rushing into a press conference without details or consensus, we intend to meet with the members of our caucus on Wednesday to discuss the issue in hope to move from there to a bipartisan consensus."

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Republicans Offer Plan To Restore Education Funding, Dems Say Proposal Needs Work - Hartford Courant

Conservative Republicans Double Down on Push to Repeal Health Law Wall Street Journal WASHINGTONConservative Republicans, worried about growing voices within the party advising or accepting a slower pace for repealing the Affordable Care Act, are redoubling their push to speed the GOP's long-desired goal. President Donald Trump on ... and more »

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Conservative Republicans Double Down on Push to Repeal Health Law - Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON It was only a few months ago when Republicans routinely blasted the president for what they called his executive overreach and his failure to tout America's superiority over other nations. Not so much anymore.

Now that Barack Obama is out of the White House, Republicans have become noticeably quiet on a host of issues that used to spark their criticism.

In the last few days, President Donald Trump's actions have thrown the spotlight on three things Republicans don't seem to mind now that their fellow Republican is in charge:

RELYING ON EXECUTIVE ACTION:

For years, Republicans skewered Obama for allegedly ruling by fiat, accusing him of acting like an "emperor" for using executive orders to push through his agenda. That was especially true when it came to Obama's decision to protect from deportation more than 700,000 young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

But now that Trump is in the White House, their tune has changed.

Trump has spent his first weeks in office relying on executive action to make good on a long list of campaign promises. Most controversial: His order suspending the country's refugee program and blocking immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, which is now held up in court.

Asked recently if President Trump was doing the same thing as Obama, House Speaker Paul Ryan scoffed.

"It's quite the opposite," he told reporters at a recent GOP retreat, arguing that Obama had exceeded his power and that Trump was merely trying to reverse it.

"He's restoring the proper balance," said Ryan. "And in our opinion he is undoing a lot of damage that was done by the last president, who exceeded his power."

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FAILING TO EMBRACE AMERICAM EXCEPTIONALISM:

It was a running theme during Obama's tenure: The president, Republicans would argue, failed to embrace a brand of "American exceptionalism" that sees the U.S. as morally superior to other nations.

"We have a president right now who thinks America's just another nation," once-GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said during a 2011 primary debate. "America is an exceptional nation."

Obama defended himself, saying in 2014 that he believed "in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being."

Trump doesn't seem worried about the criticism.

In an interview with Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly that aired over the weekend, Trump dismissed concerns about befriending Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"But he's a killer though. Putin's a killer," O'Reilly said.

"We've got a lot of killers," Trump responded. "Boy, you think our country's so innocent?"

Pressed on the exchange in an interview with CBS'S "Face the Nation," Vice President Mike Pence stumbled on the question of whether he and the president think America is morally superior to Russia.

But he eventually said: "I believe that the ideals that America has stood for throughout our history represent the highest ideals of humankind."

___

CRITICIZING THE JUDICIARY:

In 2010, President Obama delivered a rare, in-person rebuke of the Supreme Court. During his State of the Union speech, with justices sitting in the audience, Obama criticized the court's decision in the Citizens United campaign finance case.

Obama opened his remarks by saying his criticism was "with all due deference to separation of powers," but then argued the ruling reversed "a century of law" that would open the floodgates to money from special interests.

Critics decried the move as a breach of decorum that politicized the court.

And Trump has launched his own offensive against the judiciary branch with personal attacks on the federal judge who halted his immigration order.

"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!" Trump tweeted over the weekend.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on CNN that it was likely "best to avoid criticizing judges individually."

But Pence defended the president's actions, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" that "the president of the United States has every right to criticize the other two branches of government."

__

Follow Colvin on Twitter athttps://twitter.com/colvinj

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Republicans mum as Trump adopts Obama tactics - Minneapolis Star Tribune

And yet, we are hearing no pieties about American lives from Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, no sense that the cause of the failure should be investigated, let alone that Trumps role in it should be a major investigative focal point.

It is through events like Benghazi that we see just how paper-thin the GOPs commitments to its most defining ideals really are. What Republicans have held forth as fundamental principles are, thanks to Trumps election, revealed as hollow bromides and shibboleths. Trump will likely be president for at least four years; but starting now, and through the eventual end of GOP rule, we never have to take Republican sanctimony at face value again, and their phoniness ought to be a commanding narrative of the Trump era.

Over the weekend, Trump referred to James Robart, a George W. Bush appointee who temporarily enjoined his anti-Muslim immigration order, as a so-called judge, and directed his Twitter followers to blame future terrorist attacks on Robart and the entire court system.

This is the second federal judge Trump has attacked directly and his most undisguised assault on the judiciary in general since he became a national political figure. With a handful of exceptionsSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell notably said its best not to single out judges for criticismRepublicans on Capitol Hill have decided to pretend nothing happened.

Given the understated nature of their response to Trumps shameless and dangerous assault on the integrity of the judiciary, would you believe that when President Obama politely disagreed with the Supreme Courts 2010 Citizens United decision

conservatives lost their minds?

Whereas Trumps efforts to discredit the judiciary need to be resisted, he is free, as far as Im concerned, to undermine the National Prayer Breakfast however he chooses. To that end, he couldnt have done better than plugging The Apprentice during his speech there last week. He asked attendees to pray for the shows ratings, knowing evangelical conservatives would stick their heads in the sand, as they have for all of Trumps unholy outrages.

It shouldnt be forgotten, though, that many of these same evangelicals were beside themselves (or claimed to be) when Obama implored Christian critics of Islam to be mindful of terrible things that have been done throughout history in the name of Jesus Christ.

Hypocrisy is a third-rate political crime. But it isnt just that conservatives apply different standards to different politicians on the basis of partisan affiliation; its that their appeals to like-minded voters are fraudulent. National security, rule of law, and religious faith are supposed to be central facets of conservative identity. Presumably some Republican voters around the country are genuinely motivated by conservative views on these issues. For the time being, its up to Democrats and the media to make clear to these voters that the GOPs commitment to their principles is illusory.

But eventually Trumps presidency will end, and just as quickly as they abandoned these pieties, Republicans will try to reclaim them. It will be a major failure of politics, and perhaps also the media, if they succeed in doing so. Republicans outed themselves when they submitted to Trump, and they cant be allowed to pretend it never happened.

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Never Believe the Republicans' BS Ever Again - New Republic