U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler’s Westchester town hall the evening of Sunday, May 4, was filled with jeers and dismissive laughter between questions. About four people were escorted out by security staff, including two who were carried out by law enforcement.

The town hall at Kennedy Catholic Preparatory School in Somers was the second of four town halls promised by the NY-17 Republican, with two more to come in June for Putnam and Dutchess counties.

About 600 constituents were instructed to remain seated throughout the duration of the event, not to record anything and to be respectful of one another and the congressman. Those asking questions were selected at random with a lottery system and were given 30 seconds to state their question.

Before Lawler fielded questions, his opening remarks drew some laughter when he said, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Question topics ranged from federal budget cuts, tariffs, immigration and deportation, to the Russian-Ukrainian war, and antisemitism, as well as President Donald Trump and the separation of powers. 

Throughout the under two hour event, an audience of largely Democrat constituents laughed, jeered, or booed while Lawler answered questions. The energy in the room erupted when one woman was carried out by law enforcement during a question about tariffs, with several in the audience chanting, “Let her stay!” 

“If people would behave, then there wouldn’t be a problem,” Lawler said shortly after the woman was carried out.

Several in the room, who were not opposed to Lawler, clapped for him throughout the event and shouted, “Let him answer,” when others interrupted.

Lawler peppered with questions

One constituent criticized federal budget cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as libraries, museums, the Kennedy Center, PBS, and NPR, and asked what’s the point of living if officials were cutting services that are important and vital to be an American, she said.

“We right now are at an annual budget of $7 trillion,” Lawler said. “We are running $2 trillion deficits on an annual basis. We are paying a trillion dollars in interest on our debt. We are $36 trillion in debt as a country. Over the last two decades, we have added $32 trillion in debt.”

Lawler said both parties have been responsible for excessive spending and inability to control the growth within programs. Prior to the question, he said he criticized cuts in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the World Trade Center Health Fund, and the 988 suicide prevention hotline.

Lawler was accused by several of weaponizing antisemitism, including a Jewish constituent who said Lawler only called out antisemitism on the left. 

The final question of the night was regarding legislation introduced by Lawler that would punish Americans for participating in boycotts of Israel and its settlements with fines up to $1 million and prison sentences up to 20 years, if those boycotts are endorsed by intergovernmental organizations (such as the U.N.). (A vote scheduled for the bill on Monday, May 5, was pulled).

Regarding Medicaid, Lawler repeated that he would not vote to cut benefits from eligible recipients. In February 2025, the House Budget Committee passed a budget resolution to seek at least $880 billion in mandatory spending cuts to programs overseen by its committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees Medicaid.

“We will continue to work through these issues and continue to engage with the administration, with my Democratic colleagues, with my Republican colleagues, on any of these issues as they come,” Lawler said. “It’s what I’ve always done. It’s what I will continue to do. There’s not a single local elected official that can honestly say I’ve not dealt with them in a sincere and honest way… to address the issues that matter to their community.”

Outdoor rally opposing Lawler held ahead of town hall

Ahead of the town hall, a rally against U.S. Rep. Lawler was staged away from the meeting site, near the Goldens Bridge train station. The protest of under 100 included Chair of the Somers Democratic Town Committee Christine Robbins, as well as two Democratic candidates seeking to challenge Lawler in the general election next year, Beth Davidson and Mike Sacks.

Robbins said she felt Lawler was not fighting for constituents and criticized him for holding the town hall at a private school rather than a venue like Yorktown Stage in Yorktown Heights or Paramount Theatre in Peekskill.

“He decided to have his town hall on private property, so he thwarted our constitutional right to freedom of speech,” Robbins told the Herald. “So therefore we felt we needed to get out there and exercise our freedom of speech.”

Sacks told the Peekskill Herald it was important for him to stand with constituents and against Lawler, who he said is giving away their “voice, purse, power, wholesale from the people’s house to the White House.”