At town hall meeting, McClellan urges constituents to 'speak up' to save democracy

Several times during Rep. Jennifer McClellan’s town hall meeting June 2 at Virginia State University, the same question was asked but in different ways: “What can Democrats do to keep Donald Trump and the Republicans in check?” 

Most of the time, McClellan, D-Virginia, responded with the same answer. Claiming she did not want to get political in a meeting designed to inform constituents about passed and proposed legislation, McClellan said the best thing to do was “mitigate the harm” during the next four years, then go back to the ballot box and vote in the next round of leadership. 

One question, though, prompted McClellen to, in her words, "get on my soapbox." An audience member asked if the United States was safe from attempts by Trump to hold onto office beyond the end of his term as some have suggested he do. 

“What mechanisms are in place to make sure the system is going to work?” the man asked. “Democracy is gone ... what do we do?” 

Taking a deep breath, the congresswoman responded. 

“Our republic is being stressed past the breaking point,” McClellan said, “and I don’t know if we’re going to survive. But I have faith.” 

'Responsibility to speak up'

McClellan noted that Trump tends to rethink his steps whenever he is challenged on his policies, and the courts "have done a good job" when he tries. Even some of her Republican colleagues have privately questioned some of his directives despite showing public unity.

However, she cautioned, if democracy is to survive, it is up to the American public, not Washington, to call out the administration. If the people do not like what he has proposed, McClellan said, then they must let their Capitol Hill representatives know about it, and let the representatives take action. 

“When he gets pushback, he retreats,” McClellan said of Trump. “And when he gets pressure, he retreats. That pressure comes from the people, and the market, and the courts, and sometimes even from Congress. 

“If you don’t like what your elected officials are doing, you have the responsibility to speak up to them directly and indirectly. And when that happens, there is reaction.” 

Happy with his job? 

McClellan went on to say that she does not think Trump is enjoying this presidency as much as he did his first term. He claims he will not run again [and the Constitution bars him from doing so] “and I believe him because he doesn’t enjoy it,” she said. 

“But if he decides, ‘I’m not going to leave,’ then the people are going to have to make sure he leaves,” she said. “I’m not saying through violence, but people can file lawsuits, people can protest. And every time we have made progress in our nation and when our republic has not worked the way that the ideal says it should, it has been the people voting, through protests, through showing up, getting on the phone and making their voice heard, that has turned things around.” 

McClellan noted how her parents and grandparents survived the Jim Crow era when Black citizens were barred from voting, particularly in the South, through tactics such as poll taxes and literacy tests. She said she still has the receipt her father got from having to pay a poll tax to vote. 

“It’s been worse,” McClellan said. 

A potpourri of questions 

For most of the 90-minute session, hosted by McClellan’s office and held inside VSU’s Gateway Event Center, attendees asked questions about issues Congress was dealing with under the Trump administration. McClellan admitted at the outset that she has spent most of her second term "responding to what’s come out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” 

She predicted rough times for many in Virginia because of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Budget Bill.” That bill, she said, strips Medicaid healthcare benefits from 13.7 million people “including hundreds of thousands of people in Virginia.” 

On the topic of housing affordability, McClellan said she agrees with many who spoke at the meeting that wages are not keeping pace with the costs of home construction. Therefore, even if housing prices go down, they remain out of the reach of most first-time home-buyers and renters. 

Some attendees asked her to denounce international tensions, particularly in Israel and the Gaza Strip. One attendee asked what she could do “to pull the plug on genociding children in Gaza,” 

McClellan said she does not support “blanket sanctions,” but added that the United States must continue to hold its allies accountable by any means necessary “to foster long-term stability and peace in the region.” 

She vowed to fight against any attempts to reduce benefits to veterans, including cuts to staff at Veterans Administration hospitals. McClellan said she was not aware of any efforts to cut services at the Richmond VA Medical Center “because they don’t let us know in advance what they want to do.” 

Asked about term limits for Congress, McClellan said she is not a fan because placing arbitrary limits cuts down on institutional knowledge gained by veterans on Capitol Hill. 

“We already have term limits,” McClellan said. “They’re called ‘elections.’”