Central New York Rep. Brandon Williams (R-Sennett) held his first town hall event since taking office Monday at Chittenango High School.
A group of constituents in the 22nd Congressional District demonstrated outside the town hall holding signs advocating for protecting social security and Medicare and Medicaid. Sarah Reeske, a group leader of Indivisible Mohawk Valley, said they want to have a dialogue with Williams.
"There are programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that members of his party have been talking about cutting and gutting and not making available," Reeske said. "That is going to hurt our lives. We want him to keep these programs whole."
Where does Williams stand?
"I am not part of any conversation to cut Social Security, Medicare and nor have I ever been, nor have I ever said that," Williams said.
Attendees were not allowed to ask direct questions to Williams. Written questions were submitted to a moderator as constituents checked in.
About half of the constituents in the room applauded stances Williams took, the other half raised red cards that read "disagree" like during Williams' comments on the Second Amendment saying he would not support an assault weapons ban at the federal level.
"If you would ban assault weapons only criminals will have firepower," Williams said when explaining his rationale for opposing a federal assault weapons ban.
Williams says he would not support a national abortion ban — saying changes need to be made at the state level. Here's what he said about the economy:
"Number one, the United States will not default on our debt," Williams said. "We're the best credit in the world. We are the safest bet for credit worthiness and that's not going to be disrupted. Number two, we don't have a debt ceiling problem, folks. We have a spending problem."
Williams said he's putting on hold a plan to move into the 22nd Congressional District, as redistricting could change the maps again. He said he currently lives about 2 minutes from the district border.
"I think it would be pretty silly of me, don't you, to sell my house and move without the lines being known or the resolution," Williams said. "It is common sense in and it's pretty obvious that until this gets settled, the disruption to my family is something to consider."
The Williams team says town halls will be held in Onondaga County the first week of May. His next scheduled town halls are Tuesday at Lyndon Strough Middle School in Rome at 6:30 p.m. and Thursday at Morrisville-Eaton Middle/High School at 6:30 p.m.
