Barrett sets telephone town hall for Monday night

THURSDAY, APRIL 3 — Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, announced his second telephone town hall this morning. 

The event will begin at  7:30 p.m. Monday.  Barrett will be in Washington for what is expected to be about an hour-long question-and-answer session.

Sign up is via a link on Barrett’s official website. Attendees must sign up by noon Monday, Barrett’s office said.

This time, constituents will be called. Technical problems marred his earlier telephone town hall, when people had to call in.

Everyone who signs up will receive a call, Barrett spokesperson Michael Gordon said.

 The announcement comes after hundreds attended an “empty chair” town hall without Barrett last month. Another, sponsored by the NAACP, has been scheduled for April 22. Barrett has been invited but has not committed.

Protesters demanded an in-person town hall with Barrett during the last two congressional recesses, arguing that virtual town halls do not meet his responsibilities to constituents. Barrett is among many Republicans who have avoided in-person town halls after angry voters flooded them during the first congressional recess. House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged Republican representatives not to hold in-person town halls.

In a March 22 statement, Barrett referred to “organized agitators” who “try to disrupt and plunge public events across the country into chaos.” He did not directly address calls for an in-person town hall, but he said 2,000 attended his previous "interactive town hall.”

Many who signed up for that town hall, however, did not receive the phone number to call. That left some, including this reporter, only able to attend because the number was publicly posted on the Clinton County Republicans’ Facebook page three minutes before the scheduled event.

This time, constituents will give their phone numbers on Barrett’s sign-up sheet alongside their addresses and the “important issue” they would like to hear Barrett discuss, and will then be called to attend, Gordon said.

Gordon stressed that there will be no dial-in number, and attendees must sign up to be added to the dial-out.

The town hall sign-up link will be updated with additional instructions.