Republican congressman Mike Flood received a loud dose of instant voter feedback during a fiery town hall meeting in his home state of Nebraska.
Hundreds of people were lined up outside the Kimball Recital Hall at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Monday for the meeting, which ran for 30 minutes longer than planned, Nebraska Now reports. It is Flood’s third town hall in recent months.
Flood addressed the meeting, where he was soundly booed and heckled whenever he referenced Donald Trump or his Big Beautiful Bill, which the congressman voted for. The crowd drowned out the 50-year-old with chants of “Vote him out!”
At one point, he was directly asked, “Why are you covering up the Epstein files?”
After the audience cheered the question, Flood said he had sponsored a resolution to release the Epstein files “to protect the victims and not re-victimize them again.”
Flood added that he supported House Oversight Chairman James Comer who had subpoenaed Epstein accomplice and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell to testify in Washington.
“I am for the release of those records,” he insisted.
The thorny questions continued. Another angry local, mentioning the funding of ongoing ICE raids, asked, “How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?”
Over a sea of boos, Flood said, “Americans voted for a border that is secure and I support the president enforcing our immigration laws.”
Another voter directly asked Flood, “You said you were not a fascist. Your complicity says otherwise. Have you ever spoken out against this administration and its Project 2025, which is a fascist machine? What is wrong with you?”
Flood stated, “Fascists don’t hold town halls with open question-and-answers. And I will tell you this, I support law enforcement, and what happened on January 6, 2021 was not right, and I’m on the record saying so. I’m sure you could Google it.”
He attempted to justify changes to the Medicaid program as the audience shouted over him.
“One of those changes is that if you are able to work and you are able bodied, you have to work.” Flood explained. “If you choose not to work, you do not get free health care. You do not get free health care.”
After heavy booing, he said, “So here’s a question. Do you think that people who are 28 years old, that can work and refuse to work, should get free health care?”
After the audience cheered in the affirmative, Flood added, “I don’t think that a majority of Nebraskans agree with you.”
When asked how he could vote for Trump’s bill, over more boos, he tried to explain cuts to aid by saying, “We do not have unlimited money in the United States.”
Flood was also asked about the president sacking Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after he didn’t like the results she released.
The Republican said, “If all she did was get the data out there, I would not have fired her. But I don’t know, because things are complicated. I don’t know all the details.”
Flood is yet to speak publicly since the town hall by time of publishing. The Daily Beast has reached out to Flood’s office for comment.
Previous town hall meetings this year have also seen Flood grilled by voters. In March he was criticized for Trump’s lack of support for Ukraine and received sustained boos when he told the audience “I support Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.”
Then in May, Flood admitted in a town hall he had not read key parts of the Big Beautiful Bill that pertained to measures that would make it easier for the government to defy court orders.
“I am not going to hide the truth, this provision was unknown to me when I voted for that,” Flood said.
