Rep. Chris Collins joined CNN’s Van Jones on Thursday for a town hall-style event on live TV, and one of his constituents made it there to ask why he wouldn’t do the same back home.
Renee Sutton, a resident of New York’s 27th District, told Collins, her Republican member of Congress, she was one of the people trying to reach him about hosting a town hall event.
“The actual people you represent are asking to meet with you and you’re refusing to do it?” Sutton asked, on “The Messy Truth,” Jones’ CNN show.
Collins said that while he didn’t hold town halls in his district, he did meet with people he represented.
“I have never seen the value of the time commitment for a town hall,” Collins said. “I can spend my time with a group of dairy farmers, with a group of health care professionals for a half an hour or an hour, have a real give and take.”
He said those meetings had always been sufficient and the current call for town hall meetings was largely being drowned out by protests taking place across the nation.
“For eight years, no one ever raised the issue with me,” Collins said.
Sutton said that was fine, but that she still did “want a setting where you will listen to me.”
Collins assured her he would speak with her.