Fairview official disputes Blackburn’s town hall claims
WASHINGTON -- Fairview Mayor Patti Carroll tried to size up the crowd before Rep. Marsha Blackburn took constituents’ questions at a town-hall meeting in Fairview on Tuesday afternoon.
How many of the people packed inside Fairview City Hall actually live in Blackburn’s congressional district? Carroll asked.
Nearly everyone in the room raised their hand.
Blackburn told a different story about the sometimes rowdy crowd during a CNN interview Wednesday night.
“A little bit less than one-third in the room were actually very (sic) constituents of mine,” the Brentwood Republican told interviewer Anderson Cooper, according to a transcript of the show.
“We had a couple – several that identified themselves as from being outside of the district, a couple from Nashville, one from Murfreesboro,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn’s office refused to be quoted earlier Thursday on what evidence it has to back up that claim. But she did appear again on CNN on Thursday afternoon and repeated her claims.
The congresswoman’s office insisted privately the information about the crowd was provided by Fairview city officials and by police working the event. Blackburn’s office would not identify the officials it says provided the information. Blackburn's office said the congresswoman was not available for an interview, but released the following statement from Blackburn late Thursday: “I was given the estimate by a city commissioner and law enforcement. Whether someone was inside or outside of my district, I was happy to answer their questions. Those who didn’t get their questions answered have been invited to call my office and set up a meeting.”
Fairview City Manager Scott Collins disputed the congressional office’s explanation.
“We only had a list of names,” Collins said. “We have no other information, no addresses, to determine where they live.”
Asked if he or the city provided Blackburn or her office with any statistical information on the attendees at the event, Collins said, “We do not have that information to give -- just a list of names.”
One Fairview resident was “really
upset” about Blackburn’s claims about the attendees at the town hall.
“Instead of complaining about people coming to Fairview from other areas of her district, why didn’t she schedule additional town halls in Williamson County,” said Rebecca Purington, spokeswoman for Indivisible Tennessee, a group that helped secure spots for constituents in the town hall.
The group created a shared online spreadsheet of the attendees inside City Hall and is crowdsourcing and asking others to help identify the home towns of those that came to the event.
“She had plenty of time to do that after she saw the interest,” she said.
Thursday afternoon, about half the people on the list had been confirmed to live in Blackburn’s district, though several were confirmed to live in other districts, according to the group’s tally.
Purington said one woman who lived in Williamson County has a child with special needs that had to hire a nurse to care for her child so she could attend and ask Blackburn a question.
After hearing Blackburn’s comments, she said the woman was “incredibly insulted.”
“These are real people with real concerns that are important to their families,” Purington said.
Blackburn isn't the only Republican member of Congress to characterize the hostile crowds that have been showing at recent town hall events as a bunch of outside agitators
Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz claimed the crowd that confronted him at a town hall in his district a couple of weeks ago included a large contingent of paid agitators from out of state. Other Republican Congress members, including Reps. Tom MacArthur of New Jersey and Louie Gohmert of Texas, have made similar claims.
President Donald Trump has pushed the same narrative.
At Blackburn’s town hall on Tuesday, a boisterous crowd of about 120 people lobbed frequently pointed questions at the congresswoman on topics such as Obamacare, Trump’s senior adviser Steve Bannon and newly installed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
In her CNN interview, Blackburn said the anger she heard “was real from the individuals that were in the room.”
But she insisted twice that only about a third of the people at the event were her constituents.
Reporter Nancy Stephens contributed to this story.