Emily Feiner is not a diehard Democrat.
The 64-year-old semi-retired social worker, who previously worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs, is not registered with either of the United States’ major political parties. Feiner has voted for Republicans in the past, she says. In the last presidential election, Feiner, who describes herself as a peace activist, wrote in Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
But on Sunday, at a town hall hosted by her Republican representative, Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Feiner was treated like an apparent threat: She was one of several people forcibly removed by state troopers after asking Lawler what it would take for him to stand up to the Trump administration. The moment, which was caught on video and quickly went viral on social media, serves as the latest example of Republican lawmakers endorsing seemingly drastic measures to silence calls for accountability from the constituents they represent.
“I think this says that they will not tolerate us being active participants in our democracy—they want an autocracy,” Feiner told me via Zoom on Monday, “and they’re using state actors to enforce that.”
Feiner said she could sense from the outset that Sunday’s town hall would be unusual. She and other attendees were greeted with a list of rules upon arrival, including demands to provide their proof of residence and prohibitions on photography or filming. According to Feiner, they were required to verbally agree to the rules before getting escorted to their seats. “It was quite infantilizing,” Feiner said, “and I think designed to chill any kind of reaction.”
Feiner and two other attendees said they saw the tightly controlled event as evidence that Lawler, who describes himself as a moderate, has been uneasy about his standing in the swing district. Lawler flipped the seat by fewer than 2,000 votes when he was first elected in 2022. His team may have also been trying to avoid negative headlines about constituents revolting, given that Lawler recently revealed that he is considering a run for governor of New York.
But Lawler’s apparent efforts to stamp out dissent quickly unraveled. “I asked [Lawler], given all the unconstitutional acts by this administration, did he have a red line, and what was it?” Feiner told me. “Because he’s done nothing yet, while presenting himself as a moderate, to indicate that he is, in any way, going to act as a check on this administration.”
According to Feiner and a friend who filmed the incident and was also removed from the event, Jennifer Cabrera, who is also chair of the local chapter of the Working Families Party, Lawler did not directly answer the question, and instead started talking about the appropriations process. So Feiner called out: “Answer the question, answer the question.”
“He was trying to essentially move on without answering it, and she wouldn’t let it go,” Cabrera said. “That’s the type of person that Emily is: She’s not going to be cowed by somebody just because they have a position of power.”
Lawler’s staff quickly scrambled and told her to leave. “I’m not leaving,” Feiner responded repeatedly, as seen in the video captured by Cabrera. The troopers tried to convince her to leave on her own, but she said she “refused to do that because I think that I live in America, which still has a Constitution and a First Amendment and a right for citizens to ask questions of their representatives.”
Filming had been prohibited. But Cabrera whipped out her phone and started recording the scene anyway. “There is no way they’re going to do this to my friend without me filming it,” she thought. Cabrera’s video recorded one of Lawler’s staffers, Erin Crowley, repeatedly demanding that Cabrera stop filming. But like Feiner, she refused.
NY-17 social worker forcibly dragged out of Rep. Mike Lawler's town hall. Afterwards, Lawler told the crowd to "behave."Elected officials are supposed to listen to their constituents—not silence and remove them. This is not democracy.
— New York Working Families Party (@nywfp.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T01:01:42.579Z
What Cabrera captured on film next was jarring: Four state troopers forcibly removed Feiner from her seat, as the audience chanted “Let her stay!” and booed. Two troopers then carried Feiner out of the room, while she flashed a peace sign. In the wake of her forcible departure, attendees chanted “Shame!” Cabrera was also carried out shortly after.
A spokesperson for Lawler did not respond to a list of questions concerning Feiner’s allegations and how much they spent on private security for the event. But about 40 minutes after I sent Lawler’s press secretary my questions, his office released a statement confirming that state police had removed a “radical far-left activist” who they alleged was “persistently interrupting the event, disrespecting attendees, berating staff, and ignoring orders by state police.” The statement did not mention Feiner by name.
Cabrera sees the incident as proof that Republicans are “afraid of their constituents because they know how unpopular their positions are.” Indeed, recent polls show that President Donald Trump is historically unpopular, as I recently wrote.
Sunday’s raucous town hall is far from an outlier. In February, private security guards forcibly removed an Idaho woman from a Republican-hosted town hall after she similarly demanded that speakers answer constituents’ questions. (Those guards are facing multiple charges from local prosecutors, and the woman is seeking $5 million in damages.) Authorities also reportedly removed attendees from recent town halls held by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has reportedly told members to skip in-person town halls after many were met by protesters demanding accountability in the early weeks of Trump’s term, baselessly alleging that those who were showing up were “professional protesters.”
Feiner—who, for the record, says she is not a paid protester—says that even if Republicans stop showing up, defenders of democracy should not. “Everybody doesn’t have to do what I do, but everybody has a role: Be a body, be there. Let your elected representative know that you care, that you’re watching.”
This post has been syndicated from Mother Jones, where it was published under this address.