Video: Cramer Town Hall in Mandan Gets a Little Rowdy

UPDATE: The man who accosted Cramer has now apologized, praising him for holding events.

Congressman Kevin Cramer is holding a town hall in Mandan today, and per some video posted by Bismarck Tribune reporter Nick Smith the proceedings got a little rowdy.

One man can be seen repeatedly charging at Cramer and shouting at him about tax cuts for billionaires or something (it’s hard to tell). Per Smith, the man was apparently ejected from the event:

Cramer handles the situation pretty well, and comes off looking pretty reasonable. The shouty guy, not so much.

Apparently, before Smith’s video, a Cramer supporter tried to grab this guy and was himself ejected:

This, too, is interesting:

This video, shot from a different angle, shows a man who tried to restrain the shouty guy and got escorted out by the cops:

This is an interesting tactic from the left. They’re obviously trying to re-create the feisty town hall events during the 2009 congressional recess which resulted in widespread Democrat losses in Congress during the 2010 election cycle. Congressman Earl Pomeroy here in North Dakota, a ten term incumbent at the time, was defeated in the 2010 election after trying to avoid the town halls (he held some, but only by conference call).

Senator Byron Dorgan, who did hold some town halls at which he was booed and jeered, opted to retire instead of run for another term.

So that earlier town hall activism was effective. But this left wing iteration of it doesn’t seem to be gaining the same sort of traction.

I think the problem is an authenticity gap. The outrage seems feigned. The antics come off as performances staged specifically so that they can be filmed and put out to the various media platforms in pursuance of a specific narrative.

Where the derision at the town hall events of the tea party era came largely out of the blue, born as it was of a popular uprising against the status quo, these events targeting Republicans like Cramer seem plotted and contrived.

I’m not sure anyone watching this sort of angry shouting is persuaded. Particularly when the target of the shouting, Cramer in this instance, handles it graciously.

UPDATE: Apparently nobody was arrested:

UPDATE: Originally this post said the town hall happened in Bismarck. It was in Mandan. There is a second Cramer town hall scheduled in Bismarck for this evening.