Three people were arrested, two of them shocked with a Taser and about six people were escorted out of the building as Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene held a town hall in Acworth Tuesday.
“We aren’t going to be intimidated by funded Democrats that want to come in and scream and yell,” Greene said after the meeting at the Acworth Community Center in Cobb County. “A town hall is information for our constituents, and this is not a political rally, this is not a campaign rally, and town halls are extremely important. I’m glad they got thrown out, that’s exactly what I wanted to see happen.”
The first arrest came just after the town hall began when one man loudly booed Greene and was dragged into the hallway by police and shocked with a Taser at least twice. Shortly after he was taken away, police could be seen scuffling with another man in the crowd, eventually using the Taser on him as well.
A woman was arrested near the end of the event after she shouted profanities at Greene while she was on the stage.
According to police, the first man was charged with misdemeanor simple battery on a police officer and misdemeanor obstruction. The second man was charged with misdemeanor simple battery on a police officer and felony obstruction, and the woman was charged with violating a city ordinance on vulgar language, a misdemeanor.
Greene spent the roughly hour-long town hall praising President Donald Trump’s second term, crediting him with lowering border crossings, cutting government waste and seeking a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
A long-time Trump ally and conservative firebrand, Greene has gone from being banished from House committees a few years ago to now chairing the subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is part of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
A heated political climate
Greene was one of only a handful of Congressional Republicans who planned a town hall during the current two-week recess, which comes about a month after party leadership advised lawmakers to avoid in-person town halls, according to reports.
The north Georgia congresswoman held the town hall in the more left-leaning corner of her otherwise ruby red district. Greene told reporters after the town hall that she had been planning the event since January.
Other Republicans, including Georgia Congressman Rich McCormick, have seen fiery town hall meetings where they have been grilled by peeved voters on issues like Trump’s executive powers and Elon Musk’s DOGE and its cuts to federal programs.
Democrats said the angry interactions are a sign of dissatisfaction with Trump’s new administration. Republicans largely dismissed them as paid protesters or rabble rousers traveling in from out of the district and recommended elected officials host telephone town halls or engage with constituents in other ways meant to minimize public disruptions.
The crowd at Greene’s town hall was mostly friendly, but some constituents could be heard scoffing or otherwise expressing their unhappiness – several interrupted the event by shouting or, in one case, unfurling a sign reading “Jail 4 Inside Traders.”
Alleged insider trading
Greene went into the town hall embroiled in what opponents call an insider trading scandal.
A Congressional report shows Greene bought between $21,000 and $315,000 in stocks on April 8 and 9, the day before and the day that Trump announced a pause on his tariff plan. The tariffs had put the market into a tailspin and the announcement of the pause caused a surge, allowing anyone who bought low to make a tidy profit.
Democrats allege that Greene made the trades with foreknowledge of the pause in violation of insider trading laws. Greene rejects the charges as a partisan smear.
Greene told reporters she had no advanced knowledge of the tariff pause.
“I have a fiduciary agreement with my portfolio manager. I don’t place my buys myself,” she said. “That’s something that my portfolio manager does for me, and he did a great job. Guess what he did? He bought the dip. And that’s what anybody that has any financial sense does when they know the market’s going to be going down. That was obvious to everyone.”
An imperfect screen
Greene’s office made efforts to screen attendees for Tuesday’s meeting, requiring them to fill out a form in advance that included their home address and then show ID at the door to prove their identities. Greene’s staff screened attendees for residency in the district, but one of the men who was arrested carried an ID that placed him outside of it, according to police.
Reporters were told not to interview any attendees, and rather than taking questions from the audience, she answered questions that people had written and submitted when they signed up for the town hall.
Most of the questions were friendly, though a few more hostile queries made their way into the program, including “Why are you such a coward in the face of an obvious fascist takeover?”
Greene laughed off her detractors’ questions and characterized them as misinformed, earning applause from the crowd when she did so.
She told reporters she read pre-screened questions because of eye trouble.
“We always have people write down their questions. The problem is, it’s difficult to read everyone’s handwriting,” she said. “So normally, they write down a question and they put them in a fishbowl for me, and I usually have to put on my reading glasses and read them, but it was much easier to have them type out their questions on the form when they signed up for the town hall.”
Greene’s district is one of the most conservative in the state, stretching from the solidly red northwest corner of the state to include northwest Cobb County, which is part of metro Atlanta. Cobb was once a Republican stronghold but has become much friendlier to Democrats over the years as a younger and more diverse population moves in, particularly in the southern part of the county.
Over 100 protesters were gathered outside as Greene spoke – at times, their chants or the honks of passing cars could be heard during the town hall.
Among the crowd was Clarence Blalock, a Democrat who plans to run against Greene when she is up for reelection in 2026.
Blalock said Democrats in the district feel like Greene likes to make a big show but doesn’t listen to their needs.
“She screens her questions, she screens her people, everything is pre-screened, so this is not a real town hall,” he said. “If you can pick your questions beforehand, and your people, and you make sure they’re Republicans – and even to contact her, you’ve got to put in your ZIP+4, which is not necessary at all. She has no representation in the district.”
