Mike Flood faces town hall questions on Epstein files, BLS chief
Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., held a town hall Monday that started with boos shortly after he took the stage and ended with chants of “vote him out” when it ended.
In between, Flood was consistently heckled as he responded to questions about releasing more information on Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump’s firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner and cuts to Medicaid in the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
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Audience members began yelling at Flood and booing him when he talked about Medicaid and the impact of Trump’s sweeping domestic policy law on hospitals in Nebraska. Flood argued that there’s “a lot of misinformation” about the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which no Democrats voted for when it made its way through Congress this summer.
Later he faced a question that suggested he was covering up files related to Epstein. Flood responded that he supports releasing the files and will co-sponsor a nonbinding House resolution calling for their publication.
He added that he supports an effort led by House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., to have Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell sit for a deposition.
Comer last week postponed Maxwell’s deposition, previously scheduled for Aug. 11, until at least October to let the Supreme Court decide in late September whether it will review her case.
Flood also weighed in on the firing of BLS chief Erika McEntarfer, whom Trump dismissed Friday shortly after the agency published figures showing that hiring in the United States had slowed significantly in recent months. Flood suggested he might have handled the situation differently, adding that he does not know “all the details” about McEntarfer’s firing.
“I don’t know what the situation was with the Department of Labor person. Neither do you. I don’t know. I don’t know,” Flood said. “I can tell you I’ve been an employer for a lot of years, and there’s always two sides to every story, and I don’t know what that side was. I will say this, though, if all that person did was get the data out there, if all that, and I don’t know that’s the case, but if that’s all they did, I would not have fired her.”
Several Republican senators, as well as economists and statisticians, took issue with Trump’s terminating McEntarfer last week.
Audience members yelled, jeered and booed throughout the event, with chants of “free Palestine” and “tax the rich” and, during the town hall’s conclusion, calls to “vote him out.” When Flood tried to engage with audience members on those topics, he was largely met with more protests.
Attendees asked at least three different questions about the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, specifically about Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” which one person called “Alligator Auschwitz.”
Inquiring about the immigration detention facility in Florida, an attendee asked Flood, “How much do taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?” Flood responded that the majority of Americans voted for Trump and not for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
“Americans voted for a, for a border that is secure, and I support the president enforcing our immigration laws, which, by the way, were written by Congress,” he added, prompting more boos.
The Nebraska Democratic Party encouraged people to attend Flood’s town hall, telling voters in the 1st Congressional District on social media, “you know what to do!”
The party also encouraged attendance at Flood’s last in-person town hall in the state, in May, when he was grilled by audience members and at one point conceded he had not read a bill in full before he voted for it.
Flood was first elected to Congress in 2022. He won re-election last year with 60% of the vote.