BOXFORD – About a thousand people showed up here last week to hear their congressman try to explain what is happening and what may happen in coming weeks with the federal government. But the Masconomet Regional High School auditorium can seat only 580.
The staff for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton scrambled to have the Town Hall meeting recorded for broadcast by the Boxford Cable TV. The people outside, including a small cadre of Trump-flag wavers, left without incident.
“I was proud to see a record turnout and hear tough questions, many of which don’t have easy answers about what we can all do,” Moulton said when asked his reaction to the Town Hall meeting.
“The energy in the packed auditorium at Masco is why I’m holding so many town halls right now, and I look forward to my next one.”
Across the country in recent weeks, people have voiced at Town Hall meetings their frustrations with Congress, President Donald Trump and businessman Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency firing of thousands of federal employees.
For Moulton, who was elected in 2014 and has faced little opposition since, it was his third Town Hall this year. He noted that many of Republican House members have stopped holding any Town Hall meetings in their districts because their constituents are so unhappy with their congressman’s lack of opposition to President Trump and Elon Musk.
Since his Town Hall here, Moulton has asked in a survey if constituents think he should schedule meetings in Republican districts where their member of Congress is not meeting with their constituents.
Most here adhered to Moulton’s request that they be polite. Police officers had to escort only two people out for being rowdy. One woman demanded to speak before Moulton could even begin. A college-aged woman was adamant that he should vote to shut off support for the war in Gaza.
The congressman, a former Marine officer who served four terms in Iraq, said he was not happy with the way the Israeli Defense Force has waged the war against the Palestinians, but he firmly told the crowd he would not vote to cut off U.S. support for Israel.
The only negative vibes the mostly Democratic crowd gave off was that Moulton and his Democratic colleagues have not done enough to oppose the mass firings of federal employees.
“American democracy is under assault, but as disillusioning as that can be, citizens here in Massachusetts aren’t checking out, they’re checking in,” he said in a statement.
After Moulton gave a brief update on what was happening in Washington, D.C., the first question he got was from a Masconomet student, who asked what impact on her school President Trump’s shutting down the U.S. Education Department would have.
The congressman said schools need more money, not less. And he advocated for more money being allocated to vocational education.
The second speaker brought the auditorium to a standing ovation when she called Trump “evil.” The congressman agreed, reminding the packed house that he was the first member of the House of Representatives that compared Trump to Adolph Hitler. “I got a lot of criticism for that,” he said.
The veteran who uses the Veteran Administration for his own health care, Moulton promised to work tirelessly to protect veterans. He was outraged that Musk had declared mental health research on veterans’ trauma to be a non-essential service.
“Musk is killing veterans with these cuts,” he said. “I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it.”
Moulton said one of his greatest achievements in Congress is establishing the 988 national mental health crisis phone line.
The congressman agreed that the federal government should be made more efficient. His first bill as a congressman was designed to improve government efficiency. But he said of the current Department of Government Efficiency efforts, “We need to be much smarter.”
He said tariffs could be useful in targeted situations, but “This chaos has been harmful.”
There was a strong applause when he noted that 120 law suits have been filed to stop Trump and Musk.
Moulton also strongly supported U.S. continued support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
Two constituents brought personal problems to the congressman. Livia Cowan, owner of Mariposa in Manchester by the Sea, told him that many of her serving ware is made of aluminum fashioned in Mexican factories. She said she feared the high tariff will hurt her business.
An airline pilot from Rockport asked Moulton to reconsider his stance that commercial airline pilots be forced to retire at 65 years old. The pilot said with humans living active lives longer, it is a shame to lose the older pilots’ expertise.
Moulton, who created the Serve America PAC in 2018 to bolster campaigns for other congressional candidates, promised to help even more candidates run in 2026. ♦
