By Rachel Ravina
BLUE BELL — Hundreds showed up to Montgomery County Community College’s Blue Bell campus for a town hall meeting hosted by U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean.
The Democratic congresswoman representing residents in Berks and Montgomery counties held a forum where she spoke directly to her constituents about what’s been happening in the nation’s capitol in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Dean did not hold back, blasting Trump’s character as well as his administration’s handling of a myriad of issues ranging from the economy to immigration.
“Lies told in the Oval Office are beyond the pale, and that’s why you’re here tonight, and that’s what energizes me,” Dean said. “We can never be satisfied with that. We must continue to speak the truth. Cut through the chaos, call out the corruption, the misinformation and the lies. We’ve got to get back to truth.”
Montgomery County was closely watched in the battleground state of Pennsylvania during the 2024 election’s presidential election, featuring Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump took Pennsylvania and the nation, with 77,303,568 votes to Harris’ 75,019,230 votes, according to reported national results. However, Harris won handily in Montgomery County, with 317,103 votes to Trump’s 198,311 votes, according to county election results.
“This man got elected twice. I do not know how it happened. I did everything in my power,” Dean said. “This is not a political event, we know that, but I did everything in my power to lift up a candidate I thought would be more worthy, that would be lawful, that would respect citizens and the rule of law, and we were … not successful in that. So elections have consequences.”
‘Proud of Montgomery County’
Dean recalled nearly 10,000 phone calls flooding the office phone lines with constituents troubled by the issuing of executive orders and the shuttering of federal agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, also known as USAID.
The volume of queries prompted the need for town hall meetings, she said, as thousands attended a previous tele-town hall. She noted they’ve designated funding to hold additional events “because people are desperate for information, and they deserve it.”
Congressional representatives have been holding town hall meetings in districts across the nation in recent months, as media reports revealed that attendees expressed anger and frustration. Dean’s district encompasses roughly 710,000 people across the two Philadelphia-area suburban counties, and was well-received by the more than 500 people who showed up to the community college auditorium.
“I’m proud of Montgomery County. I’m proud of the Fourth Congressional District,” Dean told reporters following Thursday’s town hall. “We have people who are engaged, who care. They care about their country, they care about their fellow man, they care about … the common good, and so I was really heartened by the very warm reception.”
She also stressed during her hour-long conversation that the issues at hand go beyond party.
“I hope there are Republicans in this audience tonight because we are all in this together,” she said.
Dean guided people through the roughly hour-long event in three parts: her own remarks, a presentation from Nikki McKinney, a senior advisor on policy and public affairs with Democracy Forward, and questions from the constituents. Dean began by offering a status report, sharing her account of the nearly 100 days since Trump took office.
“The founders had a plan, and they didn’t want any one of these bodies, co-equal branches, to have it all,” Dean said during her presentation. “You don’t want power of legislating, or power of executing, or power of pulling the balls and strikes with the judiciary. You don’t want the money, and all of that altogether. President Trump is trying to claim, and has tried to claim, and claimed Article One, power to legislate, through executive order. It’s illegal. It’s unconstitutional.”
The microcosm listened intently to Dean and made their opinions known as interjections could be heard at times from audience members expressing their ire.
“These are not normal times. You see a glimpse of the incompetence, the lawlessness, the uncertainty of this administration,” Dean said, adding, “what the result is self-inflicted harm to the American people, to our country, to our standing in the world.”
Dean stressed, “This is the ultimate stress test of our democracy.”
Although President Trump enjoys positive job approval numbers on a number of issues, Dean said she is astonished by the perceived damage that’s been done during his first 88 days in office. She attempted to offer some levity to the situation by saying, “There’s 88 fewer days,” as the crowd responded with laughter and applause.
The evening covered numerous topics, foreign and domestic, including tariffs, “Signalgate,” the firing of federal workers, Project 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency headed up by Elon Musk, who’s taken aim at Social Security, previously calling it a “Ponzi scheme.”
“They’re incompetently doing so many things, but they are so methodically doing others. The authoritarian playbook Stephen Miller is in play,” Dean said, referring to the White House deputy chief of staff for policy.
“Think about the things we’re not able to talk about because we’re so focused on this madness, this chaos, this lawlessness, this corruption, this grift,” Dean said. “We’re not talking about our place in the world, our standing in the world.”
“We’re not talking about peace in Ukraine. Remember, President Trump was going to end the war [on] day one,” she continued. “We’re not talking about that as people are dying in Ukraine. We’re not talking about the people dying in Gaza,” she continued. “We’re not talking about the hostages who have yet to come home. We’re not talking about any of that.”
Questions from participants
A question-and-answer period followed as Dean was eager to hear from her constituents about concerns over legal standing, legislation and possible outcomes. Dean underscored the importance of listening to what they had to say.
“I am appalled by what’s happening in this country,” one resident said.
“My concern is what happens when he declares martial law?” another resident asked.
When one constituent candidly asked, “What is the plan?” Dean acknowledged that while in the minority, Democrats have to do more to oppose Trump.
“We’re introducing legislation to limit or to put a stop to Trump’s unlawful actions, and just like post-Nixon, there will be a whole set of reform legislation that we will have to initiate and pass,” she said.
Some Republican-led legislation was also top of mind for another constituent bothered by the SAVE Act, a voter ID bill requiring two forms of proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate. Advocates anticipated obstacles for women whose married names do not match their birth certificates, according to media reports.
“It’s a voter ID bill … that would disproportionately harm women,” Dean said, stressing that “it passed the House. It is not the law.”
On tariffs, one resident offered a rebranding suggestion. “I think as a whole, maybe the Democratic Party can start referring to it as a Trump tax.”
“You’re absolutely right. We have to get better at saying it. It’s a Trump tax,” Dean replied.
Another person queried her reservations surrounding the administration’s push back to returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a suspected MS-13 gang member illegally in the US, who was deported to a prison in his native El Salvador. While the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling to facilitate his return, the administration has pushed back, which has prompted a nationwide conversation as part of Trump’s federal immigration crackdown.
On Thursday, a constituent raised a “concern” that “the administration is already ignoring the 9-0 decision from the court. How do we enforce that?”
“I share your worry. I pray to God the court holds them to account,” Dean said.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia. Dean said she’d like to do the same.
“When you get to such desperate moments, I feel I have a duty to go there and to see it up close and to call it out and to call for justice, to call for his release, and actually the release of the others as well,” Dean told reporters. “They were not supposed to be there. The judge ordered those planes to be turned around. So I’ll go for Abrego Garcia, yeah, and I’ll go for the others who were wrongfully taken there.”
Dean also sought to reassure those in the audience of the determination of Democrats despite a level of uncertainty.
Sharing a strategy involving the “four C’s,” the courts, Congress, citizens and “calling out the appalling silence of others,” Dean implored constituents to remain active and politically engaged.
“We will stop this madness,” she said, adding, “We are not without hope because here’s the way we attack this: we have to attack it on multiple fronts.”
But it’s about working together as an “engaged” electorate, Dean stressed.
“This isn’t any longer a Democrats versus Republicans,” Dean told reporters following Thursday’s town hall. “This is about lifting up our democracy, protecting our democracy, recognizing that the rule of law matters, and as the quote says, ‘we are a nation of laws, not of men.’ So I’m just incredibly heartened, and I’m very mindful [of] how scared people are. You see it in that audience, the anxiety across the board.”
“People are anxious over what’s next? What’s he done here? Who’s he cutting there? What research will be cut? What will happen to my children? How about Head Start? How about the Department of Education? How about my veterans?” she said. “So you see people very anxious, but engaged in the right ways to lift up democracy.”
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