Humboldt County residents packed into the Adorni Center on Sunday to hear from U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), ask questions and, in some cases, protest the congressman’s perceived inaction on Palestine. The event, which had 500 attendees RSVP, was packed wall-to-wall with constituents.
“Obviously, this is what democracy is about,” Huffman said. “It’s a chance for you to ask questions of your elected representative, to hold me accountable, to ask me to explain and defend the positions that I’m taking on your behalf in Washington.”
Many of the attendees were looking to the congressman for direction, some demanding expressly “tell us what to do” about a Trump administration that Huffman described as “lurch(ing) toward authoritarianism” and “flouting the law.”
“There is hope … but I’m going to be very clear about the peril of this moment. The truth is, I have never been more worried and alarmed about the direction of this country,” Huffman said.
Huffman began the town hall by highlighting a series of accomplishments, including the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act. He also talked about helping bring about a $426 million investment in the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project, a $37 million investment in the restoration of the Klamath River Basin, $15 million in funds allotted to the restoration of forests and watersheds in the Redwoods National and State Parks, as well as smaller community projects like the Dream Quest youth facility in Willow Creek.
“I think all of that is good news, but look, I’m really clear on why probably most of you are here,” Huffman said. “I think you are all really reeling, as I am, from this wave of executive orders … from the wrecking ball of DOGE, from the on-again-off-again tariffs … and the economic chaos that all of this is unleashing … I know, if I was sitting in your chairs right now I would want to know: does my congressman understand this moment and what the heck is he doing about it.”
Questions about Mideast
Attendee Alexandria Rumbel, a teacher at McKinleyville High and a graduate student researcher at Cal Poly Humboldt, was one of the first to question Huffman.
“Last year in April, you voted in favor of the Israel Supplemental Securities Act,” she said. “I would like to say that I am absolutely not in favor of you voting for our tax dollars to fund the armament of Israel. And now that Israel has broken the ceasefire, I want to know what you are going to do to ensure the end of the genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Huffman consented that “we can all agree that what’s unfolding in Gaza is horrific.” He pointed to the Trump administration’s rhetoric about displacing all Gazans and building luxury resorts, as well as to the appointment Mike Huckabee, a right-wing figure who has expressed views about Israel having a biblical birthright to “Greater Israel,” to an ambassadorship in the region.
“I am often asked to choose between two bad things, and in my view, (the vote was about) supporting the military aid that the state of Israel needs to defend its people while trying to use our influence to change government policies in Israel,” Huffman said, adding, “but I don’t want to throw the people of Israel under the bus because they are in a uniquely vulnerable situation.”
Huffman said that he didn’t like what was happening and didn’t know how he would vote on a military support bill when the occasion arises again.
Community health
Stuart Altschuler, a member of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee and a professor with the College of the Redwoods’, expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s plans, under recently appointed U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to cut to mental health and addiction services and programs that combat hunger and homelessness.
“It’s terrifying to me to think that money is going to be cut from treatment programs, prevention programs … things that are totally necessary, so … I would like to know what you and other Democrats, specifically, can do to keep (these cuts) from happening,” Altschuler asked.
Huffman described Kennedy as a “singularly unqualified person” but said his position in the minority in Congress impeded his ability to work against cuts to health programs and to health care workers’ jobs. “We’re going to have to win an election for me to have the full set of tools, in the House of Representatives, where we can use our oversight authority or we can reclaim our power of the purse … where we can hold this administration in check. In the meantime, I will try to make the most of a limited toolbox,” he said.
He also noted that Democrats are going to need the support of courts in holding the executive branch accountable.
ICE raids, retaliation, and ‘disappearing’
Several community members asked questions about immigrants and students like Mahmoud Khalil who was targeted by the Trump administration for protected speech.
“I’m worried about people disappearing,” one attendee who identified herself as “Carolyn” told the congressman. “What can you do about that? … This morning at church, this woman who’s been here since 1960 came up to the front and held up her green card and said ‘I’m really worried’ … What can we do to preserve our freedom of speech.”
“The arbitrary, random, secretive disappearing of people is happening across the board,” Huffman agreed.
He pointed to canceled student visas and green cards, comparing the Trump administration’s targeting of political speech as comparable to 1930s Germany: “Marco Rubio, I guess our Secretary of State, is bragging about the fact that he is … combing through student visas looking for protestors who have exercised their First Amendment right.”
Public safety
Chris Gilda, the chief of the Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department, voiced concerns about rollbacks to FEMA, grants to firefighters and funding to the National Fire Academy.
“Almost no agency is spared right now from this indiscriminate action by DOGE and these unaccountable non-experts who are ransacking through our government … Apparently Donald Trump has come to believe that we should eliminate FEMA; we should devolve that responsibility back to the states. Any of us who have lived through federal disasters knows how reckless and unrealistic that is,” Huffman said.
On grant funding to fire programs, Huffman said that he was glad that Shelter Cove received $6 million in funding to build wildfire resiliency that had been held up earlier this year. “I can only hope, though, that the partners that they had in doing that work are still ready to move forward because that project was thrown into limbo; it looked like it wasn’t going to happen.”
Huffman also said that political favoritism is perhaps deciding where critical safety infrastructure remains and where it is cut, pointing to NOAA cuts that are impacting Humboldt County, but not impacting some of Huffman’s Republican colleagues like Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) whose NWS facilities were unaffected by cuts. Huffman described that as indicative of a “concierge system for some but not for others.”
Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security
“Our Republican colleagues swear that they are not going to get rid of Social Security or Medicare, and I will just tell you, I don’t believe them,” Huffman said. “I’m not trying to peddle alarmism …They’re hollowing out Social Security right before our eyes.”
He pointed to Democratic efforts to bolster Medicaid, which he said is imperiled by the Trump administration’s budget, which doesn’t stipulate cuts to Medicaid but outlines cuts that could only be made through reducing the program’s budget significantly. “One-third of this country gets its primary healthcare from Medicaid,” Huffman pointed out.
The entirety of Sunday’s town hall meeting can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/live/9SGjlXXE4Y0.
Robert Schaulis can be reached at 707-441-0585.
