Town Holler: Rep. Obernolte Meets Resistance
In a fractious community meeting, more than 200 Morongo Basin residents insist that their representative tell the truth and do his job
In a watershed event for Morongo Basin residents concerned about the Trump administration’s attacks not just on federal agencies but also assaults on transgender members of our community, persecution of immigrants, alignment with Russia and abandonment of Ukraine—California District 23 Representative Jay Obernolte’s town hall on Saturday, February 22, activated a raucous crowd that came to make their opinions known.
You’ve probably already heard how contentious town halls have been this week as congressional representatives return to their home districts to listen to constituents. The coffee held by Representative Jay Obernolte at the Yucca Valley Community Center on Saturday, February 22, was no exception.
Yucca Valley Town Manager Curtis Yakimow opened the meeting by saying that another event had been scheduled and that the town hall needed to stop promptly at 10 a.m. He took the stage twice more during the meeting to appeal for civility from the crowd.
Representative Obernolte kicked off the meeting by honoring San Bernardino sheriff’s deputy Loraine Pinedo for her work investigating child and elder abuse. “I can't imagine how hard that job is, day in and day out, to be confronted with that kind of abhorrent behavior and to see and have to deal with the victims of those crimes, I just think would tear at your heart, and so I just want us to all say thank you to her for the work that she does on behalf of our community.”
After explaining the morning’s ground rules and stating that he’d take questions half way through, Obernolte started by sharing that he wanted to talk about “something that I have been pushing on that is very important to me, and I know is very important to all of you, and that's the effects of the recent federal layoffs on our National Park system.” He said that “we’ve been working with [Secretary of Interior] Doug Burgum and the Trump administration to clear the National Park Service to rehire the people that had been laid off because they want the level of seasonal hires to be higher.”
Applause turned to skepticism as many audience members recognized that seasonal park workers stay only for the busy tourist season and are not the full-time staff Joshua Tree National Park staff that have been fired in the last week.1
“Let the People Talk!”
Obernolte moved on to addressing one of his key talking points, but at just five minutes into the meeting it was clear many members of the audience disagreed with his analysis of the country’s finances:
I think the single biggest existential threat facing our country right now is the $2 trillion budget deficit…[audience interrupts with shouting and boos]…7 trillion dollars in federal spending [inaudible as an audience member begins to shout “election integrity” and others are shouting] percent of every dollar that we spend and folks we just can’t continue doing that….[inaudible due to shouting]
Raise your hand if you've noticed higher prices over the last few years. The California family pays over $15,0002 more right now just to live than they did four years ago. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, like a lot of my constituents are, that is really, really hard to deal with. So the Federal Reserve says the primary thing driving this round of inflation has been deficit spending by the federal government.
The audience disagreed, and someone shouted, “It’s corporate greed!” Those attending loudly expressed their disagreement whenever Obernolte repeated talking points about looking for waste and abuse and programs to cut.
Obernolte continued to speak about his accomplishments, including Congress passing the Fix Our Forests Act last month, which streamlines building fire breaks and access roads. (It also bypasses National Environmental Policy Act requirements to study environmental impacts of all such projects and has one-size-fits-all solutions for wildlands management.)
Obernolte also highlighted his concerns for active-duty military and veterans in his district, touting the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, signed into law by President Biden in 2022. The Act expands care and benefits to veterans exposed to toxic substances such as fumes from burn pits at military facilities that torched electronics, medical waste, and rubber tires—as well as approval of the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which he claimed gave enlisted personnel a 20% raise.3
The audience grew restless, demanding to be able to voice their concerns. Obernolte said, “I fear we are losing our ability to have a civil discourse with each other.” “Let the people talk!” the crowd chanted.
“Do Your Job!”
Participants were selected to ask questions by pulling raffle tickets from a jar. Joe Candelaria of Twentynine Palms asked why are people being fired when “our community struggles for gainful employment?” He was concerned that entitlements given veterans through the Veterans’ Recruitment Appointment (VRA) are on the chopping block as well as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits that many people locally depend on.
This is a fucking food desert, and that resource is a vital resource to this community. And what jobs are you bringing back to this community? What say you to that?
Obernolte disputed the cutting of SNAP benefits4 and reemphasized that national park seasonal jobs have been reauthorized but had no other rejoinders.
Heather Drake, also of Twentynine Palms asked,
My question to you, as a member of Congress which holds the purse strings, what are you going to do to stop the cuts and how do you feel about an unelected nonconfirmed person making the decisions you should be making?
Video courtesy Elliot Balsley
Obernolte started to respond, “I am very glad that someone is looking at waste…the American people voted for change in November….” As it had before, this response drew a negative response from the crowd. “No one elected Elon!” someone yelled. “I’m glad someone is looking at all the waste,” Obernolte said, which incensed the crowd, which took up the chant, “Do your job!”
“No Kings!”
Throughout the hour, any mention of Elon Musk by Obernolte sparked dissension in the audience. At one point Obernolte attempted to appease the group who continued to mumble as he spoke, “I know there is a lot of (inaudible) over the changes being made by the Trump administration but remember this is something we have been through before.…” The group again exploded and at one point a woman can be heard shouting “We’ve never had a king!” But Obernolte continued to speak, failing to quell another boiling point, as the crowd began to chant “No kings, No kings!”5
After the audience settled down, another questioner said, “My primary concern is with the system of checks and balances. The executive branch is working against Congress with illegal hirings and firings. How are you going to protect the Constitution?”
Obernolte responded:
We're supposed to have three different branches of government that provide checks against each other. So once in a while, and this has happened throughout the history of our country, one branch tries to seize more power—that is exactly what's happening right now….So we have a court system and we're a society that believes in a rule of written law….So the administration is running through a lot of executive orders, and the courts are weighing in. The court said that as the plenary head of the executive branch, the President does have the authority to do that.6 Folks, the system is working.
Another questioner followed up, “Does Congress hold the purse? Is Congress the body that we elected to be in charge of how our funds are managed?….Please, why Congress has deferred their responsibility to the courts to protect the funding of the United States?” Obernolte responded:
You asked a question about if Congress controls the power of the purse, right, which we absolutely do. And I'll tell you the conflict that will come is over something called impoundment, which is when Congress appropriates money for a certain purpose. Does the President have the responsibility and obligation to spend it for that purpose? The law says, Absolutely, he does….We do not have any law enforcement powers. The courts have the power. So if we have a problem for the administration, we do exactly what the public does, and we bring a lawsuit.
“Liar! Liar!”
A questioner spoke about workplace equity and eliminating protections for workers and asked, ”Where does that leave the people who look different from you, and what are you going to do to protect them” while another speaker said she was one of 4 million disabled Californians:
Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick appeared on Fox News on Thursday and confirmed the Musk Trump administration will seek to cut $1 trillion from essential programs. He said this would be done under the claims of fraud Musk has made without any evidence. I'm very concerned that we're being told to just trust Musk, especially when he frequently uses the R word, which is a well known slur used to dehumanize the mentally disabled.
It's not just that they want to cut these programs under false pretenses, congressman, but it's the people who want to cut them seem to hold radically negative views of the disabled community. Even J.D. Vance, when he appeared on a podcast, promoted that people in the audience should read the works of a Mr. Curtis Yarvin [who] claimed that disabled people should be turned into bio-fuel so that they would be useful.
My question to you is, what is your plan for how and where people like me and millions of other Californians, including the elderly, will be fed and housed after we are made homeless by these cuts?
Obernolte responded, “There has been a lot of angst and consternation about programs that everyone relies on, like Social Security, like Medicare, like Medicaid, about this, no one is talking about reducing benefits to the people that depend on them… And they are ensuring that those dollars are getting to the people who depend on them, because we have this vast bureaucracy that's soaking those dollars up.”
The crowd shouted, “Liar, liar!”
Other questions addressed a controversial communications tower in Morongo Valley (which Obernolte appeared to confuse with Yucca Valley) and the potential dismantling of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The last question went to Twentynine Palms City Councilmember April Ramirez, who noted she is a mom, a nurse, and an active-duty military spouse.
I will very openly say our government at this point in time is very broken. However, I also believe, and I teach this to my children, that we have to be happy for the small things… I was asked on behalf of 36 active-duty military families to say that, before, we didn't have diapers, we didn't have wipes. So I was so I was asked to just comment saying thank you for the steps and the energy that is being put in to taking care of our active duty military, because this is when it truly is important to take care of them, before it’s too late, before they’re veterans and out on the streets.
Obernolte closed by saying that, “we practice a form of democracy that's fundamentally different than that practiced in a lot of other countries…. We believe in voting for a person, and even though I get the sense that a lot of people in this room didn't vote for me.” There were a few shouts of, “but I did vote for you!” He continued with, “the reason why we believe in voting for a person and not a party is so that when you have a dispute with your government, you will have someone fighting in your corner.” He finished with, “thank you for the sometimes civil discourse we had this morning.”
There has been speculation on social media that town hall participants were bussed in from elsewhere — Desert Trumpet staff arrived early enough to state this was emphatically not the case. People took time out from a busy Saturday morning to attend the town hall, many of them nervous because of the violent reactions that dissent sometimes breeds on Facebook — and were then heartened by being surrounded by fellow anxious community members expressing dissent to their government representative.
Not all crowd members voted for Obernolte, but they live in the Morongo Basin, and he represents them too.
The Desert Trumpet recorded the Town Hall; quotes taken from a transcript that was sometimes unclear; quotes are rendered to best of our ability.
Reportedly, six layoffs in Joshua Tree National Park; a thousand throughout the park service—and thousands more in other federal agencies that manage public lands.
An apparent exaggeration of an exaggerated claim per Politifact.
The raise appears to be up to 4.5% for junior enlisted personnel.
As the first executive orders were issued there was much confusion about SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps. That they were exempt was clarified after the orders were issued. However, according to the Center for American Progress, SNAP could still be on the chopping block.
Video of this moment is available via a reel at the Tennessee Holler instagram account.
This is factually incorrect as several executive orders are still making their way through the courts. Most recently, a court blocked orders ending support for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Please note that we do not allow anonymous comments. Please be sure your first and last name is on your profile prior to commenting. Anonymous comments will be deleted.
Feel free to share this article!
Be a subscriber!
Thank you, Kat, for debunking the false claims about who attended the town hall Saturday. People, all of us, who live in the Morongo Basin deserve to be heard, not dismissed. Thank you.
This piece shows that The Desert Trumpet fills a crucial role for its readership, providing the kind of old-school reporting that Trump et al are trying to stifle: the recounting of objective facts complete with verification of claims made by those featured in the story. I live a long way from the area served by The Desert Trumpet, but I hope you guys in Southern CA never let it go out of business!