Constituents joined the call for a Q-and-A with the senator.
Pennsylvania’s newest senator, Dave McCormick, held his first town hall over the phone on Tuesday. The town hall lasted for an hour and included a Q-and-A with constituents from Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvanian residents have become frustrated with lawmakers becoming harder to reach. Constituents are upset with the lack of public town halls being held by members of Congress.
McCormick took about a dozen questions from callers during the hour-long town hall. Callers shared their question with a screener before being added to the queue to be connected with Senator McCormick to ask the question live on the call.
During the call, McCormick was asked about Medicaid. He said he does not plan to reduce benefits but wants to find the fraud in the system. He said he is “committed to not reducing benefits, taking away benefits for Medicaid, Social Security, or Medicare.”
McCormick defended Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and supported the work it has done so far.
“We’re really in a financial pickle… because we essentially have $34 trillion of debt and the DOGE effort is essentially meant to provide transparency and clarity on where there’s waste,” McCormick said.
When questioned on the cuts made to the federal workforce under the Trump administration, McCormick said the cuts are a “necessity to rein in government and get it under control.”
“We should thank them. We need to treat those folks that are transitioning and looking for new things and new opportunities with respect and dignity and appreciation, even though there’s not, you know, a job for them going forward,” McCormick said.
A caller asked Senator McCormick about the recent national security breach in which a Signal group chat between top officials regarding an upcoming attack in Yemen included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg.
McCormick said, “It was clear, clearly there’s a mistake. I mean, those conversations should not be taking place outside, you know, approved secure channels, and they were. I’m sure we’ll learn more in the coming days of how that happened. And I’m fairly confident there will be efforts taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
McCormick told callers that joined the telephone town hall that he thinks President Trump “is delivering on what he promised”.
Senator McCormick was set to appear at an event to promote his upcoming book in Pittsburgh with Pennsylvania’s Senator John Fetterman. Several groups planned to protest the event, which has since been postponed.
