Nearly 500 people attended a town hall event hosted by Congressman Gabe Amo and Attorney General Peter Neronha on Thursday night, which — aside from one attendee taking Amo to task on what they believed was a problematic stance regarding his support of Israel — served as more of a rally in support of the two Democratic officials rather than anything resembling a political debate.

Parking spots at Riverside Middle School were full at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled 7:00 p.m. start time, and it was a tall task to spot an empty seat in the auditorium when Rep. Amo started off remarks following a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance by local Boy and Girl Scout troops.

“In the last 72, 73 days — I lose count — we have seen a wide range of attacks on our values. And I’m going to underscore that word ‘value’. There’s a reason why I insisted we start out with the Pledge of Allegiance. Because we love America, and we know the possibilities of this great country,” Amo said. “But we are not living up to them in this moment. We are not.”

Neronha, for his part, mentioned the wide swath of lawsuits that his office — and attorneys general across the country — have filed in the weeks since the Trump Administration took office to “hold the line” against executive orders and funding cuts that have been enacted without Congressional approval, or oversight. His overall message throughout the night was that his office is willing to put up roadblocks to stymie the agenda of Trump and his allies.


“By sidelining the Congress and undermining the courts, the president is trying to reserve power for himself. And that’s a movement towards authoritarianism. And we have no choice but to fight back,” he said. “Donald Trump is not someone that you can, in my view, negotiate with. He is not someone you can reason with. His world view is chaos. And that’s not someone you can negotiate with…We can’t do business with Donald Trump. And so we have to fight.”

A litany of concerns raised
Throughout the event, which went nearly an hour over the originally allotted time, attendees who went to the microphone to ask questions brought up a wide variety of topics that most concerned them, and often applauded Amo and Neronha’s responses to those concerns.

Speakers spoke about the mass firings of federal employees, people being detained by ICE agents and held without due process, environmental concerns, the proposed SAVE Act (which would require extensive documentation in order for people to register to vote or change their political affiliation), and the activities of the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) and its impact on agencies and nonprofits helping the most vulnerable throughout the country.

“These individuals are struggling,” said Linda Loxley, who worked for 20 years as a case manager at a senior center in Providence. “I go to visit them and they are so afraid because they are so afraid of losing everything. They are so afraid of even making any kind of waves because someone might take their Social Security check away from them…I hear that you’re talking about protecting us, but these people are petrified. And sometimes we need a little more than just talk. We need a little bit more interaction with the communities that are impoverished and struggling and maybe aren’t educated or have the gumption to come to something like this.”

But the most impassioned plea of the night came courtesy of Al Soares, a 74-year-old lifelong resident of East Providence who currently resides at the Winslow Gardens assisted living facility.

Utilizing a walker, he spoke about how he has a schedule full of doctor appointments, and lives on $120 a month for himself after all his bills are paid. His fear was the possibility that Republicans are sizing up the possibility of including cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, or a combination of those in their budget proposal.


“If they take away my Medicare you know where I end up? In the street,” Soares said. “Don’t forget people like me. And there’s many more. I speak for a ton of people in that facility. Some of them are in worst condition than I’m in. And every day we watch the TV and we wonder what this nutcase is going to do next. And it seems like it just gets worse and worse, and he wants to scare us. I’m 74 years old. I couldn’t fight for myself. If you push me I'll end up on the floor. I don’t have that kind of thing anymore. What I do have is the hope that you will fight for me.”

Amo takes heat for Israel support
The only moment of real friction that either official faced all evening was directed at Amo, from an attendee named Dani Calife (we apologize if that spelling is incorrect, we could not verify spelling because the speaker departed shortly after giving their question), a first-generation American of Palestinian descent who said they were living in the country on a green card.

“We disagree on many things. On the genocide that is unfolding. You agreed to continue to send weapons. Continue to send funding to a regime that is engaging in that. You have chosen to attend Mr. Netanyahu — the convicted war criminal’s — speech and give him a standing ovation. And you continue to be silent about Mr. Mahmoud Khalil, who has now been one month held in an ICE detention facility unlawfully,” Calife said. “You mention that you’re here to stand up and fight for our rights. I am afraid to go and leave the house to drop my kid off at daycare, because I don’t know if I am going to be targeted in the same way. I am afraid to go to sleep at night because I don’t know if agents will show up at my door.”

Amo tried to respond to Calife’s assertions but was cut off multiple times by the agitated speaker, who continued to thrust more questions and insinuate that Amo was not being truthful. Ultimately, Calife left the auditorium with a small contingent of the audience applauding their line of questioning.

Amo said that part of his job was to show respect to people he found personally unfavorable.

“Part of the mission is showing up, even when it is not what you want to hear. And that gives me the power to say ‘I was in that room. And I know what I’m working against.’ That is my belief,” he said. “So I stand, as one would, when a world leader comes into the room. That’s what I do because that is the respect for the body that I am in. This is bigger than me.”


Amo further defended his record of voting in favor of humanitarian aid for Palestinians, and declared he did not have the power to end the Israel/Palestine conflict on his own accord.

“I have long wanted an end to this conflict. I have been one of the leading champions in the Congress on humanitarian aid over and over and over again,” he said. “Is it perfect? No. Do I have the agency to end this with the snap of a finger? No. You all know civics well enough to know that is not the case.”

‘What do we do?’
The underlying theme of the night for attendees that asked questions was a desire to know what they could do, if anything, about events happening at the federal level that unnerved and frightened them.

While Amo laid out three suggestions, including to be more vocal in online spaces to combat conspiracy theories and “misinformation” espoused by those who support initiatives coming from the Trump Administration, Neronha opted to implore people to not give up.

“What the president relies on is complacency and a sense of giving up. We’ve got to maintain the fire until we can move the electoral needle. And we can’t lose the fire,” he said. “And how you express your fire, whether you go to one of the protests, whether you talk about it in the coffee shop, don’t be afraid to share that you’re afraid for our democracy, and for these children.”