At McCullough Library in Evansville, a few attendees to an informal gathering for the Virtual Town Hall are on hold, waiting in the hallway for a chance to ask Congressman Mark Messmer a question.
A gathering called "Unmuting the 8th District," was held during Messmer’s Virtual Town Hall this Tuesday.
Laura Brown waits, her phone pressed to her ear, as others listen to the ongoing call in the meeting room. She would like Messmer to sign a petition agreeing he won’t send any district residents to a foreign prison.
“We'd like him to commit to that,” she said. “We were asking him to publicly commit to that, and he doesn't want to answer that.”
She said the petition has more than 600 signatures so far. The petition is in response to the suggestion that President Trump could form an agreement shipping US citizens to a prison in El Salvador.
Tom Zeta wishes he could ask Messmer for clarification on the “Waste Fraud and Abuse” federal cost-cutting agency Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has found.
“I just would like to know who's defining what waste fraud and abuse is,” Zeta said.
This gathering was organized by Wendy Bredhold. She also promoted a protest this spring outside Messmer’s office. The overall frustration in part, is with Messmer’s lack of response to questions over Trump administration policies, and a lack of a public meeting.
This virtual format didn’t do much to assuage concerns, like when he doubled down on the “Gulf of America” renaming effort.
“‘The Gulf of America’ just makes more sense,” Messmer said in the call. “And it sounds better too,” said the moderator after his response.
Bredhold said the screening system for the calls was complicated, and made crafting a public gathering difficult.
“We actually prepared a sheet where we told people exactly what to do, and if that didn't work, they should try to call this number," she said. "Trying to figure out how to shed some light on this event and make it transparent for a group was very challenging, given that that was not at all the intent that it be — public.”
Of the 30 in attendance, about nine were able to at least offer a question to the Congressman’s staff but none were selected to be used in the call.
The format was more like a live call-in show than a town hall, and there was no follow-up, Bredhold said.
“Once he answered a question or read his answer, whatever the case may be, he was done. There was no opportunity for follow up, like people were silenced after.”
In the first 30 minutes more challenging questions were allowed through. One caller pushed back on Messmer about Trump tariffs. One attendee was surprised that two Jasper residents also pushed back on Messmer.
But after this, comments were mostly agreeing with Messmer's stances — such as being anti-abortion.
Another checked on progress to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, or checking on how Messmer can make the DODGE cuts permanent.
“Mark Messner is one of the best at economic development that we've had in a long time,” said one caller. “I just wanted to thank him for his support of the Spencer County Music Fest coming up … Kudos mark. That's all I have to say. You're doing a great job.”
To Bredhold and some other attendees, the calls and responses seemed scripted and answers pre-written.
"That was extremely frustrating," she said after the call ended. "I'm really mad. I don't know about you, but I'm really frustrated."
They took time afterward to express their frustration and disappointment and talk about their concerns. They discussed the incident where his chief of staff reportedly asked the police be called on a gathering at a mobile office hours event.
Bredhold said she’d be compiling the concerns and making them available to Messmer’s office.
Messmer’s office didn’t respond to requests for information about the session — such as, the number of callers registered, how were questions chosen and how can declined questions still be answered.
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