On Monday night (10/06/25), our local NY District 19 Congressman Josh Riley held a town hall at SUNY Sullivan that was also being live-streamed on the congressman’s official Instagram and Facebook pages. When a woman tried to speak during the Q&A session of the town hall, intending to ask about his support of the genocide and refusal to sign the Block the Bombs Bill, Josh Riley refused to let her be heard. He continuously talked over her with his microphone and chaos quickly ensued, with several audience members being escorted out by police officers. 

The livestream video of this portion of the town hall was immediately pulled off the internet, but fortunately, an audience member captured video of the moment on a cellphone. See what really happened at our local town hall and how our representative actually interacts with his constituents. Swipe to the third slide on this Instagram post: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPfhuAqANLh/?img_index=2&igsh=MXQxMTRid2ZqNGczNg==

What does it mean when our local representative holds a town hall and refuses to let us speak? And then he tries to hide the truth by taking down the livestream? We cannot let politicians get away with this deception. Don’t be afraid to speak up, document and share what’s going on around us. Knowledge and acts of resistance are our power.

Kathy Morawski
Town of Fremont, NY

[The River Reporter's coverage of the event can be found here: https://riverreporter.com/stories/gaza-community-needs-discussed-at-riley-town-hall,221966]

Edited to add a link to the River Reporter's article about the event.