At town hall in Glen Allen, Warner addresses citizen concerns about Trump administration

U.S. Senator Mark Warner addressed citizen concerns about the impact of the Trump administration at a town hall event in Henrico June 21. 

The event, hosted by the Henrico Democrats and held at Glen Allen High School, also included U.S. Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan and Virginia State Senators Schuyler VanValkenburg and Ghazala Hashmi and covered a wide range of points including government cuts, immigration and mobilizing the Democratic Party. 

Some speakers described what they said were negative impacts of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or what Warner called the “department of inefficiency.”

One attendee, a federal contractor from Richmond City, said he lost more than half of his federal team because of DOGE cuts. And about half of the audience knew someone terminated by DOGE. 

“This administration treats everyone that does that [public servants] like they’re chopped. I think that is wrong, I think we have to push back,” Warner said. 

Warner told the partisan crowd that he was committed to protecting public servants and returning to a time when serving federally was a “noble endeavor.” Across Virginia, Warner has worked to dispute terminations. 

A Henrico County woman said she was a recently terminated probationary employee. 

 “It is complete stupidity to fire the federal employees that are new,” Warner said. 

Hiring a new federal employee costs hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money, he said. To support citizens affected by DOGE, Warner told the audience that he needs people to tell their stories so that he can file lawsuits. 

Warner’s litigation task force also fighting unlawful detainments and deportations of undocumented immigrants. 

A woman who said she is a healthcare attorney in Glen Allen said she has seen unmarked Department of Homeland Security vehicles outside of the courthouse. She knows of multiple cases in Chesterfield County during which clients have disappeared before their hearings. 

“What actions do you intend to take to protect your constituents while they’re attending court hearings lawfully?” she asked Warner. 

Warner has worked his way into the community through faith-based organizations, he said, and has paired up 15 churches and 55 pastors to prepare a “kit” for immigrants in need of safe havens. Documented or undocumented, Warner believes that the government needs to enforce due process. 

“As a country, our secret sauce is you come to this country no matter where you were born and you take an oath to the country, the Constitution,” Warner said. “You’re American then. And we’ve seen the benefits of that, particularly in Virginia.”

Another speaker said she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer 10 years ago. It occurs in about 500 to 1,000 people a year, and when she was diagnosed, there were no available chemotherapy options.

She’s now terrified of the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Institute of Health funding. No one, she said, is going to want to do research on a rare form of cancer with a limited budget. 

“I have five-year-old grandchildren. I want them to remember me,” she said. “I want to be alive long enough so that they have memories of me, not just pictures.” 

The cuts to NIH funding are not just impacting people like her but are driving researchers away from America, Warner said. Countries like China are offering incentives to research new technologies. 

“Many of these industries, pharma included, are afraid to speak up,” Warner said. “We are going to need folks to raise their voice.” 

And universities need to get “off their duff,” he said. If industries keep kneeling down to Trump and his administration, he said, nothing is going to get done. 

Many speakers criticized the current Democratic Party and what they termed its lack of appropriate action to fight the Trump administration. 

The room was filled with middle-age and older citizens. And Warner pleaded to young voters to get out and make their voices heard. But schoolboard member Alicia Atkins said that younger people can’t get involved in their future when they’re dying in their present. 

Atkins’ nephew was shot five times in the back on March 25. Every month since then, she’s lost at least two young people she knew. 

“I will not give up inspiring our younger people,” she said. “However, the Democratic Party needs to recognize the weights that are on our young people’s shoulders.”

Warner acknowledged his age but also described his forms of outreach to young voters. He called out to the party to leverage social media and other newer forms of outreach, because people just aren’t reading the news, he said. 

But social media isn’t the only way citizens can fight Trump, he said. Democrats need to take back the flag and take back patriotism. And they need to start having conversations with people who disagree because that’s the only way things will get done before the country implodes. 

“Please keep the faith. We will find the way to get through this,” Warner said. “Donald Trump will not destroy America.”