What did John McGuire do this week? 4/5/25
Plus: A short report from the Charlottesville Hands Off protest.
According to his social posts and office newsletter, Rep. McGuire:
Wished you
Happy Liberation Day
Did not wish you
Happy Higher Taxes Day
Or recognize the Orwellian overtones of
Raising your taxes and calling it liberation
Met with
the Virginia Loggers Association
EMT responders
the Piedmont Housing Collective from Charlottesville and the Better Housing Coalition from Richmond
the National Apartment Association
the Central Republican Women at the Red White and Boots event in Rustberg
Didn’t meet with
any of the 15 park rangers fired from Shenandoah National Park because of DOGE
constituents at any of the 109 schools in his district that will lose millions of dollars if the Department of Education closes
any of the 10,000 federal workers in VA-5 who stand to lose their jobs because of DOGE
any of the 180,000 constituents whose Medicaid is at risk because of Republican budget cuts
Mocked the Department of Defense for
spending $100 million on unspecified DEI training
Mocked no one for
exposing U.S. troops to risk by discussing battle plans on Signal
doing so from a mobile phone while in Moscow
Shared a propaganda film
on guarding U.S. borders that features armed soldiers, barbed wire, techno, and that font from 1990s Tom Clancy movies
Posted selfies with
Blamed Biden for
the deaths of FBI agents due to wokeness
allowing China to launch cyber attacks against the U.S.
preventing tech companies and government agencies from sharing information on cyber attacks
Did not blame Trump for
shrinking an early-warning system that allows tech companies and government agencies to share information on cyber attacks
firing the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command
eliminating “nearly all of the government’s election-related cyberdefenses”
making it harder to forecast tornadoes
The John McGuire Town Hall Timer
Days since his last town hall: 38
Scenes from today’s Hands Off protest
I spent an hour at the Hands Off protest in Charlottesville this afternoon. A huge crowd of people lined Seminole Trail carrying signs and chanting—mostly the “hey hey / ho ho…” variety.
Many of the signs hit familiar themes. Some called for jailing Trump or Musk. Others urged us to say no to totalitarianism. I was surprised by the number of signs featuring penguins. I stopped a woman carrying a picture of a penguin armed with a machete and ready to storm the barricades. Apparently we’ve levied a big import tariff on an island populated only by the flightless birds. Liberation Day indeed.
My sign just had the words “John McGuire” on one side and “Does Not Care” on the other (along with my URL—I couldn’t resist a little self-promotion). One woman stopped me, having seen just the McGuire side, and was relieved when she saw the other. She thought I was stumping for him.
If I had been, it would’ve been a lonely job. The very few counterprotestors were outnumbered. Maybe half a dozen carfuls came by and had unkind suggestions about where we could stuff our protest. A guy drove up in pickup carrying a big Trump sign—“Who let the DOGE out?”—sat a few minutes, and then went off with a one-finger salute for us.
One guy in a Marines T-shirt saw my sign and asked, “What does John McGuire not care about?” I started down the list: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, fund for low-income schools, a million kids dying because we won’t vaccinate them. He wasn’t buying it, though he seemed open to some discussion. But before we could get anywhere, somebody stepped in to call him a disgrace to the uniform. I moved on.
Orwellian Overtones FTW!