Congressman calls for removal of President in college town hall

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Isaac Norman

Congressman Mark DeSaulnier replies to questions in the packed out cafeteria.

Summer Pagán, Social media editor

Democratic Congressman Mark DeSaulnier addressed concerns about social issues during a college town hall in the Diablo Valley College cafeteria on Aug. 24.

During the town hall, DeSaulnier responded to various crowd questions and comments.

From trying to find a way to lower tuition fees to defending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students and promoting civic engagement, DeSaulnier tried to find solutions for the current state of the country.

Not only were public questions answered, but so were questions from Twitter.

“Is there any chance we can see a considerable drop in tuition fees for UCs and CSUs in the near future? There were also talks of potentially looking into free college in the last election. Is there any chance that could happen?” DVC student Usmaan Alloo asked through Twitter.

“The way to answer that is to make education accessible for everyone who wants it, and not put obstacles into it,” DeSaulnier responded. “We have to make community colleges, CSUs and UCs as affordable as possible, and the way to do that is to find money that subsidizes that. At some point you have to answer the question, where are you going to get the money to do it, and I think you do that in the large part by changing the tax code.”

DeSaulnier put a lot of his focus towards the issues that college communities face, and tried to stay relevant for students in attendance.

“What will you do to defend DACA students?” DVC professor Frank Ortega asked in response to ten state attorney generals and the Trump administration trying to end the program.

After saying he will do everything he can to protect the DACA program, DeSaulnier encouraged the crowd to send him suggestions and bill ideas that will help defend the students.

The congressman said that he believes that public engagement, including voting, is necessary to protect free speech.

“Protecting free speech means you have to allow people to disagree with you,” DeSaulnier said.

With that in mind, DeSaulnier also expressed his disagreements with the President. “As for Donald Trump, I have said and will say it again, I will do anything legally possible to remove him from office.”

“He’s the most dangerous person in the United States because of the position he has, and his lack of emotional and mental capacity to be in that position,” he said.