As the rain poured, protesters and horns roared.
Outside of Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick’s Langhorne office, about 1,800 protesters gathered on a rainy Saturday at noon as part of No Kings Day, a “nationwide day of defiance” to rally against the authoritarianism of the Trump administration. Cars driving down the Newtown Bypass took part by incessantly honking.
In the recent months, Fitzpatrick has received substantial pressure from Bucks County constituents to distance himself from Trump’s policies, as he claims he is a moderate Republican. However, Fitzpatrick – time and again – has mostly toed the party line. In fact, his singular vote helped pass (215-214) the Trump-backed Big Beautiful Bill, which looks to cut about $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP. He also voted for the ‘Gulf of America Act’ to support the Trump administration’s efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Nancy Culleton, from Langhorne Borough, said Fitzpatrick “hides” and never shows up to speak with his constituents, calling him a “Trump apologist.”
“He just rolls over and plays dead like all the rest of the Republicans in Congress,” Culleton said. “I could have been in Philadelphia today, but I decided to come here because I think the most important thing locally is to keep the pressure on him and to let him know that we’re not going to put up with it anymore.”
Part of the protest were four Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, whose mother house was formerly in Yardley, but who now live in Philadelphia. They belong to Network, a lobby for Catholic social justice.
Sister Mary Salvadore said she is interested in keeping democracy, education, and healthcare. Salvadore said she also wants to see voting rights continued for all people and citizens of the U.S., yet sees them being threatened by the Trump administration.
“We’re all children of God and our religion teaches that everybody has the same rights as far as politics and as human beings,” Salvadore said. “I think this administration is not promoting the freedom that everybody deserves as far as politics or religion or anything else.”
With experience working in food pantries, Sister Sheila Stone is concerned with the status of SNAP, with the cuts nearly amounting to $300 billion through 2034 in the house-passed bill. With Medicaid also being diminished, Stone is concerned that nursing homes will have to close because 63 percent of nursing home residents are on Medicaid.
“Somebody here has a sign that says Jesus was an immigrant,” Stone said. “Just about everything the current administration is doing is not for the good of the people. It’s for the good of the wealthy, not the middle class or the common people.”
Riley Lowe, a rising sophomore at Council Rock North High School, said she thinks it’s important for young people to protest the Trump administration to show “[they] are not silent.”
“As much as people think we fit into these stereotypes of being too woke or too accepting of everything, we need to show that we just want human rights,” Lowe said. “No matter where you come from, we’re all human. We all bleed red and we all have the same skin. We all have the same bones and we all have the same heart.”
A frequenter at Fitzpatrick’s office, Judy Kleen, from Newtown, has visited to speak out in support of social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Though Kleen has filled out forms in person along with leaving messages on the office voicemail, she said nobody usually gets back to her. Kleen is concerned about the numerous actions the Trump administration has already taken within months of being in office.
“Why have we stopped things like Head Start? Why have we stopped the AmeriCorps? Why have we laid off all the USAID workers?” Kleen asked. “And why are we stopping cancer research? And why are we eliminating vaccine expertise? And why are we trying to close down Harvard?”
Holding an American flag upside down near the road, Nana Courtney-Bacher from Newtown said the U.S. is a “state of distress,” but advocacy still starts locally.
“The people in Philadelphia, the people in New York, the people in L.A. – they’re representing their city, and we’re going to represent Newtown at Fitzpatrick’s office,” Courtney-Bacher said.
Danny Ceisler, Democratic candidate for Bucks County Sheriff, traversed the wet grass with a megaphone.
Speaking to the Beacon, he said the county sheriff Fred Harran’s ICE partnership is a terrible idea for Bucks County because it distracts deputies given the fact there are thousands of outstanding warrants, it’s taking taxpayer dollars away from public safety missions, and it torches the relationship between the immigrant community who we rely on to report crime and to local law enforcement.
“Fred Harran is executing Donald Trump’s immigration policies here in Bucks County,” Ceisler said.
Siblings Sam, Ben, and Emily Duckworth, from Newtown, said Fitzpatrick’s voting record does not match up to his claims that he is a moderate Republican.
On a national level, Trump’s actions towards Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy concerned the Duckworth’s, whose grandmother was a refugee from Ukraine.
“We grew up with our grandmother and our grandfather who always were very insistent that Ukraine was its own country and that Ukraine needs to be free, and now we see our government acting against that,” Sam Duckworth said. “We’re also here for them today.”
Dissatisfaction with Fitzpatrick’s appeasement of the Trump administration was a common sentiment, and Pam and John Newitt of Yardley added to the cause for concern.
“The people here are not happy with the current federal government administration and Fitzpatrick acts like nothing bad is happening when in fact he really needs to act,” John Newitt said. “I want him to push back against the policies of the Trump administration that are affecting the residents here.”
Rich Clikeman of Doylestown concurred.
“We want to tell Brian Fitzpatrick there is no such thing as a moderate fascist. He claims to be a moderate, which he is not,” Clikeman said. “Trump wants to end democracy tomorrow if he can–today if he can.”
Eileen Cleary, from Holland, has some hope that Fitzpatrick will eventually “do the right thing,” despite what she sees as the Trump administration taking away civil rights, defying the courts and law, and people being deported without due process. However, she is still “very concerned” that Republicans in Congress are reluctant to dissent from Trump.
“We’re losing the legislative branch of our tripartite system. They’re just being silent during all of this, and that’s very scary,” Cleary said. “Ben Franklin said, ‘a republic if you can keep it,’ and we the people intend to keep it.”
