Sanders Defiant After West Virginia Armory Canceled Town Hall
By MATT SHUHAM Published FEBRUARY 13, 2017, 11:32 AM EDT
Sen. Bernie Sanders was defiant in reaction to an abruptly cancelled town hall scheduled to be held Monday morning in West Virginia. The event, which would have been hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and aired on his show, was scheduled to take place at a National Guard armory in Welch, West Virginia. Sanders learned late on Friday that it had been cancelled, the Charleston Gazette-Mail first reported Saturday.
“If anyone in West Virginia government thinks that I will be intimidated from going to McDowell County, West Virginia, to hold a town meeting, they are dead wrong,” Sanders said in a statement emailed to TPM. “If they don't allow us to use the local armory, we'll find another building. If we can't find another building, we'll hold the meeting out in the streets. That town meeting will be held. Poverty in America will be discussed. Solutions will be found.”
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs told the Gazette-Mail on Saturday that the event had been cancelled after “weeks” of planning, including coordinating with the West Virginia National Guard.
In a statement Sunday to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Lawrence Messina, director of communications with the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs & Public Safety, said “once the details of the proposed event were shared with the Adjutant General’s office on Friday afternoon, it became apparent that it would run afoul of DOD and State Armory Board policy" of not hosting political events.
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