Mike Lawler can’t dance. He is a wind-up toy, playing the tired conservative hits.

Last night, Mike Lawler took the stage at a local high school auditorium for his first live town hall event since the second coming of Trump. And it was not pretty. He started off with an attempt at soft shoe, quickly pivoted to buck-and-wing, and within minutes had ripped off the mask and was going full chorus line with the administration. Defending Pete Hegseth by saying…what about Lloyd Austin? Really?

It might have been well-rehearsed, but not well-received. The reviews today were mostly consistent: “New Yorkers Boo and Jeer GOP’s Lawler at Circus-Like Town Hall” (Bloomberg). “Rough Night for Republican at Town Hall in N.Y. Swing District” (NY Times). “Raucous Crowd Disrupts Lawler Town Hall” (Times Union). “[sound of crickets]” (Fox News).

Fox chose to dismiss the event in advance, with the “scoop” on a “liberal hoax.” Breathlessly reporting that the activist group Indivisible might be organizing a protest outside of the auditorium, handing out suggested questions to attendees in advance. Fox invited Mike Lawler on air to shake his head in tandem with Kayleigh the McEnany and say: “This is all astroturfing and gaslighting, unfortunately.” Oh, those radicals.

Of course, Fox didn’t cover the fact that the event was tightly controlled by Lawler, who published a lengthy set of rules in advance. This was a ticketed event, and proof of residency in the district was required to enter the hall, with plenty of security to monitor behavior. Lawler seems to believe that peaceful protest is “ridiculous and dangerous to democracy.”

As does his dear leader, who was apparently triggered by Lawler’s event, posting shortly after it concluded:

As for the “potentially thousands” of outside radical protestors that Fox projected outside the auditorium, not much to report. There was a peaceful demonstration of less than thousands, and not much to report there. “The demonstration appeared to be mostly broken up by the time the event started.”

Despite the strict controls, Lawler couldn’t mask the genuine frustration of his unpaid constituents in the room. His stage show was everything we’ve come to expect from him. He leads with the bipartisan veneer — the large poster onstage touting his rankings as one of the most effective and bipartisan members of Congress. He has worked hard to earn those ratings, running up his numbers by introducing inconsequential bipartisan bills to provide tax credits for sports equipment, etc. Bills that mostly go nowhere. While handing Congress’s power of the purse and tariffs over to Trump and benefactor Elon to exercise at their unchecked discretion.

The first question of the night: “What specifically are you doing that warrants the label moderate?” Answer: “My record speaks for itself,” followed by citing the creds on his poster, followed by a lecture on Republican tax orthodoxy and the deficit.

There was no true dialogue. When chants of “tax the rich” could no longer be ignored, Lawler’s response was: “Folks…folks…folks. Taxing the rich is not going to close our tax deficit. I hope you realize that. It really will not. It really will not. Let me ask you a question. What…what rate would propose? What rate? What rate? What rate? What rate? What rate? OK.” Gotcha, smirk. The crowd couldn’t articulate a consensus rate while still processing his cynical dismissal of the concept of taxing the rich. So I guess Mike wins that round?

On he goes with the classic Lawler phrase: “The fact is…the fact is…the fact is…” He chants it 3 times while formulating a complete non-answer: “You are not going to be able to close this budget deficit, okay, just through, ah, the issue of taxes.” Not a fact. You theoretically could. But nobody’s really suggesting that. Taxing the rich could be a partial solution, combined with spending cuts. Better than extending the biggest tax cuts in history, combined with the additional hundreds of billions it will cost to enact Lawler’s proposed increase of the SALT deduction. All of which primarily benefit the wealthiest.

As Lawler closed the night and tried to thank his staff over the din of the dispersing crowd, a few voices could be heard calling out in frustration. Lawler chose to single out one particularly emotional and vocal constituent. Telling her she needed to stop, repeating her name over and over, saying “sad, very sad.” Is that phrase familiar? Nothing like an amplified sound system, owning the mic. And who owns the Mike?

The fact is that Mike Lawler is an ambitious hard-core conservative who will do nothing to moderate the extreme and illegal behavior of this administration.

He loves the limelight, whether it’s on a high school stage in Rockland County or in a Fox News studio. Better to reflect the sequins on his chorus line garb.