From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly’s suburbs do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know!
Congress is in recess, but constituents in Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District delivered a roadmap for U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean to return to Capitol Hill with fervor.
Residents filled the 563-seat Montco Cultural Center in Blue Bell Thursday night to lambaste President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s actions to reshape the federal government.
“You brought tears to my eyes to see you in line tonight,” Dean told the crowd. “This is a test of our democracy.”
Dean’s town hall came amidst a tariff-fueled trade war, the Trump administration’s campaign against higher education, the wrongful deportation of a Maryland man and DOGE’s massive cuts to federal programs.
She said Trump is “worthy of impeachment.”
“Lies told in the Oval Office are beyond the pale and that’s why you’re here tonight and that’s what energizes me,” Dean said. “We can never be satisfied with that. We must continue to speak the truth — cut through the chaos, call out the corruption, the misinformation and the lies.”
The town hall in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, held by U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Kenny Cooper/WHYY)
Montco residents worry about martial law, Fetterman response
Dean said the Trump administration’s actions in the past 88 days have resulted in “self-inflicted harm to the American people, to our country, to our standing in the world.”
“My concern is, what happens when he declares martial law, when he suspends habeas corpus and says, ‘Midterm elections, we’re in a state of emergency, we’re not going to have them,’” said Len DiSesa, 77, of Dresher.
To a round of applause, DiSesa asked Dean about what she and other Democrats are doing in the House of Representatives to take action and do more to “throw monkey wrenches” into Trump’s agenda to “slow him down.”
Dean replied that she thinks he is “absolutely right on the question of martial law.”
“People text me in a panic: ‘Is it possible he’s going to declare martial law and avoid another election, cancel an election?’ I didn’t used to be like this. He will do anything. Of course, he will,” Dean said. “Will he try to run for a third term and stay in office? Of course he will.”
Dean said the Democrats are using some procedures, but acknowledged it is “not enough,” to block the Trump administration’s actions.
“We have to use every device we possibly can and call upon our Senate colleagues to help us to slow-walk some of this craziness,” she said.
John Lockard, 75, of Dresher, said he’s been writing letters to U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania about Trump’s cabinet picks. Lockard called McCormick a “sheep,” following fellow Republicans. But Lockard questioned Fetterman’s “apathetic” responses as a Democrat.
“It’s almost too hard to remember because it’s so vague,” Lockard said of the response he’s received from Fetterman’s office. “He really doesn’t give direct answers when most of the letters that I sent to him were about votes for department chairs.”
Dean said she didn’t have a good answer, however, she told the crowd that she left Fetterman a voicemail expressing her thoughts after several of those votes.