For all ways that D.C. citizens and politicians have tried to thumb their nose at House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz, they just don’t have the same power over the congressmen as the Utahns he represents.

And if Thursday night’s town hall meeting is any indication, Chaffetz’s constituents are none too pleased with him.

He was greeted with shouts and boos from the voters who made it into the thousand-seat Brighton High School’s auditorium in Cottonwood Heights. Thousands more turned up but were not permitted inside, prompting a chant of “Let them in!” directed towards the fire marshal. At least 20 seats in the auditorium were empty, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Chaffetz’s micromanaging of D.C. affairs didn’t get much of a mention once the town hall began. There weren’t complaints about his attempts to block D.C.’s Death With Dignity bill from becoming law, or explore retroceding parts of the District to Maryland, or his threats to jail our mayor for implementing weed legalization.

The crowd did, however, want the head of oversight in the House to investigate President Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest with some (any?) of the zeal he promised for a would-be President Hillary Clinton.

“You’re really not going to like this part,” Chaffetz reponded as the audience booed.“The president, under the law, is exempt from the conflict-of-interest laws.”

The crowd erupted in multiple chants of “Do your job!”

Earlier in the day, he co-authored a letter with House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings over White House senior adviser Kelly Conway’s “free commercial” for Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, which he called “wrong, wrong, wrong.”

Members of the audience also questioned him about his ideas for the Bureau of Land Management and his co-sponsoring a bill to get rid of the Department of Education.

A young girl asked Chaffetz about his plans to protect the environment, The Huffington Post reports. “Do you believe in science? Because I do,” she told him as the crowd cheered.

“I don’t pretend to have all the answers,” he said in response.

For much of the 75 minute town hall, it was tough to hear Chaffetz over the boos and jeers.

Chaffetz left 40 mins before scheduled, prompting comparisons between his marathon Benghazi hearings for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In 2016, Chaffetz won his district with more than 73 percent of the vote. He already has a Republican primary challenger, Damian Kidd, who pointed out the hypocrisy in a Utah congressman meddling in another jurisdiction’s local affairs.

Filed Under: jason chaffetz, meanwhile in utah, meanwhile on capitol hill, meddling, statehood,