GEOFF BENNETT: While Republicans currently control both chambers of Congress, they have been losing control of many of their events back home.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa Desjardins attended one of the only town halls held by a Republican member during this congressional recess, catching up with him and the constituents seeking to give him an earful.

LISA DESJARDINS: The line is long at Columbus High School in Eastern Nebraska, and it is also unusual.

REP. MIKE FLOOD (R-NE): Is your cousin coming tonight?

LISA DESJARDINS: Republican Congressman Mike Flood is greeting people at his town hall one by one.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: You can write down questions.

You can stand up.

LISA DESJARDINS: There is no organized protest, but in this deep-red congressional district, those here have deep-seated concern about President Trump and Elon Musk.

STEVEN MOORE, Lincoln Resident: So are we going to sit on the couch and let these billionaires control the country?

Hell no.

We are the poor people.

We're a red state.

JENNY LABOY, North Bend Resident: I'm really sad and petrified.

I almost kind of want to cry.

It just I don't see any hope.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hi.

One by one, we asked, and confirmed, people are from here.

Where are you from?

MAN: Columbus.

LISA DESJARDINS: Columbus.

Contrary to some Republican claims that outside groups come to disrupt.

You're from the congressional district?

All of you are from the congressional district?

Has anyone been paid to be here?

CROWD: No.

LISA DESJARDINS: No one.

OK. MAN: I'm actually taking work off to be here.

I'm losing money to be here.

MAN: Same here.

(LAUGHTER) LISA DESJARDINS: All this after raucous, sharply critical town halls across the country in past weeks.

GOP leaders in Washington suggested that members stop holding them, making this one even more of a statement.

JOHN THOMAS, North Bend Resident: We are the boss, not the president.

We are their constituents.

You don't have to follow all of us, but we have to have a voice.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: I know some of you in this room are angry.

I know some of you in this room... (APPLAUSE) LISA DESJARDINS: Inside, Flood starts by acknowledging those voices.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: I want you to feel comfortable telling me what you want me to know.

LISA DESJARDINS: And they most certainly do, on Trump's slices to research.

WOMAN: I have a 20-year-old daughter and I lost a sister to breast cancer.

LISA DESJARDINS: On coming cuts to the Veterans Administration.

WOMAN: I want to hear your comments on providing our veterans with the services that they have earned and that they deserve.

Thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: And slashes under way to federal workers.

WOMAN: I have not seen any Republicans stand up for the hardworking federal work force.

(CHEERING) LISA DESJARDINS: Flood stands his conservative ground.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: I get it.

There's a lot of people in this room that don't support what DOGE is doing, but for the first time, we are making some progress identifying places that we can reduce the budget.

(BOOING) REP. MIKE FLOOD: And this is something we have to do as a country, as a nation.

This doesn't go away unless we deal with the spending.

(BOOING) LISA DESJARDINS: Frustration rises.

WOMAN: Lies!

LISA DESJARDINS: And, for some, so does the shouting.

MAN: Raise the cap, Mike!

(BOOING) LISA DESJARDINS: Within the crowd... WOMAN: Our taxes!

LISA DESJARDINS: ... discomfort at the tone sits side by side with anger and attempts to quell it.

(BOOING) MAN: Please be quiet and let him talk.

I don't like him either.

LISA DESJARDINS: Those we speak with identify mostly as Democrats or independents drawn by their concerns and disagreements with Trump's actions.

They do find some things to applaud, like on Ukraine.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: I do not feel like Ukraine should have to give up any land to Russia.

LISA DESJARDINS: Throughout, a cry for accountability, leading to one of the most heated moments of the night, sparked by 21-year-old University of Nebraska student Jackson Hatcher.

JACKSON HATCHER, College Student: Why is Elon Musk a better person to audit our government for waste, fraud, and abuse than the inspectors general that Donald Trump fired?

REP. MIKE FLOOD: I support Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.

JACKSON HATCHER: That didn't sound like someone wanting to answer my question.

I don't think we can count on congressional Republicans to grow a spine and actually fight Elon Musk or stand up for us, because they're too afraid to be primaried by him.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: And I want to thank all of you for coming.

LISA DESJARDINS: Afterward, wildly mixed reactions.

DAN LUTJENS, Columbus Resident: They didn't show this congressman respect, I didn't think, to give him a chance to explain stuff.

They -- it was wild.

JOHN WILD, Lincoln Resident: I don't feel he was here and really listening and taking the input to heart.

He was responding in platitudes.

LISA DESJARDINS: We spoke with Flood.

Why do you think people are so angry?

REP. MIKE FLOOD: Well, because we have competing 24-hour news programs that are... LISA DESJARDINS: But that almost makes it seem like they don't really have those opinions on their own.

You know what I mean?

I think they really -- I think they're really angry.

I don't think they're getting us from anywhere else.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: It doesn't matter, Democrats or Republicans, people don't like change.

People don't like change.

LISA DESJARDINS: Neither Flood nor those listening seemed changed by the town hall.

He says he's planning his next ones now.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins in Columbus, Nebraska.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, tomorrow, we will take a closer look at what Democrats in Congress are hearing from their constituents during this recess week.