Keeping up with WV2's Representative Riley Moore

A fake town hall, Patrick Buchanan, and Chinese students

The Wheeling Alternative

Sorry, Riley, but limiting attendance to Koch followers doesn’t turn a gathering into a townhall

While serving as my congressional representative, David McKinley, never held an in-person town hall. (This, despite my many posts asking him to do so!) In the last few years of his tenure, however, McKinley did have telephone get-togethers with constituents. So did his replacement, Alex Mooney. But in the first eight months in office, WV2’s new representative, Riley Moore, has not held any town hall with his constituents.

Recently, however, Moore did participate in what he calls a “tele town hall”:

As readers of this blog are probably aware, I’d love to ask Moore a few questions – but I wasn’t invited to his get-together. Why not? Reporter Henry Culvyhouse in Mountain State Spotlight offers the obvious explanation:

Moore posted this week on the social platform X that he participated in a “tele town hall” about the Big Beautiful Bill on Aug. 19, hosted by the West Virginia chapter of Americans for Prosperity.
But unless you had one of the 150,000 phone numbers the conservative political advocacy group, founded by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, said they dialed that evening, you wouldn’t have been able to participate.

Moore’s office didn’t answer questions about why he hasn’t held an in-person town hall or participated in one that isn’t backed by a special interest group.

(By the way, Culvyhouse also documents how Senator’s Justice and Capito have also avoided any meetings with constituents.*)

Moore: Give the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Patrick Buchanan who has been “right about everything”

Last week from Moore:

Sorry readers, life is too short to document all of Buchanan’s antisemitism, nativism, and racism. (If you’re interested, I’d suggest combining “Patrick Buchanan” with any of the above in your favorite search engine. This, from the Anti-Defamation League, might be a good starting point.)

For Moore, sycophancy must be its own reward

This spring, Representative Moore was the primary sponsor on a bill that would eliminate student visas for the 300,000 Chinese students who study in the United States:

At the time, Moore’s legislation prompted considerable media attention in the form of news articles, opinion pieces, and appearances on Fox News. But then in June, Trump killed Riley’s legislation with his Chinese tariff negotiations. Adding further insult to that injury, Trump has now literally double-downed by raising the number of Chinese students to 600,000:

What is Moore’s reaction to this? Is Riley okay with Trump’s total abandonment of his legislation? Is he okay with the doubling of the number of Chinese students that will be in the United States? (Does he think that the crimes supposedly committed by the Chinese will double?) Despite all of Moore’s efforts on behalf of his legislation, I can find no reaction from him on Trump’s action.

Yes, it would be helpful if Moore would hold a real town hall with unscreened questions or, at the least, a media press conference. I doubt that either will happen.

*To my knowledge, Capito (in 10+ years as senator) has never held a town hall. As for Senator Justice:

Like this article?

August 27, 2025

Subscribe to this blog

Share this article with friends

Posted in: jim justiceriley mooreshelley moore capitotown hall meetings

© 2025 The Wheeling Alternative

comments powered by Disqus

This update link alerts you to new Silvrback admin blog posts. A green bubble beside the link indicates a new post. Click the link to the admin blog and the bubble disappears.

Got It!