Congressman Ryan Mackenzie takes stage, answers questions at CNN town hall

WASHINGTON – Congressman Ryan Mackenzie was among a group of federal lawmakers who sat for a live town hall on CNN Thursday night.

The Republican from the Lehigh Valley took the stage in Washington, D.C., to answer questions from a studio audience. And members didn't hold back on hot-button topics in the national spotlight.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) and Rep. Derek Tran (D-CA) joined Mackenzie in taking questions.

Voters from the four lawmakers' battleground states brought up topics including tariffs, immigration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and vaccines, the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and Elon Musk.

of the night about tariffs. Eric Watson, a Republican from Bath, Northampton County, says his company is increasingly affected by them, and he wanted to know how the representative planned to support businesses like his.

Mackenzie said the Lehigh Valley is fortunate to have a vibrant economy, but he also acknowledged the challenges, as well as his belief for the need to enforce the tariffs.

"We are facing significant trade barriers all around the world," he said, "and so when our automakers try to go out and send their cars overseas, they're facing barriers that are not being faced when foreign companies are shipping their cars into our community. And so we need to adjust that balance."

"And as American industry has been hollowed out for decades because of unfair trade practices from places like China, I think we are actually in a position right now as a country to finally address this challenge," Mackenzie continued.

Meanwhile, Democrat Derek Tran, representing California, immediately followed, saying that while he agrees tariffs can be used for good to balance trade, he disagrees with the way they are being handed out.

"We're seeing tariff use haphazardly, recklessly, and causing our market to free fall," Tran said. "Tariffs on our good neighbors, like Canada and Mexico, where we do so much trade with, will impact the working class families, and we see that now with people's savings, 401Ks just lost, and that's scary and that's dangerous."

Ahead of this event, Mackenzie's team said in a statement that the representative was hoping to "cut through the noise and talk about delivering real, bipartisan solutions for the people."

During the town hall, while the legislators were discussing the bipartisan support of the Laken Riley Act adopted earlier this year, Mackenzie argued more issues should be handled like that one, to show Americans the lawmakers can work together to get things done.