After angry town hall, McCormick urges caution as Trump pushes cuts at breakneck speed

McCormick’s remarks make him one of the few prominent Georgia Republicans who have called on Trump and his allies to slow their push to fire federal employees en masse and cut government spending.

“I’d rather see us take a deep breath, move a little bit slower and a little bit more deliberately. That’s kind of, generally, the feeling for a lot of people,” he said. “I want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”

McCormick said he doesn’t oppose Trump’s overall strategy. An early supporter of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid, McCormick and every other prominent Georgia Republican have since lined up behind Trump.

“This is a concern. I’m not against anything he’s doing. But I’m concerned. I’m concerned that maybe we’re moving a little bit too fast.”

McCormick’s district, which stretches from the North Atlanta suburbs to the North Georgia mountains, is hardly a hotbed of anti-Trump resistance. He won a second term last year with nearly two-thirds of the vote, and Republicans see it as a safe seat for the decade.

Still, the backlash and McCormick’s response highlight the squeeze on Republicans as Musk’s burn-it-down approach to shrinking the federal government has stirred backlash even from conservative circles.

“Could the federal government be smaller and more efficient? Sure. But the chain saw approach is not the way to achieve it,” said Melanie Eyre, who was among the town hall attendees who groaned and booed throughout the Thursday event.

“The energy I see from Washington is gleeful destruction — no plan, no vision,” she added, warning the wave of federal orders could bring disaster. “If I get in my car, floor it and head toward a brick wall, I’m also moving at high speed, but it won’t end well.”

Other senior Georgia Republicans cheered Trump’s aggressive push to reshape federal government, including the firings of roughly 1,000 employees this month at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a likely candidate for governor, called it the “most successful start to a presidency in history.” Attorney General Chris Carr, who launched his gubernatorial bid last year, said Trump is “doing exactly what he said he would do.”

And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a potential Senate candidate with a history of run-ins with Trump, offered praise for Musk’s DOGE initiative.

“Every elected official in America should start every day remembering that they are stewards of the tax dollars of hardworking Americans,” he said, “and I’m glad we finally have an administration that takes this responsibility seriously.”

McCormick, too, defended the DOGE cuts at last week’s town hall at Roswell City Hall, arguing that many CDC jobs were duplicative and could be replaced by artificial intelligence.

But in the interview Monday, the lawmaker softened his stance, saying lawmakers need more details on the cost-cutting plans.

“I don’t have enough studies to actually know. And I’m not sure the president has enough information to independently move this quickly,” said McCormick.

“He feels this comfortable with it, and the president is obviously very aggressive. So that’s his comfort level. Most of us don’t have the insight or the information to really know how much of an impact that it’s going to have.”