Rep. Jason Chaffetz is known for being like a dog with a bone, a reputation he earned by relentlessly pursuing an investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's role in responding to the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

This reputation resulted in the conservative Utah congressman -- the chairman of the House Oversight Committee that's charged with investigating waste and corruption in the federal government -- facing a large, hostile crowd at a town-hall meeting Thursday in his home district.

"Do your job!" people yelled at him, angered that so far he is sitting on his hands as questions swirl about President Donald Trump's various conflicts of interest and possible contravention of the Constitution's emoluments clause.

Chaffetz's reception was particularly striking considering that his district is one of the most conservative and reliably Republican in the country. Utah voted for Trump even though popular Utahan Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, called him a "fake" and a "con man" during the campaign.

With a flurry of executive orders and his trademark bravado, Trump is off to a fast start as president, but it's also a rocky one. Right after Trump took office, millions of Americans around the country marched to protest the ascension of a man they consider sexist, racist and dangerously ignorant. Trump offered no olive branch, instead plowing forward with a divisive agenda.

As a result of this unusual new presidency, 57 percent of Americans believe the rest of the world views the U.S. unfavorably, according to a Gallup poll taken the first week of February. Americans haven't thought their world standing was this poor since 2007, when the U.S. was mired in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Only 29 percent of the poll's respondents say world leaders respect Trump.

And so even some conservative Republicans in Utah apparently want the president reined in and investigated. When Chaffetz said Trump wasn't "required by law" to release his tax returns, the crowd at Brighton High School Thursday erupted in anger, shouting him down.

A longtime teacher, comparing the president to problem children she faced in class, asked Chaffetz to define what behavior from Trump would be too much. "For the president of the United States the consequence is impeachment. ... What is your line in the sand?" she asked. The question elicited raucous cheers from the audience.

At rowdy town hall, ex-teacher asks Chaffetz -- chair of House oversight -- "what's your line in the sand" for Trump? pic.twitter.com/8U7IkpZtsS

Chaffetz himself didn't receive any cheers. He "was met by frequent, deafening boos," The Associated Press reported. He repeatedly had to withstand angry interruptions to his answers, pleading, "Give me a second."

He also gave little ground, showcasing the Republican Congress' willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with their controversial new president. He insisted Trump's executive order banning U.S.-bound travel from seven Muslim-majority countries targeted "the right countries." On Thursday, an appeals court refused to lift a federal judge's suspension of that controversial travel ban. The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to take up the case.

Chaffetz also waved away questions about the emoluments clause.

"You're really not going to like this part," he told one constituent. "The President, under the law, is exempt from the conflict-of-interest laws."

Chaffetz was right: his questioner didn't like it, and neither did many others in the audience. More jeers and boos rained down on the congressman, followed by a persistent chant, "Do your job!"

-- Douglas Perry

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