US Senator John Cornyn, FBI Team Up To Hunt Texas Democrats
Earlier this week, Texas Democrats fled the state to prevent a vote on a new electoral map that would add five new Republican seats in the state. There have been threats of arrest, expulsion, and now U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R) has called on the FBI to find the fleeing legislators.
According to ABC News, Sen. Cornyn said FBI Director Kash Patel has agreed to provide federal assistance to locate the Texas Democrats who fled the state on Sunday. The Texas Democrats left in order to deny state Republicans the quorum needed to vote on the new map. Texas Republicans began the unusual process of a mid-decade redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump, who wants the GOP to hold onto its narrow House majority during next year's midterms.
'I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas. We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities,' Cornyn said in a news release.
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I'm really getting tired of Republicans talking about 'constitutional responsibilities' when they're trying to disenfranchise people who won't vote for them. Cornyn appeared on The Mark Davis Show on Thursday and said the absence of Texas Democrats is stalling other legislation from going forward, including relief for the devastating floods that hit Texas last month.
'There are a number of things on the call that Gov. Abbott has listed, including redistricting, but they're missing all of those. And I think that's irresponsible, and I think we just need to get to the bottom of it,' Cornyn said. 'They got to come back home sometime … it's not going to be successful. They're not going to be able to ultimately escape their responsibility. It's a stunt.'
While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the special legislative session to address the floods, the state Republicans' first order of business was drafting a gerrymandered map. Putting the lack of flood relief on the Democrats who left the state in protest of a blatantly undemocratic redistricting effort is disingenuous. If flood relief were truly the priority, that would've been the first thing on the docket. It doesn't even seem like it's a priority for Gov. Abbot as no one representing his office attended a committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss flood relief legislation.
Beyond the clear gerrymandering, I simply find it funny how the Republican party is so mad over the Texas Democrats obstructing the process, considering they wrote the rule book on legislative obstruction. Throughout all eight years of Obama's presidency, the Republican Party did everything it could to obstruct his policies from going through.
Heck, they straight up stole a Supreme Court seat in 2016 by refusing to hold a confirmation hearing for Obama's nominee Merrick Garland. They justified this obstruction by arguing it was an election year and voters should decide who fills the vacancy. This energy was nowhere to be found in 2020 when Republicans rushed to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat only 38 days away from the election. Now, when the shoe is on the other foot, it's a rebuke of their 'constitutional responsibilities?'
They can miss me with that.
No matter how this ends, Texas Democrats are setting an example on how the party should handle Republican nonsense nationwide. You don't have to play ball with these people, especially as they're actively warping America into an authoritarian hellscape. Democrats should be obstructing these people as much as and however they can.
SEE ALSO:
Texas Creates 5 New House Seats In Areas Trump Won In 2024
Texas Dems Fight Redistricting Effort Through Filibusters
Texas State Dems Break Quorum To Prevent Redistricting Vote
Critics Call Texas Governor's New Congressional Map Gerrymandering
Gov. Greg Abbott Orders Arrest Of Texas Democrats
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Sues To Remove Democratic Rep In Redistricting Fight
SEE ALSO
US Senator John Cornyn, FBI Team Up To Hunt Texas Democrats was originally published on newsone.com
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