In this episode, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton discusses the political showdown over mid-decade redistricting in Texas, highlighting how Democrats fled the state to block GOP-led maps. Paxton exposes the hypocrisy of Democrat-run states with extreme gerrymandering, addresses the impact of illegal immigration on Texas, and critiques left-wing strategies that undermine election integrity. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we try
to get to the heart of the issues that matter
to you. Today, we're diving into the high stakes battle
over redistricting in Texas with Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's
also running for Senate against Sean Cornyan. As Democrats flee
the state to break quorum and block GP lead maps,
there's been accusations of Jerry mannering and voter suppression that
(00:23):
have been flying. There's data showing some stark disparities in
states and Democrat states like California where Republicans hold forty
percent of the vote but only seventeen percent of the
congressional districts.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Also the states like Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Where thirty five percent of the vote Republicans have gotten
but yet they hold zero seats, zilch, nada. So, needless
to say, the fight over fair represation, well, it's red hot.
You've probably seen in the news. The media has been
covering it. So we'll unpack it today with Attorney General
Ken Paxton. So stay tuned to unpack all of this
on the legal, the political, and the ethical firestorm. Attorney
(01:04):
General Ken Paxton, it's great to have you on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
You're a busy man right now. Texas, Texas is getting
a lot of attention right now, so I know that
you've been busy, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So it is rare to do a you know, mid
decade redistricting, which is what Texas is doing right now.
But like on the jerrymandering front, like if this were
California or Massachusetts or New York, would anyone be talking
about it?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Oh, Massachusetts doesn't have a single Republican congress then not one.
They jerry made it so good that there's a Republican
can't win up there. I think if you go to Illinois,
so these are the states where the Democrats left you.
Illinois has three Republicans out of seventeen fourteen Democrats, and
New York is similar. So these states are all these
(01:57):
democratic states are really well jerry mandered, much better than
we are. We're we're we're almost in line with our representation.
Democrat Republican.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, I mean you look at Massachusetts, so Republicans got
thirty five percent of the statewide vote, yet hold zero
as you mentioned, of the seats out of the nine
congressional seats there. You know, the list kind of goes
on California one forty percent of the statewide vote, holds
seventeen percent out of the seats nine out of fifty two.
You know, New Mexico got forty percent of the statewide
(02:27):
vote hold zero percent of congressional seats. There are the
House seats there, so you know, the list goes on
with the left. I guess what what is because typically
the redistricting has done every decade after the census. I
guess what is the basis for doing it now?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
It's pretty simple. Our state has grown more than any
other state in the country. We've added millions of people,
and so the representation is out of balance. So because
we have more people moving into certain areas and so
some people are overrepresented now some people underrepresented. So it's
not like we're adding new representatives because you only get
those every ten years. However, because of our growth pattern,
(03:03):
we need to reach all the lines so our people
are more fairly represented.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So basically, the Democrats pieced out released I think it's like,
is it still fifty one out of sixty two of
the House Democrats fled.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
That's the state. Yeah, yes, that's my understanding.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, Okay, So basically what they did is they left
to break quorum, more or less so because Texas requires
one hundred of its one hundred and fifty members present
to conduct business, and there's eighty eight Republicans. So these
Democrats fled to places like Illinois and other places in
the country.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Why do you think they did that.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I mean, obviously this is not the first time they've
done that either.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
This is the third time. So I was in the
House in two thousand and three they left, Then they
did it. In twenty twenty one they left, and then
and by the way, in twenty twenty three, we were
trying to redistrict during regular session, and we ended up
going for a regular session in May, started in January.
We were in session till October waiting for them to
(04:05):
come back. Middle of October we finished. So they it's
interesting that they have done this three times, but they
have never left the state for any other issue, any
other controversial issue that they thought they were going to
lose on. They would come in and fight this one.
They don't. They disappear. It's really really interesting, and it
is so interesting to me that the Democrat states that
(04:26):
they're going to I don't. I don't know if they
just don't get it, or there's that much hypocrisy that
those states are so gerimanted, and yet somehow they have
self righteous attitude of what you guys are doing is
so evil and bad, but we're doing it, and it's
just we're doing it. We're doing it much better than you,
so it's okay.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Well, it's also like a little rich for those on
the left to talk about like threats to democracy after
trying to jail President Trump in you know, I guess
four different you know, occasions of four different cases and
me they came after me too, yes, and then kick
them off the ballot in certain states.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So like it is like a little rich.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I think they've stort or you know, light teslas on fire,
or attack ICE agents or uh you know call ICE
the Gestapo and you know, try to encourage uh, you know,
these massive attacks that we've seen on ICE agents. Like
it's a little rich to be lectured about threats to
democracy from them.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Well, especially when they're also they've been the masters at
rigging elections. If you look at the Democratic states, one,
they mostly.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Don't have photo I D, so it's it's much easier
to cheat if there's no photo ID and I know
that because we used to prosecute voter fraud, and so
these states almost invite with mail in ballots and they
invite voter fraud.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So I mean, it's controlled by the left through the vote,
and you have people cheating and no one does anything
about it in these states.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, it's also like they just opened the floodgates to
illegal immigrants. And we've heard from people like Congresswoman Uvet
Clark has said, I think, on a couple of different occasions,
once in an interview at least that I've heard, and
then also before Congress saying that she needs more migrants.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
For redistricting purposes, because we.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Know that that changes the allocation of both electoral college
votes as well as apportionment in the for the electoral
college and for Congress as well for these House seeds.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
So it's like and that, you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Pretty easy to conclude that the whole reason why they
open the southern border is for redistricting purposes and for
you know, power purposes.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I totally agree. And can you imagine if we eliminated
legal immigrants from the census who can't vote or shouldn't vote,
and we also got rid of cherrymandering in these states.
How different Congress would look if it were done the
right way.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
What if you seen in Texas. I want to get
back to the Jerry manoring in a second, but just
since we brought up the immigration aspect, like, how much
has Texas changed since President Trump took over. I mean,
I know we're seeing like record lows that we've never
seen before, but how has that, you know, positively impacted
Texas well?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I mean, it's very illegal. Immigration has a lot of
costs for US. It's very expensive because we have to
educate required by Supreme Court decision to educate everybody, take
care of health care. We have law enforcement costs, we
have social costs, we have welfare costs. It's billions and
billions of dollars. And it also creates risk of crime,
(07:34):
and we've had higher crime rates and people have been killed,
and higher drug crimes and more kids dying of fetanyl
over this. Those are all consequences of the Biden immigration policy,
which was let everybody in will help you get here,
and we'll help you, will help you stay instead of
following federal loss. It has some very dramatic which is
part of the reason I think many of Hispanics in
(07:56):
Texas have moved Republican because they don't like that. They
don't want people coming from across the border from one
hundred and fifty different countries who are higher risk of
crime and who are causing them to have a heart
of life.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It is interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I mean, it's sort of a smart strategy if you
think about it, because you know, they open the floodgates
to millions of illegal immigrants, and then now they're fighting
President Trump's deportation efforts to try to keep these people
in the country. And then if they were to get
another Democrat president in the country like boom, you know,
open borders again. And then you look at the immigration
(08:32):
courts and there's such a backlog. I think it's like
almost like four million people backlog in the immigration court.
So it's kind of like a brilliant strategy if you
think about it.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It is brilliant if you don't care about the consequences
to America. You don't care about the law first of all,
and then you don't care about the negative economic and
social costs of it and how it impacts the America
in a negative way, and knowing full well that for instance,
that children are going to die from vent all over
those is because you let the border, you let border
(09:01):
with control down. So they were willing to sacrifice the
good of Americans for their political purposes. It's kind of
evil to me.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Does it surprise you that they've gone as far as
like with Kilmore Brigo Garcia, who's obviously been accused of
human trafficking, as well as you know, being a part
of MS thirteen, affiliated with MS thirteen, and the whole
host of other concerns. Did it surprise you that they
went to the links of like visiting l Salvador and
(09:30):
like calling him a Marilyn man and sort of like
embracing this man who you know, beat us a wife
and also is allegedly affiliated with MS thirteen.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Even you know, it's hard to say that things surprise
me these days, but that that was what that was
across the line US Senator. I think it's from Connecticut,
Chris van Holler, whatever his name is, going down there
to try to rescue this guy and help this guy
that is truly a criminal, a bad criminal. It's I
think that's really hard for most Americans to accept or
(10:04):
believe is actually happening.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I've got to take a quick commercial break more with
Attorney General Ken Paxton on the other side. If you're
enjoying the episode, please post on social media or share
with your friends.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Did they care about Americans?
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Because it's like I thought this was sort of, you know,
judicated in this past election cycle where Americans were saying,
you know what, like we're not being put first and
you're prioritizing the needs of illegal immigrants. And we saw
concerns and you know a lot of inner cities as well,
with minority communities being really angry at the fact that
their taxpayer dollars were going to legal immigrants as opposed
(10:41):
to them. And so you would think that they would
recognize the connection between Americans, you know, being fed up
with sort of illegal immigrants coming into a country taking
her resources, and then yet Democrats seem to continue to
prioritize their needs over American citizens.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I think they get so excited about the policit benefits
to them that they're willing to sacrifice and almost not
notice the harm. Maybe push it aside. Maybe they do
notice the harm. I mean, it's hard for me to
believe like the Biden administration was not fully aware when
they said no more deportations, that they were going to
get a lot more people, and that the cartels were
(11:19):
going to be very excited about that, and that they
were going to be social costs, really bad social costs.
Some people are going to die. It's hard for me
to believe that they didn't know that, since it's obvious
that that's going to happen, so that if they knew
about it, it's pretty evil. If they didn't know about it,
it's pretty negligent.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
So it kind of gets me back to where we
started in terms of, like what do we do about
some of this? You know, I mean obviously the Democrats
prioritize power over anything, and so it's like, how do
you fight back? And I know you've talked about, you know,
potentially arresting some of the Democrats who left to break decorum.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
You know, what legal authority is there to do that?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And is that happening or can you kind of give
us an update on that aspect of this conversation.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, I mean, there were a couple of possibilities here.
One the speaker, had he thought about or done it,
he could have locked him in when they were here,
because they were here and before the map came onto
the House floor, it came out of committee. They left,
so we could have locked them in well once they left,
we in twenty twenty one, my office went all the
way to Texas Supreme Court and we got into adjudication
(12:25):
or an answer that said, yes, the speaker, if he
puts a call in the House, he can arrest these
people and bring them back. They're not going to prison,
They're being brought back to the Texas House. So that
is perfectly appropriate. The problem is they go out of
state and they go to liberal democratic states where law
enforcement will not help us, and so we don't have
(12:48):
jurisdiction to go get him unless we had some help.
But that may be remedy. We have some ideas that
we're working on there probably this week that may impact
our ability to go arrest them. And then the other
possibility right now is we're trying to remove some of
these people from office for not showing up for their jobs,
which is I think a definite possibility.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And has that been done before? Would this be the
first time that's been done.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
No, this was an idea my office came up with
in twenty twenty one. The last time they tried it.
It's never been tried, so you know, this is definitely
uncharted territory. And we're going to file on Friday against
several REPS representatives that are gone. If they don't show
(13:39):
up on Friday, the speaker game of deadline, you need
to be back. You gave them a call and said
you need to be back on Friday. So we're gonna
we're waiting that out and if they show up good,
that's what we hope for. If they don't, then we're
going to pursue some of these representatives in court and
try to remove them.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
And so what sort of I mean, I assume there's
probably already lawsuits or will be law suits once the
map is completed in Texas, right, you'll probably face the
lawsuits for that, and then lawsuits obviously if you know
you move forward with sort of vacating these seats.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Like what what sort of lawsuits?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I guess have you already faced in this and are
you expecting that are incoming?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
No, we're I mean we're still involved in litigation over
the last map and when I got when I got
into office, I was in litigation for eight years over
the previous map. So yeah, it almost takes the whole
ten years to litigate. It's like crazy, right, and we've won.
I think we would win again on our last map.
(14:41):
It won't matter if this one goes when this one
goes through, but yeah, I mean we'll definitely get sued.
This is a tactic that they that the left uses,
which is interesting because you know, going back to our
original conversation, the left and all these liberal states, how
can you have a state mess chess with no Republican
(15:03):
House member and that get get through. I mean that it
just doesn't make any sense, right, Or Illinois that just
has three and as you mentioned, they're state after state
they seem to survive it and have no problem. And
I don't even know if those states get litigation, but
we do.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
You're running for Senate against Cornyn, primarying him. You know,
it kind of gets this broader question of and I
sort of wrestle this with in my mind is like
obviously the left their drunk on power, like they'll do anything.
They always believe in the ends justify the means. I mean,
Biden said that Trump should be put in a bull's
eye before he was almost assassinated, right, Like that's how
like evil these people are but it's like if we
(15:42):
respond in kind, does it just sort of like set
off sort of this never ending cycle of whoever is
not in power, is you know, has to be concerned
about being thrown in jail and arrested? Or is that
sort of like inevitable? Like I guess I don't know,
Like how do.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
You how do you respond?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
What is the right way to respond to that level
of abuse of power and like like evil and and
justify the means mentality?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Well, and look it's not just don't because I've seen
it my own party. I've been I've had you know,
Republicans come after me in a very similar way. Here.
What I've said is if if we're trying to do
this the right way we have, we're to real disadvantage
to the left and even some people are our own
party because we're we should be limited by the truth,
the law, and decency. So we're confined by those things
(16:29):
because if we go if we if we don't care
about the law and we don't care about the truth,
and we won't care, we don't care about being decent
to people, then how are we any better than the
other side? So but that really limits so we there
are things. We can't do that. So we have to
be better, We have to be more passionate, we have
to care more, and we have to work harder because
(16:50):
we are at a disadvantage because they're not afraid a
lot of times, they're not afraid of breaking the law,
they're not afraid of using the weaponizing the justice system.
They're not afraid to put people in jail that have
done nothing wrong. They're happy to do it. And so
we we don't feel good about doing that, and so
we really are limited. But we have won a lot
(17:10):
of battles doing the right doing the right thing the
right way.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Do you think the Trump administration is being you know,
tough enough? What we're seeing some of these criminal referrals
for people who were previously involved in the Russia hoax
and you know, involved in uh, you know, sort of
the abuse of power, in the weaponization of government against
uh President Trump during his first term. Do you think
they're being tough enough and in the response to all
of this.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I like that they're now looking at this whole Russian
hoax thing, which everybody knows was a total scam and
the government was involved in it. They definitely should this
isn't just retaliation. This is like corruption in like our
justice system. There's a lot more of that. And I
had I have information about corrupt people in you know,
Department Justice and the FBI that I would love to
(17:57):
have more access to to to give them those names
and these people be fired, because I know for a
fact there are a lot of corrupt people still at
DJ and still at the FBI that have not been
rooted out. And I am concerned that, you know, if
I mean, I understand the you know, the Attorney General's
only even there four months or whatever, but we cannot
(18:17):
let this opportunity go away. We have to root out
corruption in those places.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, because it's you know, if it's not, then we're
going to continue to see this and we might anyways,
but you know, people, you know, it's just like the
soft on crime stuff. People tend to not engage in
criminality if they believe there will be consequences.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And so yeah, and if you root it out, I mean,
if you get rid of some of these people that
are willing to do that stuff, and we know that
they are because they've done it at the FBI, they've
done it at DJ. It's not just President Trump that
suffered this. There were you know, thousands of people who've
been unjustly prosecuted. There are cases going on right now
still from the Biden dj have not been stopped that
(19:01):
have not that people are gonna end up in jail.
I may have already ended up in jail that shouldn't
have been there because they were attacked for their political
views and they were there were contrived things made up
about them. And you know, it's difficult when the federal
government has all the assets and all the resources and
you're in a liberal place and the jury's liberal and
the grand you know, the grand juries, they're all liberal.
(19:24):
You're you're you're a huge disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
And then real quick before we go, I wanted to
get this in obviously Texas after the floods just you know,
a lot of a ton of loss of life and
you guys were very hard hit. It was really difficult.
You know, I did some co hosting right after the
flood took place, and uh, just really heartbreaking to hear
(19:48):
some of these stories like how is Texas doing? And
then you know, also that's another aspect of trying to
get these Democrats back to vote on you know, legislation
for for funding and to take care of your people.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, I think that's really important to note because it's
easy to forget it. You know, everybody saw the tragedy,
people really jumped in. I was down there and I
was really just so encouraged by the volunteerism and the
professionalism of you know, the first responders that all just
felt great. The problem they have is, you know, there's
been millions and millions of dollars worth of damage and
(20:21):
some of these communities don't really have a easy way
of coming back unless they get some type of help,
both charitable government, federal state. You know, they need help,
and it's just easy to forget that and shortly after
the tragedy's over and move on to the next problem.
So hopefully, you know, we can get these Democrats back
back to vote, because that's another really important issue for
(20:43):
the state.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Attorney General Ken Paxon, we're still praying for Texas.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I know you're a busy man right now, so we
appreciate you sharing your time with us.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Always glad to come on. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
On this those Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appreciate him
for taking the time to come on the show.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Appreciate you guys at home.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
For listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listened
throughout the week. Also want to thank my producer John
Cassio for putting the show together.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Until next time.
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we try
to get to the heart of the issues that matter
to you. Today, we're diving into the high stakes battle
over redistricting in Texas with Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's
also running for Senate against Sean Cornyan. As Democrats flee
the state to break quorum and block GP lead maps,
there's been accusations of Jerry mannering and voter suppression that
(00:23):
have been flying. There's data showing some stark disparities in
states and Democrat states like California where Republicans hold forty
percent of the vote but only seventeen percent of the
congressional districts.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Also the states like Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Where thirty five percent of the vote Republicans have gotten
but yet they hold zero seats, zilch, nada. So, needless
to say, the fight over fair represation, well, it's red hot.
You've probably seen in the news. The media has been
covering it. So we'll unpack it today with Attorney General
Ken Paxton. So stay tuned to unpack all of this
on the legal, the political, and the ethical firestorm. Attorney
(01:04):
General Ken Paxton, it's great to have you on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
You're a busy man right now. Texas, Texas is getting
a lot of attention right now, so I know that
you've been busy, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So it is rare to do a you know, mid
decade redistricting, which is what Texas is doing right now.
But like on the jerrymandering front, like if this were
California or Massachusetts or New York, would anyone be talking
about it?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Oh, Massachusetts doesn't have a single Republican congress then not one.
They jerry made it so good that there's a Republican
can't win up there. I think if you go to Illinois,
so these are the states where the Democrats left you.
Illinois has three Republicans out of seventeen fourteen Democrats, and
New York is similar. So these states are all these
(01:57):
democratic states are really well jerry mandered, much better than
we are. We're we're we're almost in line with our representation.
Democrat Republican.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, I mean you look at Massachusetts, so Republicans got
thirty five percent of the statewide vote, yet hold zero
as you mentioned, of the seats out of the nine
congressional seats there. You know, the list kind of goes
on California one forty percent of the statewide vote, holds
seventeen percent out of the seats nine out of fifty two.
You know, New Mexico got forty percent of the statewide
(02:27):
vote hold zero percent of congressional seats. There are the
House seats there, so you know, the list goes on
with the left. I guess what what is because typically
the redistricting has done every decade after the census. I
guess what is the basis for doing it now?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
It's pretty simple. Our state has grown more than any
other state in the country. We've added millions of people,
and so the representation is out of balance. So because
we have more people moving into certain areas and so
some people are overrepresented now some people underrepresented. So it's
not like we're adding new representatives because you only get
those every ten years. However, because of our growth pattern,
(03:03):
we need to reach all the lines so our people
are more fairly represented.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So basically, the Democrats pieced out released I think it's like,
is it still fifty one out of sixty two of
the House Democrats fled.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
That's the state. Yeah, yes, that's my understanding.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, Okay, So basically what they did is they left
to break quorum, more or less so because Texas requires
one hundred of its one hundred and fifty members present
to conduct business, and there's eighty eight Republicans. So these
Democrats fled to places like Illinois and other places in
the country.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Why do you think they did that.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I mean, obviously this is not the first time they've
done that either.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
This is the third time. So I was in the
House in two thousand and three they left, Then they
did it. In twenty twenty one they left, and then
and by the way, in twenty twenty three, we were
trying to redistrict during regular session, and we ended up
going for a regular session in May, started in January.
We were in session till October waiting for them to
(04:05):
come back. Middle of October we finished. So they it's
interesting that they have done this three times, but they
have never left the state for any other issue, any
other controversial issue that they thought they were going to
lose on. They would come in and fight this one.
They don't. They disappear. It's really really interesting, and it
is so interesting to me that the Democrat states that
(04:26):
they're going to I don't. I don't know if they
just don't get it, or there's that much hypocrisy that
those states are so gerimanted, and yet somehow they have
self righteous attitude of what you guys are doing is
so evil and bad, but we're doing it, and it's
just we're doing it. We're doing it much better than you,
so it's okay.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Well, it's also like a little rich for those on
the left to talk about like threats to democracy after
trying to jail President Trump in you know, I guess
four different you know, occasions of four different cases and
me they came after me too, yes, and then kick
them off the ballot in certain states.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So like it is like a little rich.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I think they've stort or you know, light teslas on fire,
or attack ICE agents or uh you know call ICE
the Gestapo and you know, try to encourage uh, you know,
these massive attacks that we've seen on ICE agents. Like
it's a little rich to be lectured about threats to
democracy from them.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Well, especially when they're also they've been the masters at
rigging elections. If you look at the Democratic states, one,
they mostly.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Don't have photo I D, so it's it's much easier
to cheat if there's no photo ID and I know
that because we used to prosecute voter fraud, and so
these states almost invite with mail in ballots and they
invite voter fraud.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So I mean, it's controlled by the left through the vote,
and you have people cheating and no one does anything
about it in these states.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, it's also like they just opened the floodgates to
illegal immigrants. And we've heard from people like Congresswoman Uvet
Clark has said, I think, on a couple of different occasions,
once in an interview at least that I've heard, and
then also before Congress saying that she needs more migrants.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
For redistricting purposes, because we.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Know that that changes the allocation of both electoral college
votes as well as apportionment in the for the electoral
college and for Congress as well for these House seeds.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
So it's like and that, you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Pretty easy to conclude that the whole reason why they
open the southern border is for redistricting purposes and for
you know, power purposes.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I totally agree. And can you imagine if we eliminated
legal immigrants from the census who can't vote or shouldn't vote,
and we also got rid of cherrymandering in these states.
How different Congress would look if it were done the
right way.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
What if you seen in Texas. I want to get
back to the Jerry manoring in a second, but just
since we brought up the immigration aspect, like, how much
has Texas changed since President Trump took over. I mean,
I know we're seeing like record lows that we've never
seen before, but how has that, you know, positively impacted
Texas well?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I mean, it's very illegal. Immigration has a lot of
costs for US. It's very expensive because we have to
educate required by Supreme Court decision to educate everybody, take
care of health care. We have law enforcement costs, we
have social costs, we have welfare costs. It's billions and
billions of dollars. And it also creates risk of crime,
(07:34):
and we've had higher crime rates and people have been killed,
and higher drug crimes and more kids dying of fetanyl
over this. Those are all consequences of the Biden immigration policy,
which was let everybody in will help you get here,
and we'll help you, will help you stay instead of
following federal loss. It has some very dramatic which is
part of the reason I think many of Hispanics in
(07:56):
Texas have moved Republican because they don't like that. They
don't want people coming from across the border from one
hundred and fifty different countries who are higher risk of
crime and who are causing them to have a heart
of life.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It is interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I mean, it's sort of a smart strategy if you
think about it, because you know, they open the floodgates
to millions of illegal immigrants, and then now they're fighting
President Trump's deportation efforts to try to keep these people
in the country. And then if they were to get
another Democrat president in the country like boom, you know,
open borders again. And then you look at the immigration
(08:32):
courts and there's such a backlog. I think it's like
almost like four million people backlog in the immigration court.
So it's kind of like a brilliant strategy if you
think about it.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It is brilliant if you don't care about the consequences
to America. You don't care about the law first of all,
and then you don't care about the negative economic and
social costs of it and how it impacts the America
in a negative way, and knowing full well that for instance,
that children are going to die from vent all over
those is because you let the border, you let border
(09:01):
with control down. So they were willing to sacrifice the
good of Americans for their political purposes. It's kind of
evil to me.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Does it surprise you that they've gone as far as
like with Kilmore Brigo Garcia, who's obviously been accused of
human trafficking, as well as you know, being a part
of MS thirteen, affiliated with MS thirteen, and the whole
host of other concerns. Did it surprise you that they
went to the links of like visiting l Salvador and
(09:30):
like calling him a Marilyn man and sort of like
embracing this man who you know, beat us a wife
and also is allegedly affiliated with MS thirteen.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Even you know, it's hard to say that things surprise
me these days, but that that was what that was
across the line US Senator. I think it's from Connecticut,
Chris van Holler, whatever his name is, going down there
to try to rescue this guy and help this guy
that is truly a criminal, a bad criminal. It's I
think that's really hard for most Americans to accept or
(10:04):
believe is actually happening.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I've got to take a quick commercial break more with
Attorney General Ken Paxton on the other side. If you're
enjoying the episode, please post on social media or share
with your friends.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Did they care about Americans?
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Because it's like I thought this was sort of, you know,
judicated in this past election cycle where Americans were saying,
you know what, like we're not being put first and
you're prioritizing the needs of illegal immigrants. And we saw
concerns and you know a lot of inner cities as well,
with minority communities being really angry at the fact that
their taxpayer dollars were going to legal immigrants as opposed
(10:41):
to them. And so you would think that they would
recognize the connection between Americans, you know, being fed up
with sort of illegal immigrants coming into a country taking
her resources, and then yet Democrats seem to continue to
prioritize their needs over American citizens.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I think they get so excited about the policit benefits
to them that they're willing to sacrifice and almost not
notice the harm. Maybe push it aside. Maybe they do
notice the harm. I mean, it's hard for me to
believe like the Biden administration was not fully aware when
they said no more deportations, that they were going to
get a lot more people, and that the cartels were
(11:19):
going to be very excited about that, and that they
were going to be social costs, really bad social costs.
Some people are going to die. It's hard for me
to believe that they didn't know that, since it's obvious
that that's going to happen, so that if they knew
about it, it's pretty evil. If they didn't know about it,
it's pretty negligent.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
So it kind of gets me back to where we
started in terms of, like what do we do about
some of this? You know, I mean obviously the Democrats
prioritize power over anything, and so it's like, how do
you fight back? And I know you've talked about, you know,
potentially arresting some of the Democrats who left to break decorum.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
You know, what legal authority is there to do that?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And is that happening or can you kind of give
us an update on that aspect of this conversation.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, I mean, there were a couple of possibilities here.
One the speaker, had he thought about or done it,
he could have locked him in when they were here,
because they were here and before the map came onto
the House floor, it came out of committee. They left,
so we could have locked them in well once they left,
we in twenty twenty one, my office went all the
way to Texas Supreme Court and we got into adjudication
(12:25):
or an answer that said, yes, the speaker, if he
puts a call in the House, he can arrest these
people and bring them back. They're not going to prison,
They're being brought back to the Texas House. So that
is perfectly appropriate. The problem is they go out of
state and they go to liberal democratic states where law
enforcement will not help us, and so we don't have
(12:48):
jurisdiction to go get him unless we had some help.
But that may be remedy. We have some ideas that
we're working on there probably this week that may impact
our ability to go arrest them. And then the other
possibility right now is we're trying to remove some of
these people from office for not showing up for their jobs,
which is I think a definite possibility.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And has that been done before? Would this be the
first time that's been done.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
No, this was an idea my office came up with
in twenty twenty one. The last time they tried it.
It's never been tried, so you know, this is definitely
uncharted territory. And we're going to file on Friday against
several REPS representatives that are gone. If they don't show
(13:39):
up on Friday, the speaker game of deadline, you need
to be back. You gave them a call and said
you need to be back on Friday. So we're gonna
we're waiting that out and if they show up good,
that's what we hope for. If they don't, then we're
going to pursue some of these representatives in court and
try to remove them.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
And so what sort of I mean, I assume there's
probably already lawsuits or will be law suits once the
map is completed in Texas, right, you'll probably face the
lawsuits for that, and then lawsuits obviously if you know
you move forward with sort of vacating these seats.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Like what what sort of lawsuits?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I guess have you already faced in this and are
you expecting that are incoming?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
No, we're I mean we're still involved in litigation over
the last map and when I got when I got
into office, I was in litigation for eight years over
the previous map. So yeah, it almost takes the whole
ten years to litigate. It's like crazy, right, and we've won.
I think we would win again on our last map.
(14:41):
It won't matter if this one goes when this one
goes through, but yeah, I mean we'll definitely get sued.
This is a tactic that they that the left uses,
which is interesting because you know, going back to our
original conversation, the left and all these liberal states, how
can you have a state mess chess with no Republican
(15:03):
House member and that get get through. I mean that it
just doesn't make any sense, right, Or Illinois that just
has three and as you mentioned, they're state after state
they seem to survive it and have no problem. And
I don't even know if those states get litigation, but
we do.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
You're running for Senate against Cornyn, primarying him. You know,
it kind of gets this broader question of and I
sort of wrestle this with in my mind is like
obviously the left their drunk on power, like they'll do anything.
They always believe in the ends justify the means. I mean,
Biden said that Trump should be put in a bull's
eye before he was almost assassinated, right, Like that's how
like evil these people are but it's like if we
(15:42):
respond in kind, does it just sort of like set
off sort of this never ending cycle of whoever is
not in power, is you know, has to be concerned
about being thrown in jail and arrested? Or is that
sort of like inevitable? Like I guess I don't know,
Like how do.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
You how do you respond?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
What is the right way to respond to that level
of abuse of power and like like evil and and
justify the means mentality?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Well, and look it's not just don't because I've seen
it my own party. I've been I've had you know,
Republicans come after me in a very similar way. Here.
What I've said is if if we're trying to do
this the right way we have, we're to real disadvantage
to the left and even some people are our own
party because we're we should be limited by the truth,
the law, and decency. So we're confined by those things
(16:29):
because if we go if we if we don't care
about the law and we don't care about the truth,
and we won't care, we don't care about being decent
to people, then how are we any better than the
other side? So but that really limits so we there
are things. We can't do that. So we have to
be better, We have to be more passionate, we have
to care more, and we have to work harder because
(16:50):
we are at a disadvantage because they're not afraid a
lot of times, they're not afraid of breaking the law,
they're not afraid of using the weaponizing the justice system.
They're not afraid to put people in jail that have
done nothing wrong. They're happy to do it. And so
we we don't feel good about doing that, and so
we really are limited. But we have won a lot
(17:10):
of battles doing the right doing the right thing the
right way.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Do you think the Trump administration is being you know,
tough enough? What we're seeing some of these criminal referrals
for people who were previously involved in the Russia hoax
and you know, involved in uh, you know, sort of
the abuse of power, in the weaponization of government against
uh President Trump during his first term. Do you think
they're being tough enough and in the response to all
of this.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I like that they're now looking at this whole Russian
hoax thing, which everybody knows was a total scam and
the government was involved in it. They definitely should this
isn't just retaliation. This is like corruption in like our
justice system. There's a lot more of that. And I
had I have information about corrupt people in you know,
Department Justice and the FBI that I would love to
(17:57):
have more access to to to give them those names
and these people be fired, because I know for a
fact there are a lot of corrupt people still at
DJ and still at the FBI that have not been
rooted out. And I am concerned that, you know, if
I mean, I understand the you know, the Attorney General's
only even there four months or whatever, but we cannot
(18:17):
let this opportunity go away. We have to root out
corruption in those places.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, because it's you know, if it's not, then we're
going to continue to see this and we might anyways,
but you know, people, you know, it's just like the
soft on crime stuff. People tend to not engage in
criminality if they believe there will be consequences.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And so yeah, and if you root it out, I mean,
if you get rid of some of these people that
are willing to do that stuff, and we know that
they are because they've done it at the FBI, they've
done it at DJ. It's not just President Trump that
suffered this. There were you know, thousands of people who've
been unjustly prosecuted. There are cases going on right now
still from the Biden dj have not been stopped that
(19:01):
have not that people are gonna end up in jail.
I may have already ended up in jail that shouldn't
have been there because they were attacked for their political
views and they were there were contrived things made up
about them. And you know, it's difficult when the federal
government has all the assets and all the resources and
you're in a liberal place and the jury's liberal and
the grand you know, the grand juries, they're all liberal.
(19:24):
You're you're you're a huge disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
And then real quick before we go, I wanted to
get this in obviously Texas after the floods just you know,
a lot of a ton of loss of life and
you guys were very hard hit. It was really difficult.
You know, I did some co hosting right after the
flood took place, and uh, just really heartbreaking to hear
(19:48):
some of these stories like how is Texas doing? And
then you know, also that's another aspect of trying to
get these Democrats back to vote on you know, legislation
for for funding and to take care of your people.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, I think that's really important to note because it's
easy to forget it. You know, everybody saw the tragedy,
people really jumped in. I was down there and I
was really just so encouraged by the volunteerism and the
professionalism of you know, the first responders that all just
felt great. The problem they have is, you know, there's
been millions and millions of dollars worth of damage and
(20:21):
some of these communities don't really have a easy way
of coming back unless they get some type of help,
both charitable government, federal state. You know, they need help,
and it's just easy to forget that and shortly after
the tragedy's over and move on to the next problem.
So hopefully, you know, we can get these Democrats back
back to vote, because that's another really important issue for
(20:43):
the state.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Attorney General Ken Paxon, we're still praying for Texas.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I know you're a busy man right now, so we
appreciate you sharing your time with us.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Always glad to come on. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
On this those Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appreciate him
for taking the time to come on the show.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Appreciate you guys at home.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
For listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listened
throughout the week. Also want to thank my producer John
Cassio for putting the show together.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Until next time.
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Buck Sexton
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