08 05 25 FOX News' Tonya Powers on Texas Democratic lawmakers leaving the state

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News, Marty Lens, Gina gand Dick
Good Morning. Dozens of Texas state Democratic lawmakers have left
the state to prevent the passage of some new gerrymandared
congressional maps.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Speaking on Fox's America's news Room, Texas Republican Governor Greg
Abbott said he will begin trying to remove those Democratic
state lawmakers from office.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Our fellow Texans are being let down and not getting
the flood relief they need because these Democrats have absconded
from the responsibility, and I believe they have forfeited their
seats in the state legislature because they're not doing the
job they were elected to do.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Joining us live from the KOA Common Spirit Health Hotline
is Fox News Radio's Tanya Jay Powers. Tanya, thank you
so much for your time. As always. Okay, give us
a brief just overview of what took place yesterday. Are
we still seeing lawmakers Democratic lawmakers in blue states? And
how long can they really hold out a vote on
these gerrymandered congressional maps.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yeah, we are still seeing them in blue states. Apparently
they've come some of them here here in New York
where I am. We know they've gone to Illinois Massachusetts.
As far as how long they can hold out, that
is a good question. They're getting fined five hundred dollars
a day for not being there their special session that
was called by Governor Abbott ins August nineteenth, So could

(01:14):
they be gone for the rest of the time. It's possible.
Then nothing keeps him from calling another special session right
after it, just to you know, continue on. But they
are also facing the potential for arrest. I believe the
House speaker there has also signed a civil arrest warrant
for them. They're, like I said, being fined. As you mentioned,

(01:38):
Governor Abbott there in his SoundBite says they you know,
he believes they should be removed from their seats. One
other thing about the thing that he was pointing out
in that SoundBite about the flood relief, They had a
basically political calculation they had to make when this special
session started. Do they start with redistricting or did they

(01:59):
start with flood And they chose to do redister things first,
which is one of the reasons this is kind of
all sort of snowballed. And you've got people there who
keep asking, what are you gonna do about flood relief,
because there's a lot of people that still need a
lot of help from the flooding that we've seen in
the recent the July fourth flooding. So that's also a

(02:20):
sticky subject for folk intexts as well.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
It's too bad tiny because it sounds like a flood
relief for a priority. Then the governor and of course
at the pushing of the President, they wouldn't have done
this redistressing the way they did it and redistricting Tony.
It's nothing new, but isn't the big beef. It's done
midway through. It's normally done every so many years, but
the way that it's been presented, it's like, no, we
don't do it midstream like this. And that's the big

(02:43):
beef that the state Democrats have, right.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
Yes, that is the reason that they're making a lot
of noise about this. They don't have enough, you know,
there's not enough of them to override the vote. He
called a special session. He said we're going to redraw
the map because President Trump basically said, hey, Texas, create
five more GOP seats so they don't lose the House
in the twenty twenty six midterm elections. I mean that's

(03:10):
in a nutshell, what happened here. That is the reason
they decided to do this. As for the mid decade redrawing,
you're right, that is rare. Normally it is done after
the census is held. The census is every ten years.
We're not there yet, you know, We've got a few
years to go for the census. That is the reason
that this has gotten a lot of attention is because
normally it is not done in such a partisan political way,

(03:35):
you know, like this. It's and it's almost I don't
I can't think of a president that has gone, you know,
out in public and said hello, dear state, find me
this many seats because we need to hold onto the House.
They may have said it behind closed doors, but normally
that's not the kind of thing we hear from the
president on the south lawn of the White House to reporters.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Tanya real quick. So we're seeing these democratic lawmakers getting
fined right now. But what else can Governor Abbott do
when it comes to trying to pursue legal action or
removing them from office? Because being in different states doesn't
that kind of convolude how they're even able to arrest them.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
It does I mean, the general thought seems to be
that the arrest warrant would you know, only be if
they're in the states. They're not, you know, I'm not
really sure how they carry that out, you know, outside
the state lines. He also, from what I understand, believes
that they should be charged if they use campaign funds
to pay for these fines.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
You know.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
That's that's another thing that I'm I'm kind of fuzzy
on if that's you know, what the law is with that,
But I know that he has kind of floated that
idea as well, so you know, he's aiming to put
political and financial obviously pressure on them, you know, whatever
way he seems to be able to that.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Is Fox Radios, Fox News Radios, Tanya Ja Powers, thank you.
It is our poll question this morning as well. Who
side are you on in this debate? You can let
us know your thoughts on x Facebook, leave us a
tack back via the iHeartRadio app as well