Gov. Abbott says 58 ‘hypocrite’ Texas Democrat runaways WILL be arrested when they return to Austin after jetting to DC on $100K chartered private jets to stop vote on GOP’s new state voting bills
- Texas Democrats fled their state on private jets in order to prevent a series of new, restrictive voting bills from becoming law
- At least 58 Democratic members of the state House of Representatives left Austin to fly to Washington D.C. on two private jets that cost $100,000 to charter
- Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, on Monday said the 58 will be arrested when they return to Texas
- He said their behavior was ‘un-Texan’, accusing them of running from a fight and describing them as ‘quitters’
- Their departure means the Texas House doesn’t have quorum of two-thirds of lawmakers present and can’t hold votes
- Jen Psaki said some White House officials may meet the Texas Democrats in D.C. and called new voting laws ‘the worst challenge to our democracy since the Civil War’
- Kamala Harris said in Detroit on Monday that ‘fighting for the right to vote is as American as apple pie’
The governor of Texas has described state Democrats who fled to Washington DC to prevent a vote as ‘quitters’ who were ‘un-Texan’ in running from a fight, and said they will be arrested on their return. At least 58 Democrats left Austin to avoid the vote on election bills, touching down in Washington D.C. on Monday evening in two private jets – chartered at a cost of $100,000. They have fled to prevent a vote on two bills which would add new identification requirements for mail voting; ban some early voting options; and create new criminal penalties for breaking election code, while empowering partisan poll watchers. The measures would ban several election programs implemented last year to help people vote during the coronavirus pandemic, including drive-through voting and 24-hour and late-night voting. Voting rights advocates noted that voters of color used these programs disproportionately. Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of the state, said they were facing arrest on their return. ‘That’s why they fled the state,’ he told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.