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Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher's Welcome
00:02:35
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unidentified
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Buckeye Broadband supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. | |
| Next, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, along with members of the Texas delegation and state house, opposing efforts by President Trump and GOP Governor Greg Abbott to redraw the congressional map ahead of the midterm elections. | ||
| This is about 40 minutes. | ||
| Well, good morning. | ||
| Thank you for joining us this morning. | ||
| I'm Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher. | ||
| I'm proud to represent Texas's 7th congressional district in Houston and to chair the Texas Democratic delegation in Congress in the 119th Congress. | ||
| It is my honor and great privilege today to welcome back to the great state of Texas our House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| Today, my colleagues and I stand alongside our fellow Texas Democrats here in Austin. | ||
| We are grateful to House Democratic Leader Gene Wu and Senate Democratic Leader Carol Alvarado, who are standing here with us, and to the committed Texas Democrats from across the state who are standing here this morning representing the true voices of Texans and the priorities of Texans. | ||
| Thank you so much for your leadership and for being with us today. | ||
| Before we begin, I want to express on behalf of all of us our deepest sympathies for the thousands of families who are grieving the losses brought by the Independence Day floods in the Hill Country. | ||
| Our hearts are broken with yours. | ||
| Today, one month later, the first day that survivors have had the chance to address the lawmakers about the floods at a public hearing, we will be listening and we, Texas Democrats gathered here, will do all we can to help in the recovery and the rebuilding. | ||
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Redistricting Frenzy: Consequences for Trillions
00:02:51
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| But it is not lost on us that the hearing on this tragedy follows a week, a frenzied week with a rush of seven hearings redrawing Texas's congressional map, hearings where thousands and thousands of Texans showed up in opposition and where Republicans really said almost nothing and refused to let any of them see a map. | ||
| I've been there and I can tell you you can count on one hand the number of Republicans who spoke up, who've testified or even uttered a word in support for this redistricting. | ||
| This redistricting effort is what is wrong with politics today and the people of Texas know it. | ||
| People get it. | ||
| Elections have consequences, but so do your votes on the floor. | ||
| The votes you take as a representative have consequences too. | ||
| And politicians who don't want to face the consequences of their votes and their choices can't just change the rules of the game in the middle of it. | ||
| It is wrong and Texans know it. | ||
| But President Trump knows that people are seeing what his administration and the Republican Congress are doing, and they hate it. | ||
| Taking health care away from 17 million Americans, very unpopular. | ||
| Adding trillions of dollars to our national debt so that they can transfer trillions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and perhaps the wealthiest people ever to have lived and sticking us with the bill, very unpopular. | ||
| Hiding the Epstein files, very unpopular. | ||
| President Trump can see the writing on the wall. | ||
| So he's demanded a rigged map, and he told Governor Abbott to make it happen. | ||
| Texans are in an ongoing crisis, filled with grief and loss, and instead, our leaders are focused not on relief, but on redistricting. | ||
| Now, Texas already has the most racially gerrymandered congressional map in the country. | ||
| And it's important to know that of Texas's 38 congressional districts in a state with the majority minority population, where the population of the state is more than 60% minority, only 13 districts allow voters of color to regularly and consistently elect their candidate of choice. | ||
| And this new map cuts that number down to just eight. | ||
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Democrats Stand Up for Texans
00:12:42
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| The map that Republicans put out yesterday, in that map, more than one-third of Texans, more than 10 million people, will be in a new congressional district. | ||
| More than two-thirds of those Texans that are moved to new district are voters of color. | ||
| The good news is Texans are not alone in this fight. | ||
| We have the support of people across our country because they see as we do how wrong this is. | ||
| And today, we have a tremendous fighter who's joined us here in Austin to demonstrate support for Texas and for Texans. | ||
| We are grateful for his leadership. | ||
| We are grateful for his leadership of the United States House of Representatives Democratic Caucus, and we are so pleased to welcome him here to Austin. | ||
| So I'll turn it over to our House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| It's an honor and a privilege to be here in the great state of Texas at the state capitol with so many distinguished leaders, members of the congressional delegation, of course, Lizzie and Lloyd, Al, Sylvia, Joaquin, and Greg, tremendous fighters for the people of this great state, along with such distinguished leaders in the state legislature, of course, led by Leader Wu and Leader Romero, | ||
| and all of the different caucus leaders who are here with us today. | ||
| Our message to the people of Texas and to the people of this great country is simple. | ||
| You deserve better. | ||
| You deserve an America where hard work pays off. | ||
| You deserve health care that's affordable and available when you need it. | ||
| You deserve a government that works for you. | ||
| You deserve better. | ||
| But that's not what is being delivered right now by the Texas state government under Republican leadership. | ||
| Donald Trump ordered Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans to race back to Austin for a special legislative session. | ||
| Why was that done? | ||
| This special session should be about lowering the high cost of living that afflicts the people of Texas as well as people all across America. | ||
| It is not. | ||
| This special session should be about fixing Texas's broken health care system where far too many children, women, seniors, and veterans don't have access to the health care that they need to live a life of dignity and respect. | ||
| It is not. | ||
| This special session should be about cleaning up corruption here in Austin so that a government that has been dominated by Republicans for the last 30 years might actually deliver for the people of this great state. | ||
| It is not. | ||
| This special session should be about fixing the broken energy grid that has left millions of Texans vulnerable year after year after year, particularly in the face of rising extreme weather events. | ||
| It is not. | ||
| In the face of great tragedy, children who drowned to death in the Texas Hill country, families whose lives have been shattered forever. | ||
| This special session should be about relief, recovery, and resiliency in the face of a state government that failed the people of the Texas Hill country. | ||
| But it is not. | ||
| Donald Trump has ordered Greg Abbott and compliant Texas Republicans to race back to Austin, have a special session in order to rig the congressional map and undermine the ability of Texans to have a free and fair midterm election. | ||
| That is wrong. | ||
| You deserve better. | ||
| The people of Texas deserve better. | ||
| That's why I'm so thankful for the leadership of the members of the Texas congressional delegation and the Texas state legislature who aren't fighting for themselves unlike the other side of the aisle. | ||
| They're fighting for a government that actually responds to the people of Texas in a way that is designed to solve real life everyday challenges. | ||
| The people of Texas deserve better. | ||
| In this great country, our system that was gifted to us by the framers of the Constitution should be one where the people of Texas are able to decide which elected officials have the ability and honor to represent them in Washington. | ||
| Instead, Republican politicians want to choose their voters. | ||
| That is wrong, and it will undermine the quality of life of the people of this great state. | ||
| It has been said in the early days of the Republic that when the people fear the government, there is tyranny. | ||
| But when the government fears the people, there is liberty. | ||
| So this fight is not over. | ||
| It's just beginning. | ||
| And led by the people standing behind me, there is an ability for the people of Texas to make their voices heard, show up, stand up, speak up for what is right, for their opportunity to determine their own destiny through the gift of democracy and free and fair elections. | ||
| But the only way that will be brought about is if together we're able to stop the effort to gerrymander in a way that also violates the Voting Rights Act, the Texas congressional map, as part of their scheme to rig the midterm elections. | ||
| It can be done, and if anyone can do it, it's the people of the great state of Texas. | ||
| It's now my honor to yield back to Lizzie French. | ||
| Thank you so much, Leader Jeffries. | ||
| We'll now hear from members of our congressional delegation, starting with the Dean of our delegation, Lloyd Doggett. | ||
| Thank you, Lizzie. | ||
| Thank you, Leader. | ||
| The courage of these state House of Democrats and senators has a direct impact on the lives of our fellow Texans. | ||
| For a Texas veteran who needs help from their congress member, a small business who needs help with the SBA or on taxes, under this map, when they go to that congressional office, in many cases, they will find the doors are shut by this map. | ||
| For Texans who have been impacted by a compliant Republican Congress, when they go to buy a tomato or an avocado, or in a few weeks, when they go to buy a car or build a house, they will be paying the Trump tariff taxes that this Congress could have prevented. | ||
| When those who need health insurance, who are working Texans in three months go to sign up for the Affordable Care Act health insurance policies, they will pay 75% more in premiums. | ||
| But most importantly of all is that when we give all the power of our government to one man and his whims, whims that can cause even the appropriations process to keep the federal government operating or shut down because they fear what the Jeffrey Epstein file might show about President Trump and the Congress recesses. | ||
| When we place all the power in one man and claim that he has a monopoly on truth and that we no longer need checks and balances, then we have surrendered our democracy to autocracy. | ||
| The weight of the future of our country, the lives of Texans, is on the shoulders of these Texas legislators, and we thank them for all they're doing to put a stop to this attempt to fix the election. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| Next, we'll hear from Congressman Al Green. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And I thank my colleagues who are here representing the state of Texas as representatives and senators. | ||
| I thank you because you're making a difference. | ||
| And I thank you for your hospitality that you've shown us since we've been here. | ||
| It means something to me to come to Austin, Texas, and see you at work. | ||
| But I'm also proud of something. | ||
| I am very proud to be a Democrat. | ||
| And I'm proud to be a Democrat because Democrats will stop the move to privatize Social Security. | ||
| We just had a Republican administrative official who has indicated that the privatization of Social Security is on the table. | ||
| I'm a Democrat. | ||
| Democrats own Social Security. | ||
| We gave birth to it. | ||
| I'm not going to surrender Democrats. | ||
| We're not going to surrender as Democrats and allow Social Security to be privatized. | ||
| Social Security is needed. | ||
| Our people need it. | ||
| By the way, people of all hues need it. | ||
| This is not something for minority people of all hues. | ||
| Democrats fight to protect Social Security. | ||
| I'm proud to be a Democrat because Democrats are fighting to protect your health care. | ||
| We're going to continue to fight to protect your health care. | ||
| And I'm proud of what I did when I stood up before the president and told him, you're not going to, you don't have a mandate. | ||
| You don't have a mandate to eviscerate. | ||
| I didn't use that term then. | ||
| But you don't have a mandate to eliminate Medicaid. | ||
| And then I wanted to say Medicare. | ||
| And I wanted to say Social Security. | ||
| And I'm proud of this. | ||
| I am not ashamed to be a Democrat who's on the front line to protect the needs of all of the people in the state of Texas. | ||
| Democrats are not just fighting so that we can have Republican opportunities or Democratic opportunities. | ||
| We are fighting to make sure that all of the people in the state of Texas are protected with good health care, good retirements, and that includes Social Security, good education, and that includes everybody should have a good education. | ||
| And we also want to make sure that injustice does not take place in Texas as it will under this map. | ||
| This map is a gross injustice. | ||
| Dr. King reminded us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. | ||
| That means that if this map goes through, if it passes, it will then be an opportunity for the injustice to move to the county level, might move to various commissioners' courts, or to city council level, or school boards, or to the state reps, or to state senates, and not just in Texas, but around the country. | ||
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Racism and Legislative Power Grab
00:06:12
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| Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. | ||
| And finally, the president was being very, very clever when he sent his letter by and through his agent in the Justice Department indicating that racial gerrymandering had taken place in Texas. | ||
| Now who believes that? | ||
| Who believes that the Texas legislature and the Texas Senate drew maps so that they could intentionally allow minorities to have seats, intentionally? | ||
| The Attorney General himself said that's not true. | ||
| That's not true. | ||
| Senator, prominent senator, said that the map was colorblind, and it still is, according to them. | ||
| So the president used that term because he knew that it would incite people. | ||
| He wanted to incite people to believe that what he wanted done would be justified because minorities were somehow being given a privilege that they shouldn't have. | ||
| That's what he was doing. | ||
| He knew what he was doing. | ||
| Very clever. | ||
| But we're going to stand up against this. | ||
| And the truth of the matter is, somebody has to have the courage to say that it's racism. | ||
| Unfortunately, we have grown to the point in this country where you can use racism against people of color, but people of color can't respond and say, that's racism. | ||
| If we do, you're not going to print it. | ||
| You're not going to carry it. | ||
| What you're going to do is allow the racist statement to prevail and what we try to do to fight it by indicating that it is racist, you allow that to just be words that evaporate into nothingness. | ||
| So I just challenge you, the members of the press. | ||
| None of these friends of mine are doing it. | ||
| They're not doing this. | ||
| This is Al Green. | ||
| I'm a liberated Democrat. | ||
| I challenge you. | ||
| Tell the truth. | ||
| Let the world know that President Trump is using race and that we are responding to it. | ||
| I'm a liberated Democrat. | ||
| I thank you. | ||
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unidentified
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Amen. | |
| Next we'll hear from Representative Joaquin Castro. | ||
| Thank you, Lizzie. | ||
| Great to be with everybody. | ||
| Good to be back here at the state capitol. | ||
| Thank you to Democratic Leader Jeffries for supporting Texans and supporting our state legislators who are doing incredible work to block what is an illegal power grab. | ||
| I was a freshman here in 2003, a freshman state legislator, when we left the state to go to Ardmore, Oklahoma for four days to block also illegal mid-decade redistricting. | ||
| And so this feels like deja vu for me, now being in Congress and witnessing it again. | ||
| When I testified last week to state legislators at their first hearing, I said what I believe is true. | ||
| Donald Trump is using Texas. | ||
| He's using Texas to protect himself. | ||
| And the state legislators here have to determine whether they're going to do the business of Texas and work on things like flood relief, making rent more affordable for people, child care more affordable for people, making it easier for people to go to college, for senior citizens to be in nursing homes, whether they're going to do the work that everyday Texans are concerned about every day, or whether they're going to do Donald Trump's bidding. | ||
| Historically, this body has had a strong independent streak to it. | ||
| It has not taken its orders from presidents, Democrat or Republican. | ||
| So are these folks going to be servile and subservient to Donald Trump? | ||
| Are they going to stand up and protect Texans? | ||
| And there is a lot at stake here. | ||
| Black and brown communities will suffer the most. | ||
| They're getting torn up across the state. | ||
| As Al alluded to, y'all know in the last few decades, the overwhelming majority of growth in the state of Texas has come from Latino and African American communities. | ||
| And yet the number of seats that have been drawn to serve those communities has stayed flat or shrunk. | ||
| And so there is racism to this. | ||
| And when I think about replacing five Democrats, stealing five Democratic seats, and replacing those with five Republican seats, for Texans, I think we should be clear about what that means. | ||
| That means instead of five people who are going to stand up to protect Social Security, to protect Medicare, to protect health care, to protect a path to higher education for people in this state, you're going to have five people who are going to vote against health care, against Medicare, against Social Security, against being able to go to college. | ||
| That is the stark difference in what's at stake here. | ||
| I hope the legislature will do the business of Texas and not take the orders of Donald Trump. | ||
| Next we'll hear from Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia. | ||
| Thank you, Lizzie. | ||
| And I too feel like it's a reunion being back here at the Capitol and as someone who served on the Senate Redistricting Committee back in 2013, this whole thing is like a deja vu for me too. | ||
| I especially want to thank Leader Jeffries for being here. | ||
| I can tell you that this man comes from the heart, with honesty and integrity in everything that he does. | ||
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Making Clear What's At Stake
00:15:24
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| He and I had the distinct honor of serving as impeachment managers in Trump Impeachment One, and they should have just listened to us. | ||
| We could have avoided all this. | ||
| But I also want to recognize, of course, my senator, Carol Alvarado, who is the chair of the Senate Democrats, and my friend also from Houston, Gene Wu, who is the head of the House Democrats. | ||
| This is bigger than Texas. | ||
| This is bigger than Texas. | ||
| We always try to say that Texas is big, and we like to brag that we're big. | ||
| And this time it is a big, ugly mess, what is going on. | ||
| And that is going to result in a lot of hardship and a lot of setback in many of our communities and the voice that we've had in Congress. | ||
| So I'm a target. | ||
| Remember, they targeted four, and it was four minority urban districts. | ||
| They were very clear on who they were going to dismantle their districts. | ||
| And they've succeeded in doing that. | ||
| And I'm going to just talk about my district just a little bit to just tell you what they're doing. | ||
| My current district is 29, and we were 75 population, Latino, with about 65% being voter citizen population. | ||
| Now, they dismantled it in two, and now I'm going to be down to 43% Hispanic citizen voting population, from 65 to 43. | ||
| And then they stole from his area and combined it with my other half and created a second one that's just about 50% Hispanic voter population. | ||
| Now they're going to brag, oh no, we created two new Hispanic districts, but you've got to look at the numbers. | ||
| You've got to look at what is really going on with the data. | ||
| Because they can give you 100% Latino population, but if all you're going to have is less than 50% that's citizen voting age, it doesn't really help you much. | ||
| So they attacked us, but they're doing the almost the exact same thing. | ||
| They're just trying to silence the voices of the people who need to be heard. | ||
| Donald Trump, what I call the felon in the White House, is wanting to stay in power. | ||
| This is a pure power play, and I can tell you that I am so proud of all these Democrats behind me who are doing what great Texans do is stand up and fight for Texas. | ||
| And I can tell you that I, for one, as a Texan, would never ever want a con man from New York telling a Texan what to do. | ||
| We need to fight back and fight back hard. | ||
| We must press on. | ||
| And next and last, we'll hear from Congressman Greg Kassar, and then we'll take questions. | ||
| Thank you, Congressman Fletcher. | ||
| Thank you so much, Leader Jeffries, for being here and to everybody who is fighting against this horrific plan. | ||
| Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. | ||
| And Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in Texas history. | ||
| And this is these two men teaming up to try to ram through this ridiculous and illegal gerrymandering plan. | ||
| It's the same old BS. | ||
| Corrupt politicians having a scheme to rig the rules of our elections so that they can drown out voters' voices and remain unaccountable. | ||
| We're not going to have it. | ||
| Not on our watch. | ||
| Not on the watch of these brave Texas Democrats and the legislature, not on the watch of my congressional colleagues, not on the watch of Leader Jeffries. | ||
| Voters are rightfully upset that housing prices keep going up, that the price of medicine keeps on going up, that Donald Trump is taking your money and handing it to his rich donor friends. | ||
| And this radical and illegal redistricting scheme is all about Donald Trump not being held accountable for his crimes, for his corruption, and for his lies. | ||
| We're not going to have it. | ||
| We're not going to stand for this. | ||
| Just like Congresswoman Garcia, of course they have mangled so many of our districts. | ||
| They're trying to suppress the voices of voters of color by merging the majority parts of the 35th District and the 37th District here in central Texas. | ||
| They aren't doing something that has to do with myself or Congressman Doggett. | ||
| No, they are trying to silence the voices of voters in central Texas. | ||
| And if Donald Trump is allowed to suppress the votes of central Texas voters, he wants to take that all across the country. | ||
| That's what we're here to fight against. | ||
| And I have enormous confidence after Leader Jeffries' meeting with all of us last night that Texas Democrats are ready to show the country what a real fight looks like. | ||
| Because the bad news for Donald Trump is that Texas Democrats are not scared of a fight. | ||
| We are ready to use every tool available and to make sure that people all over the country push back against this illegal and corrupt scheme because Texans deserve leaders that are going to look out for them in disasters, not try to steal their taxpayer money and hand it to their friends. | ||
| Texans deserve leaders that are trying to expand your health care, not take it away. | ||
| So we're in for this fight. | ||
| And I am so proud of the Texas Democrats here and the Texas House and the Texas Senate who are leading us in that charge. | ||
| Thank you all very much. | ||
| I made a snafu just a moment ago. | ||
| I did not acknowledge Leader Jeffries. | ||
| And given that he's my leader, I want to correct that. | ||
| Thank you for coming to Texas. | ||
| You're here to make a difference. | ||
| And your presence makes a difference. | ||
| And we appreciate you. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| And now we'll take questions. | ||
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unidentified
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If you look at other states, Republican and Democratic, the percentage holds by the congressional delegation far outweighs the percent vote of the statewide. | |
| Texas is actually behind the curve in states like Florida and California and Illinois in their percentage hold on the congressional delegations. | ||
| How is this different than what's going on in other states? | ||
| It's clear to us that the Texas congressional map is already gerrymandered for a whole host of reasons and that litigation is currently in court and we believe that the three-judge panel will likely decide that the current map violates the Voting Rights Act because it is undermining the ability of communities of color led by the Latino community to elect the candidate of their choice. | ||
| Each state and whether it's in compliance with the law has to be evaluated based on the demographics of that state. | ||
| And when you evaluate the demographics here in the state of Texas, as has been illustrated, the current map violates the law. | ||
| And this congressional map will double and triple down on the extreme racial gerrymandering that is silencing the voices of millions of Texans. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| Everybody's saying all these options are on the table. | ||
| You're here to support them. | ||
| Can you give us a clue as to what those options are and what tangibly are the National Democrats doing to help the Texas Democrats? | ||
| Yeah, let me simply... | ||
| Let me simply say I've got great confidence in the Texas Democrats in the House and in the Senate to stand up and fight in the best interests of the people that they represent. | ||
| All across America, over the last six plus months, we've seen corporations bend the knee, law firms have bent the knee, colleges and universities have bent the knee to Donald Trump. | ||
| Texas Democrats will not bend the knee. | ||
| They will stand up for the people that they are privileged to represent. | ||
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unidentified
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I think what John is saying is that, and I think we've covered a lot of this over the years, legislative fights, elections, et cetera, while Heracra Texas Democrats. | |
| They kind of feel like the fighters of the alum. | ||
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unidentified
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They do their best, but no help is coming. | |
| What is different? | ||
| What help is coming? | ||
| I'm here to make clear, as House Democratic leader, in partnership with the Texas congressional delegation, that it's not simply the case that help is on the way. | ||
| Help is here. | ||
| And we stand with Texas Democrats on behalf of fighting for the quality of life issues around the economy and health care and housing and combating corruption that are important to the people of Texas. | ||
| And Texas Democrats understand that if Republicans are allowed to gerrymander this congressional map, the quality of life of the people of Texas will continue to be undermined. | ||
| Donald Trump and House Republicans here passed this one big ugly bill that rips away health care from millions of people, including here in Texas. | ||
| Ends Medicaid as we know it here in Texas. | ||
| Steals food from the mouths of children, veterans, and seniors here in Texas. | ||
| Makes it harder for the people of Texas to get a high quality education here in this great state. | ||
| So all of these issues are at stake in fighting for a congressional map that gives the people of Texas the ability to choose their elected officials, as opposed to what's happening with this attempt to gerrymander the map and allow Texas politicians on the Republican side to choose their voters. | ||
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unidentified
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Last question. | |
| Speaker, there's been a lot of, I'd like to press what John said a while ago. | ||
| He's been on to talk about a fight. | ||
| Exactly what are the ingredients of that fight? | ||
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unidentified
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Is there anyone to talk about a walkout that you favor bad one or all should be supported? | |
| Wait, do you want to respond? | ||
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unidentified
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I'll respond as well. | |
| Yeah, go ahead. | ||
| Go ahead, Lisbeth. | ||
| Well, I was just going to say, Leader Jeffries will respond. | ||
| I was just going to say there are a lot of ways to fight, but one of the most important things is that people need to know what's happening. | ||
| Don't forget that Governor Abbott just put this on the call for the special session after he called the special session in the first place, after the floods in the Hill Country. | ||
| He snuck it in in the dark of night, and they've taken it up and rushed through hearings where the thousands of people who showed up to testify hadn't even seen a map. | ||
| Now they've called hearings for this Friday and they're going to take public testimony as far as we know for maybe one day and that's it and try to rush these maps through. | ||
| And so the most important thing that we can do right now is let people know it's happening because people across our state hate what is happening. | ||
| Republicans and Democrats alike. | ||
| There was a Republican that testified in Houston that he didn't want him to do it either. | ||
| Texans see what's being done to them and they don't like it and they're not going to take it. | ||
| So number one, we are using our voices to make sure that our constituents and people across the state, no matter who their member of Congress is, know who's fighting for them and their ability to have a say for their vote, to be able to cast their vote and have a say in the elections. | ||
| And I want to say one other really important statistic because we've talked about it, but it's important to know that in Texas, more than 60% of the population is minority. | ||
| And yet Anglo voters control 65% of the congressional seats. | ||
| They get to choose the candidates that go to Congress. | ||
| So we have the inverse here. | ||
| So when Leader Jeffrey said the map is already unconstitutional, being challenged in court, we already think 13 isn't enough. | ||
| And now what you see is they're reducing it. | ||
| They're reducing the voices of minority communities. | ||
| But that should matter to every single Texan, no matter who you vote for. | ||
| We should care about the rights of Texans to have our say and let Texans make decisions, not Donald Trump. | ||
| So that's one of the most important things. | ||
| And you are important in that process and making sure that you're covering it, that you're talking about it, and that people across our state know and people across the country are watching. | ||
| They're watching what we do here in Texas. | ||
| So that's a very important thing. | ||
| And I think everybody, everybody who's standing here and our colleagues who couldn't be physically in Austin with us today, who are using their voices, and those who are here, but somewhere else on the Capitol, because Texas Democrats are standing up, speaking out, and fighting for the rights of all Texans. | ||
| It's important for us to make clear to the people of Texas that this effort to undermine their ability for a free and fair election to occur is going to hurt their quality of life. | ||
| Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike. | ||
| This Texas gerrymander will hurt your quality of life. | ||
| And our message to the people of Texas is you deserve better from your government, which should be focused on solving problems, not simply following orders from Donald Trump, who knows he doesn't have a track record of accomplishment that he can sell to the voters in the midterm elections. | ||
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unidentified
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Senator Jeffries, the question is, are you urging Texas Democrats to break for that maybe the only nuclear option that they have? | |
| My response is simple. | ||
| First and foremost, we have to make clear to the people of Texas what's taking place because it's unacceptable, unconscionable, and un-American. | ||
| And as elected officials, we have that responsibility. | ||
| That's not something we can just brush aside. | ||
| At 50 states in America, I'm here in Texas for a reason. | ||
| Because these legislators are standing up. | ||
| These members of Congress are standing up and communicating to the people of Texas what's occurring right now in the middle of the summer at a special session. | ||
| And we will make clear that we're going to do everything possible to support the Texas legislators as they consider the best ways to push back. | ||
|
Texas Democrats Decide
00:06:55
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| It's an all-hands-on-deck moment and all options should be on the table to protect the people of Texas. | ||
| But Texas Democrats are going to be the ones to decide that. | ||
| We will fight them politically. | ||
| We will fight them governmentally. | ||
| We will fight them in court. | ||
| We will fight them in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the people of Texas and beyond. | ||
| The Texas Democrats are going to show up and stand up and speak up for what's right for the people of Texas. | ||
| And they're showing courage and conviction and character in doing that. | ||
| And we'll see what happens over the next few days, over the next few weeks. | ||
| But the one thing I know is clear, that Texas Democrats are fighting for the people. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| Thank you all. Thank you all. Thank you all. Thank you all. | ||
| We're finished here. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
|
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Joining us now for the latest on the Texas Republican moves to redraw congressional district maps in that state is Gabby Barenbaum, Washington correspondent for the Texas Tribune. | |
| Thank you for being with us. | ||
| So a proposed map was released by the State House Republicans on Wednesday. | ||
| What's been the reaction to it? | ||
| Well, Democrats are obviously apoplectic about the map. | ||
| Currently, they have 13 seats, 12 members of Congress, and one open seat that's expected to go to a Democrat. | ||
| Under the new map, five of them would be redrawn to favor Republicans. | ||
| So that's five Democrats who are looking at potentially losing their seats if the map works as intended. | ||
| And so they're obviously furious, both on political grounds and then also concerned about the implications of potentially violating the Voting Rights Act by packing or cracking voters of color into various districts to dilute their ability to let the chance of their choice. | ||
| So those are the areas in which Democrats are really focused. | ||
| When the map was released, was any explanation given as to why these lines are now in this place instead of that place? | ||
| Or I guess to put another way, do we know how they decided to draw, what factors the Republicans took into account in creating these new districts? | ||
| I mean, I think it's clear that the goal here is to maximize the Republican seats. | ||
| President Trump has publicly said he wanted Texas to redistrict to pick up a map with five seats. | ||
| They've been working with the White House on this. | ||
| The Republicans have argued in court with the current map and will argue with the new map that the goal here is partisanship. | ||
| The goal here is to increase the number of Republican seats. | ||
| And I think that's just really the cut and dry explanation as to why they're redrawing these lines. | ||
| We're almost two weeks into the special session. | ||
| The first couple of days have seen a lot of House and Senate hearings in Texas and getting public input. | ||
| Almost all the people testifying, though, are against this effort. | ||
| They seem to be Democrats. | ||
| Are these hearings required or why were they held? | ||
| I mean, this is part of the public process of getting testimony. | ||
| Obviously, I think a lot of the attendees at the hearings have rightfully pointed out, they were testifying without a map to look at when submitting testimony. | ||
| And so I think you are seeing a lot of anger at these hearings, and there will be further hearings because people recognize, and the Republicans, I think, have been open in saying this is for partisan gain, like I mentioned. | ||
| And so I think that's why you've seen such an explosion at these hearings and why Democrats are going to continue to press the issue. | ||
| Congressman Akeem Jeffries, the U.S. House minority leader, is in Austin, Texas today, saying that he wants to nationalize this debate. | ||
| What have you seen down in Texas in turning this into a national issue? | ||
| I mean, it's a bit, you know, it's a bit difficult because this is somewhat niche on one hand. | ||
| You're talking about exactly where lines are drawn. | ||
| But on the other hand, you have people whose member of Congress is going to change. | ||
| You know, they are going to feel this. | ||
| And so I think Democrats are, you know, Leader Jeffrey certainly is part of that, are hoping to nationalize this issue for fundraising purposes, you know, for electoral purposes to try to make the case here that Republicans are trying to steal, right, is the word they're using, steal seats, to, you know, decrease the chance that they'll lose the House in the midterm. | ||
| And so because the House Representatives' margin is so close and five seats can make a huge difference, I think you're seeing, you know, the Democrats really trying to fire up their base about this issue and explain that this could be the difference between Democratic or Republican control of the House in the 2026 midterm. | ||
| We're talking with Gabby Berenbaum from the Texas Tribune. | ||
| So what are the next steps? | ||
| The special session is a few weeks in and only a few weeks to go. | ||
| Yeah, so this was a proposal on the House side. | ||
| It would need to be voted on in the House and in the Senate. | ||
| And we'll see if the Senate has a different proposal and then approved by the governor. | ||
| The big question right now in Austin is: will Democrats walk out to deny Republicans a quorum and then have them be unable to proceed with the maps? | ||
| They've done that before, including on this issue. | ||
| In 2003, Republicans pursued a mid-decade redistricting. | ||
| In that case, Democrats walked out and held up the proceedings for quite a while before the quorum break ended. | ||
| They came back and the maps were ultimately passed. | ||
| And so we'll see if Democrats try to use that delay tactic. | ||
| It's expensive and difficult to coordinate, but we'll see if they're able to do that. | ||
| And they would have to do that pretty quickly because, as you mentioned, the special session doesn't have that much more time to go. | ||
| And has Governor Abbott been saying anything since the special session began? | ||
| So Governor Abbott has not really publicly talked about this. | ||
| We had some reporting in the Texas Tribune that behind the scenes, he wasn't too jazzed about the idea of a new map until President Trump personally called him and asked him to pursue it. | ||
| In his initial call for the special session, he justified the redistricting as needing, you know, as being needed because of a letter from the Department of Justice saying that a few districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. | ||
| Republicans in the state house have denied that. | ||
| That was the ostensible reason for the redistricting, the legal justification that they used. | ||
| Republicans have repeatedly said they did not use race in drawing these original maps that they're now changing. | ||
| So there's been some dispute over that. | ||
| But Governor Abbott has been pretty reserved on the issue. | ||
| And finally, one of the other big issues on the agenda for the special session is the relief from the devastating floods. | ||
| If the Democrats were to walk out and lead the state and boycott this, would that also hold up passage of that legislation? | ||
| Yeah, so that would sort of hold up the ability of the House to do any of it, of the state house to do any of its business. | ||
| And that's sort of part of the political messaging on this. | ||