He did encourage his supporters to “peacefully” turn out to the Capitol tomorrow for the House vote. Great.
I must say, it would be amusing to see the GOP Texas legislature get the Jan6 treatment, though it would be unfair to the security folks tasked with protecting them.
And don’t forget George Santos.
I sort of wonder who these alleged “supporters” of Paxton are? And what political stripe (except “uninformed”) do they represent?
As the Viet Nam War-era bumper sticker almost said:
What if they gave a riot and nobody came?
He’s popular with the diehard Trumpists — he led the lawsuit to try to overturn election results in swing states. And now the state party is coming out in his defense. I don’t know how big a crowd to expect, though, especially since it’s Memorial Day weekend. Having to choose between demonstrating for Ken Paxton and being drunk on a jet ski is a tough one.
But the math in the Texas House is that (assuming all Democrats vote for his impeachment), only 12 House Republicans (out of 86) need to vote yes for Paxton to be impeached.
True. But in both cases you can wander around in a stupor brandishing your precious firearm.
Evidence burns smoky, doesn’t it?
And who knows? Maybe once he isn’t the top law enforcement official in the state any more (lord willing and the creek don’t rise, as they say in those parts) he may actually have to go to court for the securities fraud case he was indicted on way back in 2015.
One weird thing about Texas politics is that the Texas House is traditionally the least insane branch of government. Its very, very Republican, but it’s a pro-business sort of Republican. For the last 20 years, its been the House that killed the batshit theocracy type bills, that understood a functional education system was necessary to attract national companies, that understood that cities were actually important, etc.
There are worrying signs that this is changing, but it still holds true to some extent. So it is actually possible that they think hes just such a fucking embarrassment of a garbage human that he really has to go, and since there is no chance he will be replaced by anything other than another Republican, there’s no reason to keep him.
But it may also be he is apparently just ridiculously cheap to buy, and he’s fucking the market on corruption.
MAGAs totally believe that the country’s entire jurisprudence system has been “weaponized” against them and conservatives can’t get a fair shake in court. They’re also angry that Republican officials haven’t hauled Joe and Hunter Biden in front of a red state jury to find them guilty of their many crimes.
Which is amusing when you look at all the Obama era judicial nominees that never got a confirmation hearing thanks to Mitch McConnell, allowing Trump to pack the Federal court system with barely-qualified right wing extremists.
What do they care? They’re not conservatives; some of them are racists, some of them are reactionaries, some of them are white nationalists, and all of them are radicals.
'Zactly. Its way past time we all, both Dopers and citizens, stop referring to Radical RW Reactionaries as “conservatives”. They are nothing of the kind.
Calling them “conservatives” is kinda like referring to a piranha as a “goldfish” or a velociraptor as an “iguana”; there’s some superficial resemblance, but the differences matter far more than do the similarities.
Twice-impeached President Donald Trump has finally weighed in on the Paxton impeachment, blasting Dade Phelan and promising to target any House Republican who votes to impeach. Cruz has also come out and called the impeachment a “travesty.” It’s likely that he still gets impeached, but this may make it harder to get the 2/3 in the Senate to convict.
And he’s impeached: Final vote was 121-23.
I guess the Trumply threat wasn’t too credible. Either that or we’re about to see a fully Trump-chosen replacement Texas legislature after the current crop gets Jan 6th-ed.
So should I be happy, or…
Probably. It suggests there may be a floor.
Best case, he is basically suspended for two years unril the senate reconvenes and hes quitly convicted because after 2 years, he is a non-entity.
Worse case, Abbott calls an emergency session and hea swiftly acquitted. Abbott will only call such a session if he’s confident about acquittal.
The idea that anyone, ever, would stick there neck out for a Paxton . . . A man who’d whore out his dog for a nickel . . . I do not understand. Hos garbage human status should transcend all other concerns.
My understanding is that because he was impeached during the Legislative session, the Senate either has to meet immediately for his trial and stay in session until it’s over (the session’s last day is scheduled to be Monday) or the Lt. Governor can set a date for his trial. There’s no requirement on when the date for trial has to be set.
I don’t think it’s impossible that the Senate may vote to convict. It would take 21 Senators to convict. With all 12 Democrats likely to vote to convict, it would take 9 Republicans to remove him. It really comes down to what Dan Patrick decides, as he’s completely subjugated Senate Republicans to his whims. On the one hand, Patrick was Trump’s Texas chairman and is closely aligned with the same MAGA crowd that elected Paxton. But on the other hand, he apparently personally dislikes Paxton and is a petty, vindictive fuck.