After secretly leaving their state to kill a voter suppression bill, 50+ Texas Democratic lawmakers plan to hunker down in D.C. for the next month to beg Congress to protect the voting rights that they can't huffpost.com/entry/texas-de…
I caught up with one of these Texas Dems, @jamestalarico, to talk about how 50+ lawmakers came up with the plan to leave the state, how long they’re prepared to stay in DC + what their endgame is back in Texas.
Talarico said Texas Ds are well aware that Gov. Abbott can keep calling special sessions til the GOP passes the voter suppression bill. They can't stay in DC forever.
"This is not a long-term plan to kill this bill....We are living on borrowed time. We are buying Congress time."
And contrary to furious Texas Republicans saying these Dems are off on a taxpayer-funded vacation, Talarico said this isn't fun for anyone.
Dem Rep. Celia Israel canceled her wedding to be in D.C.
Dem Rep. Harold Dutton just left his ailing sister's bedside to be in D.C.
"Although this is a major inconvenience for some of us ... it pales in comparison to the sacrifices that brave Americans have made throughout history to protect the sacred right to vote," said Talarico.
So what are these Texas Dems gonna do in DC for the next 4 weeks, aside from bringing the Texas Lege's work to a halt?
They're meeting with Senate Ds to beg them to pass federal voting rights legislation.
"We’re meeting with Sen. Manchin.... I haven’t heard about Sen. Sinema."
Talarico said warrants are being issued for Dems' arrest back in Texas. And some are hearing details about Gov. Abbott potentially directing law enforcement to search their homes.
Five more of Biden's nominees to lifetime federal court seats are getting their Senate confirmation hearing today.
Up first, Myrna Perez, Biden's pick for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
She's a voting rights attorney and if confirmed, she'd be the only Latina on that court.
Just watched GOP Sen. John Kennedy do what he does all the time in these hearings:
Repeatedly interrupt a female nominee after asking her to answer a "simple" question that is not simple. And then complain and/or say he can't support her because she didn't answer his question.
This basically went on for 5 minutes:
Kennedy: Are you gonna use the Constitution to try to create new rights?
Perez: Senator, appellate court judges don't create new rights.
I was covering the Texas Lege when Dems did this in 2003 to (try to) stop a redistricting bill. GOP leaders locked us in the House chamber with GOP lawmakers to prevent anyone else from leaving!
Despite Texas Dems' *twice* fleeing the state in 2003 to block a redistricting bill -- first House Dems fled to Oklahoma, then Senate Dems fled to New Mexico -- they ultimately lost that fight.
GOP Gov. Rick Perry just kept calling special sessions until they passed the bill.
Was it dramatic and exciting to cover this? Yes.
Did Dems ever have a chance of stopping that redistricting bill in a state with a GOP-led House, Senate and governor's office? No.
Biden quietly hit a milestone yesterday: He's confirmed more lifetime federal judges than any president has done in 50+ years by this point in their first six months in office. huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide…
It's still very early in his presidency. We're not talking huge #s yet.
But.
Biden has confirmed 7 lifetime federal judges so far. By this point in their first 6 mos, his predecessors had....
Investigators in Canada have discovered 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children.
751 children. Taken from their families and forced into abusive, dehumanizing schools where they died. 💔 huffpost.com/entry/751-bodi…
"Chief Cadmusn Delmore ... said that the graves were marked at one time, but that the Roman Catholic Church that operated the school had removed the markers.
'The Pope needs to apologize for what happened,' he said.
'An apology is one stage in the way of a healing journey.'”
The U.S. government did the same thing for more than a century and it carried on into the 1970s:
Hundreds of thousands of Native American children were taken from their families and forced into horrific, abusive white assimilation boarding schools where many died.
I see that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he's bringing the Legislature back into a special session on July 8. It can only be for 30 days + Abbott solely decides what issues will be addressed.
He's already said "more must be done" to "abolish critical race theory in Texas."
A reminder that Abbott passed a law last week to make it incredibly difficult for Texas social studies teachers to talk about racism or current events.
As one Dem legislator put it, “The idea is to whitewash American history of any legacy of racism." huffpost.com/entry/texas-re…
Also critical race theory is not taught in K-12 schools + you can't "abolish" theories and ideas on things.
So it sounds like this will be Texas taxpayers' money well spent on convening the Legislature!