Abbott Threatens to Arrest Fleeing Democrats

ABBOTT: Isn’t that the most un-Texan thing you’ve ever heard, Texans running from a fight? They are quitters. It’s like during a football game or baseball game, taking their equipment when they’re way behind and just leaving the field. That is not the way that Texans do things. The state House of Representatives who are here in the capital in Austin right now, they do have the ability to issue a call to have their fellow members who are not showing up to be arrested but only as long as that arrest is made in the state of Texas. Once they step back into the state of Texas, they will be arrested and brought to the Texas Capitol, and we will be conducting business.

BUCK: The Democrats are wanted, so to speak. Welcome back to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show. There you had the governor of Texas straight up saying it. They set foot, the 58 Democrats who have absconded on taxpayer-funded private planes to go to D.C. to take lots of selfies, post photos and videos of themselves drinking soy lattes, eating salad with the protein taken out of it, you know, sustainable only, of course, Clay. And we’re supposed to believe that this is some selfless act.

There was actually one of these legislators who put something out about essentially what a bunch of heroes they are, you know, they’re leaving their families, the special session could go on for 30 days. Oh, that’s right, good heavens, these Texans might have to live in our nation’s capital for 30 whole days. I’m sure it’s the scariest they’ve ever been.

Clay, here’s where we really are on this one. Democrats have a deep and abiding anxiety about not only looking too closely as what happened in the 20/20 election, but also losing some of the changes they made under the emergency declaration in these different states, they feel like, “Whoa. Hold on a second. If we can’t do that” — which is why they want H.R.1 — if they can’t push for that nationwide, which is what the For the People Act is supposed to do, they might lose the next time around. The thing that everybody knows, the most important thing of all for Democrats — power. Everything else is secondary to that.

CLAY: Buck, when you look at the 2020 election, even with all of Big Tech colluding in their favor, the New York Post story can’t be shared, all sorts of destruction of messaging through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all of Big Tech putting their ample power on the Joe Biden side of the electoral math. I think Democrats are looking at all these numbers, and they are having a “holy crap” moment. As all the Pew Research — I was looking at it over the weekend — comes out and you look at the data, if — even based on the numbers that are out there right now, which are vastly inflated because of pandemic emergency elections, right?

The method in which the elections took place in 2020, Donald Trump lost Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona by a combined 40,000 votes. That means in a country of 330 million people, if 20,000 people, roughly an arena for hockey or the NBA in this entire country, had changed their minds, Trump would have been reelected in 2020.

And I think what Democrats looked at the is they said, “Oh, my God. We pulled out all the stops in 2020, all the emergency voting regulations that we could possibly put in place, and Big Tech put their entire foot on the scale of justice for us, and we still won by a pinprick.” And they know that with redistricting going on in 2022, that they’re gonna lose the House. And I think you’re right that they have a good chance to lose the Senate, and they’re going to argue their entire 2024 campaign, which I think is gonna be headed up by Kamala Harris, is going to be “everything is racist.” That’s the Democratic Party’s message. That’s all they have right now. Their entire message comes down to three words: “Everything is racist.”

And what they are gambling on, Buck, is that there are enough woke white people, because that’s who won Joe Biden the election, woke white people in the suburbs who are afraid of being called racist, that they can so terrify white people that if they support Republicans, they are racist, that they are gonna find a way to win. Everything is racist is the Democrat Party’s entire message now.

BUCK: And if the press were actually interested in covering what’s happening, you’ll notice — and you can tell that they’re lying to you or hiding things from you because they’ll say, “Republicans want to pass in the state of Texas, and this then feeds immediately to this broader everything that has to do with voter integrity members, every — essentially, any voting rule that Democrats don’t like is called racist. And that is not an exaggeration. That is an ironclad rule of American politics right now.

But when you look at what’s in the Texas bills, it’s actually two bills, House bill 3 and Senate bill 1, they have voter ID requirements for those who want to vote by mail. Very straightforward. No sending vote by mail applications to those who haven’t asked for them. Seems straightforward. Ban drive-through voting, which they only got because of the pandemic in the sense of emergency that was around it that they helped create, expand poll-watcher protections. They don’t like that, of course. Right? Poll watchers definitely getting access. Democrats, why? Poll watchers as a provision is the “what have you got to hide?” measure. And every time you try to push for greater — ’cause what happens is sometimes Democrat precincts say, “No you, can’t actually being be in the room,” or, “No, you’re not allowed on the premises.” This, in Texas, would say, that is flatly illegal. They don’t like that. So that’s very clear. And also think there’s something about filling out paperwork if you take a nonrelative directly and in person to vote. Relatives you can obviously take. So that’s really what’s in this, Clay.

And what I think is so interesting is the lectures we get from Democrats, especially in the corporate media about how we need to respect our institutions and we need to respect the system. What about the people of the state of Texas who voted to give the Republicans a clear majority in the statehouse? Do their voices not count? Do their votes not matter? You know, if we’re gonna talk about respecting institutions, doing something for which you can be arrested in your own state, which the Democrats are doing, does not seem to be the height of responsibility. But we all know, hypocrisy is the water in which the libs swim.

CLAY: Thinking of hypocrisy, I mean, they’re all on a plane, the Texas state legislature members are, without wearing masks. And they are taking a step which is infinitely more pronounced than the filibuster, right? We’ve been told because the Democrat Party’s message is “everything is racist” that the filibuster now, which, by the way, was used abundantly by Senate Democrats. And I think Kyrsten Sinema herself pointed out that 41 different Senate Democrats defended the filibuster the edge of their abilities when Donald Trump won in 2017. But it’s now racist use the filibuster. Wait a minute. This is way more expansive than the filibuster. The Texas minority here, the Democratic members of the House are fleeing the state —

BUCK: Clay —

CLAY: — rather than have to be involved in a debate over election law. That’s a billion percent more substantial than the filibuster.

BUCK: This is like faking illness to get out of your math test in high school. That’s what this. This is abusing the system dishonestly to avoid something, a consequence that you don’t want. That’s what the Democrats are —

CLAY: Well, and then saying, not only saying you’re sick and then say the test itself is racist and so you’re going to a different state to talk about how racist your high school is.

BUCK: And yet here’s the real test. You mentioned redistricting, which will be called gerrymandering — you’ll be able to see it if you do a Nexis search —

CLAY: It won’t be called gerrymandering anymore. It will be called racist.

BUCK: True. You’ll see the term gerrymandering appearing a lot more when Republicans do it even though it’s the same when Democrats do. I worry that Republicans lack the spinal fortitude to really use their power on that issue. There’s already some indicators they’re gonna get a little weak on redistricting, and it’s because — all of it has to with protecting incumbency, too, protecting incumbents. But then there’s also will Republicans in the state of Texas really hold the line speaking. And you have Governor Greg Abbott who’s saying he’s gonna keep calling these sessions. He’s not gonna move. He’s not gonna back down an inch.

ABBOTT: What the House of Representatives can do, the Speaker can do is issue a call to have these members arrested. In addition to that, however, I can and I will continue to call special session after special session after special session all the way up until election next year. And so if these people want to be hanging out wherever they’re hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they’re gonna have to be prepared to do it for well over a year. As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done.

BUCK: They have to follow through. Abbott has to follow through on this. It’s essential, because it otherwise sends a message to Democrats that if they abuse the system in Alinsky-ite fashion, they sabotage it, they jam it up, they get away with it, Clay.