Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) signed arrest warrants for the 52 House Democrats who fled the state to subvert democracy last month.
“Phelan spokesman Enrique Marquez said warrants were signed for 52 Democrats who failed to return during the fifth day of the House’s second special session, leaving the chamber eight members short of a quorum,” the Washington Post reported.
The Democrats fled the state after Texas Governor Gregg Abbott called a special session to vote on an election security bill which the Democrats claimed restricted access to voting.
“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,” Abbott said in response.
Abbott later added that their “thesis” that the bill restricted voting access is “completely false.”
“We have special sessions that last 30 days, and the governor calls them and I will continue calling special session after special session, because over time it’s going to continue until they step up to vote,” Abbott said. “The thesis that they are operating under is completely false, because what the Texas law does, doesn’t hinder anybody’s ability to vote. And in fact, interestingly, what Texas is seeking to do is to add additional hours to vote. Texas has 12 days of early voting and the hours of which will be expanded. And we will ensure that hours are expanded on Election Day also.”
“So their entire thesis is completely wrong,” Abbott added. “And compare early voting in Texas with early voting that we have in Delaware. Texas has 12 days of early voting. Delaware has zero days of early voting. Why am I picking on Delaware? Because that is where the President himself voted in the last election. And if anybody wants to talk about voter suppression, they should be talking about Delaware, not Texas.”
