The Texas House of Representatives has voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, an unprecedented move following a legislative probe that faulted the third-term Republican for a yearslong pattern of corruption, including abusing his office’s powers, retaliating against whistleblowers and obstructing justice.
Under state law, Paxton is now temporarily suspended from his duties as attorney general and will await a Senate trial.
The vote was 121-23, with two members voting “present.”
“The evidence is substantial. It is alarming and unnerving,” said GOP Rep. Andrew Murr, chair of the General Investigating Committee, during his closing statement following hours of debate. The committee recommended 20 counts of impeachment against Paxton.
Democrat Rep. Harold Dutton was one of the members voting present. He said the impeachment vote had been rushed. “The process by which we’re getting this done seems to be abbreviated to the point that it just encroaches on due process,” said Dutton.
Paxton denied wrongdoing in a Friday news conference, but focused his statements against the impeachment this week on his record as a key opponent of President Joe Biden. Paxton’s office has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration.
The now-suspended attorney general called the impeachment a “politically motivated sham” in a statement just minutes after the vote.
“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just,” he said.
Paxton said he was never given a chance to present evidence refuting the findings of an investigation that he abused his office. He has cast House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican who presides over a chamber where his party currently holds 85 seats to Democrats’ 64, as a “liberal.” He continued his attack on Phelan saying, “Phelan’s coalition of Democrats and liberal Republicans is now in lockstep with the Biden Administration, the abortion industry, anti-gun zealots, and woke corporations.”
“Governor Ron DeSantis has inflicted deep and lasting damage upon our state, eroding the fundamental rights of our residents and visitors while exploiting the word ‘free’ as a hollow campaign slogan,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida.
“We understand everyone must weigh the risks and decide what is best for their safety, but whether you stay away, leave or remain we ask that you join us in countering these relentless attacks,” she added. “Help reimagine and build a Florida that is truly safe for and open to all, and where freedom is a reality, not a hollow campaign slogan.”
The group warned LGBT+ people traveling to the state last month after the governor advanced a sweeping set of policies targeting LGBT+ people, particularly transgender youth, that have echoed in state legislatures across the US.
Other advisories followed from the League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP, two of the oldest and largest civil rights advocacy groups in the US. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT+ political advocacy group, also has joined Equality Florida’s advisory.
“Since the day he took office, Governor DeSantis has weaponized his position to weave bigotry, hate, and discrimination into public law for his own political gain,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in a statement this week.
[…]
Since entering the governor’s office, Mr DeSantis has restricted honest discussion of race and racism in schools and in the workplace, prohibited classroom discussion of issues related to gender and sexuality, and signed measures targeting LGBT+ people and their healthcare, abortion rights, immigrants, voting rights, and constitutionally protected speech.
On 17 May, Mr DeSantis approved a slate of bills that restrict affirming healthcare for transgender minors, threaten drag shows, forbid people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity, and prevent people from using their chosen pronouns at schools.
The legislation follows administration policy restricting gender-affirming care for trans people in the state over the objections of major health organisations and LGBT+ advocates.
One law creates a new informed consent process that requires trans patients 18 and older to see a physician in person for gender-affirming healthcare, which will likely prohibit many trans adults from using telehealth or relying on other health providers such as nurse practitioners for their care.
That ambiguity has left health providers and legal analysts unclear how to navigate the law, which could prompt providers to stop providing gender-affirming care altogether, for patients of any age, according to LGBT+ advocates.
Mr DeSantis also recently expanded a measure labelled by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” law prohibiting classroom instruction on issues related to gender and sexuality, which critics argue will have a chilling effect on LGBT+ people in schools as part of an effort to erase LGBT+ people from public life.
Another recently signed law targeting immigration voids out-of-state driver’s licenses for people without proof of citizenship and bars municipalities from using state money to issue identification cards for undocumented immigrants, and most companies in the state must verify whether their patients are living in the country legally.
Immigration advocates warn that such measures will devastate the state’s construction, restaurant and agricultural industries that rely on immigrant workers.
Florida hospitals that accept Medicaid will also be required to collect their patients’ immigration statuses, which LULAC warns will place an “unjust ethical burden on providers administering necessary medical care and perpetuates discrimination based on immigration status.”
Given that Florida is a repulsive worthess nazi trash fire, people should absolutely be worried and disgusted by anyone who wants to make the rest of America or anywhere else anything like this hideous landfill pretending to be a proper state
Ron DeSantis isn’t a politician he’s a garbage man
Both in that he is a man who is utter garbage and in the sense that this is the term for someone in charge of a garbage dump, which is what Florida is
