Texas Democrats who are in New York on Monday after fleeing the Lone Star State to deprive the state House of a quorum fired back at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who has threatened to remove them from office if they don’t show up to work.
“We, the Democratic contingent, we are paying attention to what our constituents are demanding of us,” Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones (D) said at a press conference with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in Albany.
Abbott held firm Monday afternoon. “Texans don’t run from a fight,” he said on Fox News, again threatening to boot them from the House. “They forfeited their seats and are facing potential felony charges.”
Many Texas Democrats left Sunday to keep the state House from reaching a quorum in its Monday legislative session, preventing the chamber from doing business.
The Democrats fanned out across blue states, including Illinois and New York, where those states’ governors have vowed to stand with them in their effort to prevent new congressional maps from being approved.
President Trump said Sunday he would appoint a “new statistician” this week after firing the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief Friday following dramatic revisions in recent jobs reports.
“We had no confidence. I mean, the numbers were ridiculous, what she announced, but that was just one negative number. All of the numbers seemed to be great,” he told reporters Sunday night.
Trump will have lunch with Vice President Vance on Monday and has no other public events scheduled.
Catch up here:
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Follow along here all day for updates.
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