One of the Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state amid the GOP’s push to pass friendlier House maps condemned the use of the FBI to track them down.
“The Texas Governor has threatened our elected office. The Texas Attorney General has called for us to be ‘hunted down.’ And now, the FBI Director — handpicked by Donald Trump — appears to be doing just that,” said state Rep. John Bucy (D) in a statement on Thursday.
“Let’s be clear: using federal law enforcement to track down political opposition is the tactic of a collapsing regime,” he continued. “It’s the kind of authoritarian overreach we condemn in other countries. Now, it’s happening here.”
Echoing Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu (D), Bucy dared the FBI to get involved, saying “come and take it.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) earlier on Thursday said that the FBI had approved his request to have the FBI help law enforcement agencies track down the Texas Democrats who had fled the state to block Republicans from passing an even friendlier GOP House map.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety were “tracking down” the Democrats.
The FBI has declined to comment on the matter to The Hill, and it remains unclear what the FBI has agreed to or the basis they’re using to allow the agency to do this.
Experts that spoke with The Hill this week expressed skepticism that the FBI has the jurisdiction to track down Democrats.
“I don’t see why the FBI would be involved in this at all. I mean this is Texas politics and the FBI has no business trying to enforce Texas state law,” Richard Painter, who served as associate counsel to the president in the White House counsel’s office during former President George W. Bush’s second term, told The Hill.
Texas state Rep. Ann Johnson (D) also condemned the move, calling it in a statement an “authoritarian tactic.”
“I will not be intimidated into silence by politicians who are trying to rig our democracy to cling to power. If standing in the way of authoritarianism makes me a target, so be it. I’d rather be chased for doing what’s right than complicit in what’s wrong,” she said.
Source: The Hill - News
