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Just moments ago, President Trump commented on the ongoing situation in Texas regarding the Democrats who fled the state to avert redistricting efforts. Take a listen.
Well, I think they've abandoned the state. Nobody's seen anything like it, even though they've done it twice before, and in a certain way, it almost looks like they've abandoned the state. It looks very bad.
Yeah, go ahead, please get involved. Should the FBI get involved, well, they may have to. They may have to. Joining us now for more here on Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and Radio is Democratic Texas State Representative James Tallerico. Welcome back to Balance of Power. Representative. It's good to have you. The other thing we heard from the President is that Democrats did this redistricting first. That was his
response when questioned about what's happening in Texas. Given the rhetoric we are hearing from other blue state governors, be it Kathy Hochel or Gavin Newsom, does the President have a point or Democrats kind of counteract your argument that what Texas is doing is wrong.
No, not at all. Typically state legislatures, whether they're in blue states or red states, they adjust district boundaries at the beginning of the decade, and yes, they jerrymanders. Sometimes Democrats do it, sometimes Republicans do it. It is wrong in either instance because politicians shouldn't be picking their voters. Voters should be picking their politicians. But what's happening here
is a whole nother level. The President of the United States, the most powerful man in the country, requested that Texas Republicans find him five more congressional seats, and so now they are redrawing the maps they just drew in twenty twenty one to rig the next election for him, to insulate him from public accountability. And that's a fundamental disruption
to the democratic process. If the president wanted to campaign on his policies and try to win base on the maps that we all set in twenty twenty one, that would be fine. That's how this process is supposed to work. But that's not what's happening. The President is trying to execute a power grab in the state of Texas, and we will not let him cheat in order to hold onto power.
Reptel Rico, it's good to have you back. On Bloomberg. We spoke with your colleague and the Senate yesterday, Chris Turner. I'm sorry State Rep. Chris Turner, another Democrat who has fled I believe to the same city that you did.
To try to make a point here, but we also kind of acknowledge the fact that this really will not change the outcome of this effort because the governor can continue to set special sessions, and mister Turner learned that just a few years ago in the last attempt at redistricting. I think it was five weeks before everybody came back and this took place at last. What is the real purpose of you leaving Texas? Is it to publicize what's happening, Is it to raise money around it? Or both?
Well, I actually want to push back on the idea that our twenty twenty one quorum break was a failure. It wasn't. And I also want to clarify that it wasn't over redistricting. It was over a voter suppression bill that would have made it harder to vote in the state of Texas. Texas is one of the hardest places to vote in the entire country, and so we broke quorum and we drew national attention, a national spotlight on that voter suppression effort, and that spotlight convinced Texas Republicans
to take the worst parts out of that bill. A ban on souls to the polls, which is Sunday morning voting, which African American churches traditionally use to get their congregants out to vote. Also a provision that would have allowed Republican politicians to overturn election results they didn't like. And both of those parts were taken out because of our quorum break. So it is a tool in the toolbox of the minority for when the majority oversteps their constitutional duties.
And so I'm hoping that this quorum break can do the same thing by shining a national and now international spotlight on this power grab in Texas. We're hoping our Republican colleagues will walk back from the brink. I hope we can play by the same rules that we set in twenty twenty one and not cheat in the middle
of the game. I mean by mid decade redistricting, they are essentially like the team coming out of halftime during a football game that's ahead and they say they want to change the rules for the second half so they can win the game. That's cheating, plain and simple. If they're going to cheat, we're not going to play.
Representative. We just heard from President Trump in response to the call from Republican Senator John cornyin of Texas to potentially get the FBI involved in the cases of lawmakers like yourself, who will flood the state of Texas to execute this quorum break. What is your reaction to that, sir. What happens if the FBI gets involved.
Well, it's completely consistent with this rigged map. They are trying to rob Texans, Democrats, independents, and Republicans from their god given right to pick the representatives of their choice. And now Donald Trump and Greg Abbott and Ken Paxson are talking about removing or arresting public officials, the people's representatives, from their offices. And so this is a page out of the authoritarian playbook that we've seen in other countries.
And it should be alarming to all of us, not just Democrats, but Republicans and independence too, not just elected officials but journalists too. This is a five alarm fire in a democratic system, and we all need to act with the urgency that this moment demands.
Do you expect that someone will serve a warrant on behalf of the governor or the FBI try to extradite you representative. What scenarios have you mapped out based on what you've.
Heard so far. Well, I think I can speak for myself and my colleagues when I say that we're not very worried about the consequences we may face, whether they are arrest or financial fines, or even removal from office, because we have right on our side. We are part of a long American tradition of looking bullies in the eye, of speaking truth to power, of civil disobedience, of good trouble. That is how this democracy was forged, and we are participating in that tradition, and we're proud to do it.
When Donald Trump asked Georgia Republicans to find him eleven thousand votes after he lost the twenty twenty election, those Republicans said, no, sir. But when Donald Trump asked Texas Republicans to find him five more seats in Congress in the middle of the decade, they said, how about Thursday? And so that's why my Democratic colleagues and I had to take a stand again, not just for our party, but for all Americans.
Democratic Texas State Rep. James tall Rico, we thank you for returning and joining our conversation here on Bloomberg