Episode 30: Texas v. Biden: A Conversation with Ken Paxton

mandates to the border crisis. The Biden administration is showing it doesn't care about your liberty or the rule of law. It only cares about power, plain and simple. This is a crucial moment for our country and we can't afford bystanders. Attorney General Paxton is well aware of what's at stake, and that's why the gloves are off in the Lone Star State. Don't miss this episode and this interview with

the Attorney General of Texas, Kent Paxton. YEA, So, it's such an honor to have of the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on this episode. Probably the second greatest state in the nation. I am biased as a New Floridian and sir, but I really appreciate you joining the show at least thanks fornd the on and Florida is not bad. We love Florida. In sects, We're still going to claim

number one, but we like Florida too. A matter of fact, I think it's critical that Florida and Texas are sticking together. We take on the federal government and so many other important issues together. I agree, sir. We were lucky to be into the greatest states in the nation, you know, sir, I was looking at some of the images coming out near the border near Del Rio, Texas over the weekend, and they're absolutely unreal. I mean, we're seeing a migrant

camp with over fourteen thousand people. Many of these individuals came from Haiti. I mean, it's just complete and utter lawlessness. How did it get this bad? I always say a pictures worth a thousand works. This is this is started the day that Joe Biden became president, when he told the world, Hey, we're had an forcing immigration laws. You can come and we won't deport you. That was the message. It was clear, it was simple. It was in complete

violation of federal law. It was in complete violation of this constitutional role. And and this is what it's been like it's just this finally we get a visual for the rest of America to see what Texas and Arizona and other states have been dealing with since the very beginning. But this is what is happening over This is a small segment of those coming. It just so happens that they they've all congregated in one area. But that's that's

like almost a daily amount of people coming across. Because there's over two hundred thousand people a month that are coming across that we know of, versus just a year ago it was like, you know, one fourth of that. You look at a city like del Rio, for for example, I think it's a city of thirty five thousand people. I read and there are over fourteen thousand at their doorsteps.

So I mean, what impact does this have on a city like Del Rio and in a state like Texas in general, Who's you know right there in the fight obviously is a border state. Yeah, so I've been to Del Rio, I've been to Laredo, I've been down to McAllen and other cities are all alone the border. It's

all the same. They're overwhelmed. It puts tremendous pressure on them both from a cost standpoint, but also just like risk standpoint, um with higher instance of COVID coming in, higher instance of human trafficking, bet in all other type of crime activity, crimes to the their property. People are afraid and it and it definitely affects the lives of those right on the border more than probably anybody else

the United States. You know, the irony of all of this is we've got a president who on September nine announced the sweeping vaccine mandates for Americans. However, you know, he's letting illegal immigrants flow across the border with COVID, not vaccinate all these different things. So he's obviously a complete hypocrite. But you know, as we look at some of these mandates impacting companies with over huttered employees, federal workers and contractors as well as healthcare workers, are these

actions legal? Well, first of all, you bring up a really good point that the fact that they are lecturing us and trying to force Americans take a vaccine he's been lecturing, the president been lecturing is about maths. And then he's letting people, not just letting people, but inviting people to come into the United States who are unvaccinated, who have COVID and then spreads them around the country.

I mean, the president is the greatest super spreader of COVID at any probably buddy in America maybe ever, and and so it doesn't make sense to me that he cares about COVID. He says he does, but he can't care about COVID and let people come in our back door with COVID and not do anything about it. So, yes,

I do think we can do something about it. If it's when OSHA brings out their rules, when they promulgate their rules, we're gonna look at them, and very likely you'll see not only Texas, but most of the Republican states will fight back for because it is unconstitutional for a president to order anybody to get a vaccine. You know, why do you think Democrats so embrace open borders? What's

behind that? They may all have some differing reasons, but I mean, from looking at what the president has done, there's clear clearly two things that going on. And the only thing I can come up with is one he wants to hurt Republican state more crime, more COVID. Then he can blame, you know, say things are going bad in our states, put more costs on us. So it's it's a very insidious reason, but I think it's true.

And he also wants to have these people here voting because he knows if he can overwhelm our states with with voters eventually, you know, what they would like to see is something like California. It's a one party state where there's accountability, corruption can reign. And I'm not a believer in a one party system anywhere because without a two party system, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, you end up with very little accountability for your elected officials.

And I don't think it would be a very good thing to be down the road that that the president wants, which is he wants a one party system where they run everything as if there is no real election. How much correlation is there between you know, Texas COVID numbers and hospital zation and all that with these you know, illegal immigrants pouring across the border with COVID what what you know? How how much of do you think the state's problems fighting COVID are are because of open borders?

You know what, I would say very likely significant because there's so many people coming across the border and it's uncontrollable for us because we don't know where the president is going to send these people. I was talking to some police officers in Dallas and they said they were, you know, out in their patrols and they could see these buses coming in at night. They let people out. They're not detained, they just disappear. And that's happening, you know,

all of our state. I'm sure it's happening to Florida. UM. So we can't even know. That's how bad it is for us. The President doesn't help us, know, doesn't seem to really care, and so we're stuck with the consequences. I don't think we'll ever know exactly what percentage, but it certainly isn't helping well. And what's so different about what we've seen under the Biden administration is that it's it's a global immigration crisis. I we people coming from

all over the world. It's no longer just Central America. I mean, it's essentially an open vision, the invitation to to anyone anywhere. That's exactly right. And the problem with that is not just the fact the things that I mentioned, but you have to now add in potential terrorisms. People coming in to established terrorist little networks around our country.

We wouldn't know it. Uh, they're not vetted, they're just released, and they're coming from I think a hundred and fifty countries are more, and so we're very likely if you want to be a terrorist, you want to come here, you can get in pretty easily and you can set yourself up. All of these guys can set themselves up all of the country. And that's obviously not just going to affect border states, but it will affect the entire

country well. And of course this all comes as we're importing, you know, untold numbers of Afghans as well to the

United States, likely unvetted as well. So we not only have a wide open, poorest border, but we're also importing potential terrorists also some good people, but potential terrorists as well, uh, into the country, all unvetted, which you know, to your point is a is a huge, huge national security issue for our country, you know, sir, I want to get into you know, the new abortion law in this state. There was a doctor named Dr Allen Brain who has

an O B G y N for San Antonio. He wrote an op ed in The Washington Post recently bragging about violating the law and performing an abortion. He says a woman has a fundamental right to receive this care. What's your response to this doctor and his violation of the state's law. Look, he's certainly opened himself up because it is an abolition state law, and now the enforcement isn't from the state. Any any individual can can sue,

and so he can he can be sued civilly. And if if he's bragging about it, he's basically providing the evidence that someone would need to show at least that a harmless done and then open himself for for potential major damages. So no, I mean he's flaunting it, and maybe he's inviting the laws that he wants to be the first one suit. But that's certainly he certainly is

in volation state law. Well, and what makes this law different than some of the other states is what you just mentioned, is it relies on civil not criminal enforcement. Talk about the significance of that and why that's the case and why it's different in some other states. Well, I mean this was uh put forth by our legislature

in the last session, which was last spring. Um, I think they were trying to take it out of the states and and put it, you know, open the course up to to for lawsuits, just like they do with all other all different kinds of causes of action. So the courts can be open for any type of cause of that cause of actions of the legislature teams um worthy of allowing people to seek redress for a harm and so it just for some reason that that particular

route had never really been opened up to individuals. I think it was a pretty creative way to handle it. And it takes the state out of having to having to deal with prosecutions because in some in our states the das wouldn't prosecute it anyway. So it is pretty smart move. It took it out of the the hands of the district attorneys and put it into the hands of individual citizens to bring their their own claim. Quick commercial break and then I have more questions for the Attorney

General of Texas, Kent Paxxton. So you have taken on big tech, and there's also a law coming through the pipe in Texas that requires social media companies to disclose how and why they moderate content. It also give Texans the ability to sue it they're wrongfully censored. And you, as the attorney general the power to sue companies tech companies on behalf of groups of users. How would a law like this impact or fight against social media and some of the censorship we've seen. And how much impact

can individual states have on this issue? You know what, I think big states really all states eventually can start having impact on this. I think big states in particular, especially the other states, see what we're doing. States like Florida have I think some good legislatures state passed relating to these social media tech companies. In addition, we have UH in Texas. We have a pretty major lawsuit against Google as a as a monopolistic UH company. We think

we've got a very good chance of affecting how they operate. Um, it's just gonna take longer. And so I like the fact that the legislature is giving individuals an opportunity to protect themselves because these these companies have so much power and so much money. Um. And again, it gives individuals the opportunity to open the door UH to addressing their

harm which before these tech companies were protected from. Well, and I think that's the broader concern, you know, as conservatives here as we see you know, companies have kind of shown their colors with going after uh. I mean, Texas has been a recipient of it, the ire of some of these woke corporations. So is Georgia with their election law as well. We've got you know, big tech companies. I mean, it seems like, how do we sit in you know, we're broadly protect ourselves from some of these

companies that are essentially doing the Democrat Party's bidding. Well, for one, you can stop using their products, um and I think that that will slowly but surely send a message there as their stock price goes down. Part of the problem of these tech companies, though, is that there's no other choice their monopolies, and they've they've enforced their monopoly with anti competitive behavior and predatory you know, purchases

of other companies. And so those are the ones that we're trying to focus on the ones that we can't just go to another choice like coke. You can pick another product that there's certainly a probably the largest, and but there's still other choices, um that you can make it a consumer. You can drink water if you want to. So I would I would encourage people if if you see companies acting that way to stop purchasing their products. But should the fight be bigger than that? I mean,

you know, our corporations and the enemy of conservatives these days. Well, yeah, it's it's a great question. I mean, I think individual companies, I mean, they it's it's harder to to say what what they should do, what they should do. It's one thing when the government is limiting our speech and imposing restrictions on people's speech and their ability to communicate. When it's an individual company, if they're not ballistic, Uh, there's competition.

I think the best choice really is for consumers to organize and say, look, we're not going to use you. It's when they're monopolistic and we don't have a choice that I think governments have to step in and give people that option. You know. S it seems like, you know, as we look around the country, particularly over you know, throughout COVID, there's just seems to be such a loss of liberty in the country. You know, all of our freedoms are under attack. We look at you know, censorship

is rampant. Uh, the Second Amendment is under attack. People were not allowed to worship in certain parts of the country. We've seen a great centralization of power in Washington, d C. Are we still a constitutional republic? So you know, rama Manuel One said, and I think it was him that said, don't ever let a crisis go to waste. They made a crisis that is this, and they they certainly not

let it go to waste. The left is certainly pushed towards less freedom, less constitutional government, and I would say, yes, we are risk if we're on the verge right now of losing our representative constitutional government with the checks and balances on power that our founders put in place. And the founders didn't trust government, That's why they put these checks and balances in place. And what the Biden administration

is doing is trying to silence those differences. They're trying to uh place power, centralized power with the president in Washington, away from the states, trying to limit our abilities of states to operate, even suing us of our own. It's one thing for the federal government to follow federal law,

which is what Biden does every day. It's another thing for him to create new law, which is trying to do with these vaccine thing and even another thing where you go to to Georgia and Florida and Texas and says you can't pass those the law. This is the type of administration we have. And yet we the American people need to wake up. We are on the verge

of losing our constitutional government. Well, and I mean we also we saw this recently with General Mark Millie, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I mean, bragging about attempted a coup against President Trump, and the left and the media celebrated these actions. I mean, this may sound outrages, but I don't really know how far away we are from a Democrat president saying I need a third term and then because Republicans are evil and the

media cheering it along. It just seems like there's no regard for the constitution anymore. Yeah, or a third term, or just making sure that the elections are not that are they're not fair and that people can't trust them. And that's certainly what happens in other countries. You know, you look at Benzezuela. They moved away from a constitutional government or of democracy to dictatorship, and they did it

through the voting process. And so that's why I think you're seeing such great attempts at the federal level to federalize election because they know that in California they've got it's one party system, no accountability, no real competitive elections. We saw that with the recall, and that's the way they want it. They want complete control where there really isn't a reason to go vote because there's no hope and that if we get to that point, we have

lost our representative government. We have no We're no difference than Venzehuela or Cuba, or Russia or China. Will be controlled by a few people. Quick break back on the other side, stay with us. You look at the election, it was extremely close in Texas, but it was also this really unique election because we saw an unprecedented use of absentee ballots across the country in a way that

we have never seen before in this country. Without that easy access to absentee ballots, do you think Joe Biden would have won? You know, like I can only tell you what happened in Texas, and we fought thought that we just like other states, there was a massive attempt by some of these democratic account needs to change the rules the legislature put in place and start mailing out absentee ballots. They were gonna mail out over two and

a half million in Harris County, Atlone. Same in Travis County, which is where Austin is. Same in Bear County, which we're San Antonio is. Had we allowed that to happen, we fought off twelve lawsuits. Had we lost any one of those lawsuits, we would have been doing the same thing. We would have been counting mail in ballots for a couple of days. Very likely they would have had enough to overcome the Trump election. Trumpet A lost Texas, we

would have lost the Texas House. And once those rules get put in place, you can see from California, Once those type of mail in ballots where you can commit fraud or in place, it's hard to ever undo it. So yes, I think that that had a significant impact. You could look at all the states that changed their rules for COVID locally instead of falling with the legislature put in place, and you know, Joe Biden one of those states. And I think it was no accident the

way this happened. And knowing what I know that we had to fend off twelve lawsuits and went all of them, I'm not surprised that this is what happened nationwide. Well, and that's you know, to your point earlier, that's why the Democrats are fighting so hard to federalize elections and also to keep some of these things in in the process of absentee ballots, no excuse, absentee ballots, and then also you know, counting ballots way past election day. Yep,

that's exactly what happened. It was no coincidence that had happened. And I mean, we've never seen it happen before that I know of. And then it happens in you know, six states, and what happened in our state had we not had we not taken the huge effort to fight this off, and I think one of the broader problems we're facing. I mean, look, I think skepticism is healthy. I'm a firm believer in not trusting you know anything.

It's hence the premise of this show. But we've really had almost every institution of this country has you know, given Americans good reason not to trust them, whether it's the the FBI, the UH, you know, even with the the c d C, the n i H. With Anthony Fauci in charge that the media, what does this mean

for the country moving forward. You know what, you know the Declaration of Independence that our rights for granted is by God, not by the government, and it gave us a right to reform government that wasn't answering to the people, wasn't honoring our inalienable rights. And we've got massive amount

of government. Now. You mentioned some of the agencies that no one can people can't trust anymore, and I think we have to figure out a way to win a few more elections that we have to reform this government. We have to, you know, restart some of these agencies from from scratch, because they don't answer to the people anymore. They are there somewhat corrupt, if not totally corrupt, and they don't they don't take care of the American people.

They've got their they've got their own agenda. And that's that's an agency that shouldn't exist, whether it's law enforcement or whether it's you know, the E p A. Or whatever it is. You know, insert your You're facing a pretty crowded primary right now. You've got a step state rab Matt Cross, I think of pronouncing his last name, just entered Land Commissioner George P. W. Bush. Some of them are are citing some of the legal challenges that

you're you're facing. How vulnerable do you think you are right now? Well, look, I just continue to do the right things. I can tell you this if if you're there fighting the way I'm fighting, this is the kind of stuff that they do to you, it's inevitable. Um. And the people that are trying to take my job

are part of the problem. They're not people that are going to step out and take these risks, are gonna put themselves in the front of the line of the people that kind of shoot you in the back and and hope that they can step into your spot, But they don't really want to step into the same spot. They don't want to be at the front line of the fight. And there are very few people that actually

want that that role. I didn't ask for it, but because of the situation that our country is in uh Texas and I have in my office has stepped into it and will continue to step into it. And I know they're always consequences for that, and and some of them are pretty tough to deal with, but I won't quit. UM. I think my my polling is very good, our fundraising is good, so we'll just continue to fight the fight no matter what those people say. Well, you know, we've

seen the targeting of President Trump as well. You know. And last question, you know, looking at the state, so you know you're going to face Democrat challenges statewide? Uh so is Governor Abbott? You know election was extremely close in the state of Texas. What are you guys looking

at in terms of statewide? Are you concerned that Republicans could lose their their control of the state, Like, I'm always concerned because we we always have to we have to communicate our message and make people aware that without the leadership that we have from the Republican Party, this whole country could be lost. And so you know, it's a pretty important fight. It's one we have to win.

We can't afford to lose Texas. Um So, all I can tell you is we're going to do our best communicate that message, and the people of Texas have to either stay in the fight or realize we're gonna we're gonna lose the fight. Attorney General Ken packs into the great state of Texas almost as great as Florida. Sir, they thank you so much for your time. I truly appreciate it, absolutely have a great day. Thanks for having

me on m Yeah. I want to thank Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for making time for the show, and I want to thank you guys at home for listening. If you enjoy our show, please leave us a review and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts. I love reading those that means so much when we take the time to leave feedback into reviews. Please do that. You can also follow me personally on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

at least some rebooth. I also want to anchor team producer John Cassio, writer and researcher Aaron Kleigman, and our executive producers Debbie Myers and speaker New Gingrich, all part of the Gingridge three sixty network and team