The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - July 22, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy folks, today is Monday, July 22nd, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he is withdrawing his candidacy as the presumptive 2024 Democratic nominee, ending his reelection bid for President of the United States, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him. The President announced his decision in a statement posted on X, writing that while he is ending his campaign, he will finish out his term. Biden wrote, quote, It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best

Starting point is 00:00:50 interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term. The president then thanked Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner, endorsing her in a subsequent post, and extended his thanks to the American people. He wrote, quote, Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. After a dismal performance during the first presidential debate last month, more and more Democratic leaders had called for Biden to step aside, with dwindling numbers in the polls against the former president and confirmed GOP nominee Donald Trump adding fuel

Starting point is 00:01:30 to the calls. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, who represented her Houston-area congressional district for three decades, died on Friday after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 74 years old. The announcement broke late Friday on Jackson Lee's social media accounts. Her family wrote in a statement, quote, A fierce champion of the people, she was affectionately and simply known as Congresswoman by her constituents in recognition of her near ubiquitous presence and service to their daily lives for more than 30 years.

Starting point is 00:02:04 Born in Queens, New York, Jackson Lee graduated from Yale University and from the University of Virginia Law School before moving to Houston with her husband. Politically ambitious, she served as an elected municipal judge and Houston City Council member before being elected to Congress in 1994. Jackson Lee authored legislation creating the Juneteenth National Independence Day, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in Texas when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston on June 19, 1865, and announced that President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation nearly two years earlier. She has recently sponsored bills

Starting point is 00:02:45 such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2024, the Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, and the Kimberly Vaughn Firearm Safe Storage Act, and sponsored the reauthorization of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. The former pediatric chair at the Texas Children's Hospital is now employed by the Biden administration's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, following a controversial end to her six-month employment at the hospital. Dr. Katherine Gordon, a staunch advocate for experimental child gender modification surgeries, now holds the position of clinical director for the NICHD, as first reported by the Daily Signal.

Starting point is 00:03:30 Gordon was appointed as the pediatrician-in-chief at Texas Children's and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in October 2021. In her acceptance announcement, Gordon stated, quote, I look forward to exciting opportunities ahead as we launch new clinical and research programs that advance care for children and adolescents, as well as initiatives that expand diversity and allow for continued strong community engagement. In her journal article originally published on March 5, 2022, titled Caught in the Middle, The Care of Transgender Youth in Texas, Gordon challenged Governor Greg Abbott's February directive that ordered investigation of any, quote, so-called sex change procedures that potentially constitute child abuse.

Starting point is 00:04:17 Abbott's request followed Attorney General Ken Paxton's February 2022 legal opinion, which found that, quote, treating minors with gender dysphoria with puberty blockers can legally constitute child abuse under Texas law, Gordon penned. Texas Children's Hospital announced it would cease providing medical transitions for children only weeks after the governor's order. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

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The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - July 22, 2024

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