The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - January 8, 2021

Episode Date: January 8, 2021

This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup” our reporters discuss the insanity in DC surrounding the certification of the Electoral College votes, the coronavirus protocols of the opening days of the 87th legislative session, new bill proposals relating to emergency powers, big knives, and annual legislative sessions, news in North Texas about COVID-19 vaccine distribution and the retirement of a mayor, and an impending special election.

Hello, hello, Mackenzie Taylor here on another edition of the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, we cover the insanity that went on in D.C. surrounding the certification of the Electoral College votes, the coronavirus protocols of the opening days of the 87th legislative session, new bill proposals relating to emergency powers, big knives, and annual legislative sessions, North Texas news about COVID-19 vaccine distribution and the retirement of a mayor, and an impending special election. Folks, thanks for joining in the fun each week. I hope you enjoy. Welcome, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here with the reporting team of The Texan. We have four

reporters around this table right now. Hayden Sparks just moved down from Dallas to help us report on the Texas Ledge session that's coming up in just a few days. Hayden, welcome to Austin. Thank you. I'm so, so glad to be here and I'm excited to finally be down here in Austin with the team. And we actually, Hayden hasn't been down here before, but he's been down here to help us cover elections for different things in the past. So he's a known entity around this office and he's worked for us for quite a long time now. He's, he's, he's a staple, but it's fun to actually have you living here. Yes. And I'm excited to finally be around the office and to get to be in on the inside jokes. I was joking with some, I was joking with Daniel earlier this week, you know, the Monday morning

calls are always nerve wracking because I always picture them making faces at me while I'm talking. And so now I can actually see their faces during the content layout meeting. So that'll be comforting. And you discovered that he was right. Yes, I was right. There are faces made. Oh, faces. Only at me, though.

Only at Hayden. We wouldn't do that with Holly or Kim. Yes. Just Hayden. Yeah. Holly and Kim actually don't have goofy ideas like I do. So they don't need faces, but I do. Hayden, I feel that's absolute malarkey.

Malarkey, malarkey.arkey malarkey um well we're so glad to have you this is awesome and i'm here with daniel friend isaiah mitchell and brad johnson as well so boys let's get down to it it has been quite a week daniel we're going to start with you walk us through this absolutely crazy thing that happened in dc yesterday particularly what those you know representatives elected from texas had to do in all of the hubbub. I was planning on it being very boring. I was looking through the process for certifying the electoral votes on Monday to write up a piece just as a preview of what was going to happen on January 6th. And so just to give you a little bit of background on that process, this is the final process in the presidential election. It's when Congress tallies up the electoral votes that have been cast by Electoral College for president and

vice president. And so those votes are sent from the states to Congress, and Congress certifies it with the vice president present, presiding over a joint session. And then if there are any objections to any of the states, which are read off in alphabetical order, then the two bodies of Congress will adjourn if there is an objection that is in writing and objected with both a senator and a House member signing on to that objection. And in that case, both bodies of Congress, the House and the Senate, will adjourn into their separate chambers and start debate on that. And so that's kind of what was happening on Tuesday, or Tuesday, Wednesday was when it happened, January 6th. And it was expected that many people were going to object to these votes. Senator Ted Cruz had come out in opposition to the votes unless Congress establishes an election commission to investigate the claims of fraud that were in various states that swung towards Biden, including Arizona, Michigan,

Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia. And so Arizona being the first in the alphabetical order of the states that people were looking at objecting, that was the first state that was objected to by Senator Cruz and a house member from Arizona. And when they objected to that, then the two chambers adjourned. And I was like, great, now I'm on a two hour break. They're going to be debating. So I went down to, uh, in front of the Austin Capitol where a stop the steal rally was going on. Um, lots of, uh, people who are very big Trump supporters, um, lots of people waving American flags, Trump flags, people who are very concerned about, uh, fraud in the election were there just kind of, uh, protesting of protesting the electoral college votes and

certification that was going on. This was a rally that was happening in very different state capitals. It was also happening in the national capital. There were thousands of people who were Trump supporters that had gone to see Trump speak in the morning of Wednesday when Trump had a press conference. I believe it was in front of the White House. And so lots of people were just out there kind of protesting very peacefully here in Austin. There were lots of people waving flags around. There were lots of people standing on Congress Avenue honking horns, screaming at cars, getting them to honk, just cheering,

kind of what you'd expect from a, that kind of a protest. There wasn't any violence going on. There wasn't any pro like any, uh, rioting of that sort. It was just people, you know, uh, carrying around signs, um, protesting the results of the election. Um, and so as that rally was going on you know i went and got some pictures of that just in case we needed them again thinking hey i'm on a two-hour break this is great it's a two-hour leisurely day i just had lunch uh it's a beautiful day the weather's great the cedar was a little bit better on wednesday than it was on monday monday i was sneezing incessantly it was ridiculous here in austin. But that's completely

aside from the point. So I thought I was on a break, came back to the office and, you know, was getting ready to continue to watch this debate yawn for two hours and then they would come back and then they'd dismiss for another two hours. That's what I was expecting. I came back and not too long after I came back to the office. So this was probably about a half hour, maybe an hour into the debate on Arizona. The Senate was debating. The House was debating. I think Senator Ted Cruz had just spoken on the floor. Several House members had already spoken.

And then we started hearing more about the protesters in D.C. And some of them, some of the more extreme faction of these protesters had gotten kind of very, very riled up, I guess is the word. And so they were trying to push their way into the Capitol. They had started butting heads with police officers. They started wrestling over the barriers that had been set up, the metal gates that Capitol Police had set up. They started pushing back against police, trying to find a way in. And it got to a point where they were, you know, some of the protesters, these extreme mob-like people there, started breaking the

windows of the Capitol building, started breaking into the actual Capitol, um, which having, you know, interned in the Senate for a little bit, being up there on Capitol Hill, you know, I gave tours in the Capitol building. So it was really quite surreal to just see, uh, people breaking into the U S Capitol, you know, which is a, when I was there, you know, it's, it's pretty secure thing. They keep the doors locked down. You have to go through security. It's a process getting into the main Capitol complex. Um, and it's been that way since nine 11, I believe. And, um, so, you know, it was, it was crazy seeing this happening. And then the house and the Senate

floor, the members there were still debating the objection to Arizona. And a little bit into that debate, finally, the Capitol issued a lockdown orders. And so, you know, they're telling people to stay inside the buildings, inside the Capitol complex, whether that be the House and Senate buildings, the office buildings that are attached to the Capitol through underground tunnels or in the Capitol building itself. And so both chambers recessed their debates in this emergency lockdown as protesters had actually stormed into the Capitol building, and were now making their way towards the House and Senate chambers. And so just a crazy thing that happened there. Yeah, absolutely.

And I think watching it, it became more and more alarming as time went on. And after members of Congress had been escorted off of the floor and some security had been restored, there was a post that hit Facebook from one of the newer members of Congress. Walk us through what happened there and some members of Congress's role in securing that chamber. Yeah, so Senator Pat Fallin, former State Senator Pat Fallin, who was a state senator in SD30, and he actually went to a special election or kind of a weird election in Texas' 4th congressional district and became a representative there. Just this past year in November was when he was elected. You know, just this new member sworn into Congress a few days ago.

There are three other members sworn in alongside him that were also there with him, Tony Gonzalez from Texas's 23rd congressional district, Representative Ronnie Jackson from the Panhandle area, Texas's 13th congressional district, and then also Representative Troy Nils, who is a former Fort Bend sheriff down in Texas's 22nd congressional district. These four freshman Texas representatives, along with a couple of other representatives from other states, were staying behind in the House chamber as other members were being evacuated. They were letting them go first. I presume, I mean, I wasn't there, and they were kind of keeping it quiet of where these representatives were going.

But having worked in the Capitol, I would assume that they would probably be going down to the tunnels through the elevators and going over to the house buildings where it was probably a little bit more secure. That's not where the protesters were focusing. And so as the members were leaving there, presumably, these four members stayed behind to kind of help police set up a barrier inside the House chamber. And so, you know, Representative Pat Fallon described this in a little bit more detail on his post, Representative Troy Nils, who was kind of at the forefront of this, I think, and he's in a lot of pictures that you see going around on social media right now. You now, he also posted something on Facebook about it. And they had begun breaking off some of the furniture

to kind of build this barrier against the central chamber entrance. And so they pushed this up against the wall. They stood there in defiance against the protesters, the mob who was trying to against the wall. You know, there's, they stood there in defiance against the protesters, the people who were the mob who is trying to storm the Capitol. And they were like, we're going to defend this. Like, we don't even know who these people are. We're just like, this is not good. This is not how things work in America.

And so they were taking a stand, pushed up these barriers against the door, and were guarding that alongside Capitol Police, who were also standing there at the door with their guns trained at it as protesters were trying to break in. There was a lot of confusion as news was coming out. So many videos and so many images just circulating. It's hard to sort out what actually happened. But from what I can tell, it appears that based on Representative Fallon's account, you know, he said that at that point, as they were standing there against the barrier, that's when someone yelled out that shots were fired. And it was actually outside of the chamber, I believe, in the hallway

was where a woman had actually been shot by one of the Capitol Police as she was trying to climb over a barrier outside in the hallway right there. And there were also some protesters right outside the door trying to break through the windows. And so this was all happening right there as the congressmen were waiting to get everyone else evacuated. And so, um, the members did actually get evacuated. Uh, and then the, the mob was actually able to storm into the Senate chamber. You've seen, I'm sure pictures of that on social media of a guy in like a Viking helmet standing at the, the Senate dais, um, which is just crazy because, you know, even, yeah, I was able to go on the Senate floor because a Senator let me on there and that was like a very special odd occasion.

Yeah. Um, guests can't just walk onto the Senate floor whenever they please. Um, it's, you know, reserved for Senators most of the time. And so, you know so having someone disrespect the place like that was quite something. But they didn't get into the House chamber because these representatives from Texas and a few others and Capitol Police managed to get a barrier there and hold them off from doing that until National Guard from D.C. was actually then able to come in and kind of help secure the Capitol later that day. Yeah. So after all of this had been done and there

was some more security that was reestablished at the Capitol, Congress came back and finished the business that they had set out to do at the beginning of the day. Walk us through what happened there and whether or not members after all that hubbub changed their strategy in terms of objecting or you know certifying the votes yeah so um later that night you know after everything had kind of calmed down a little bit i believe the senate gaveled in back in around nine uh 9 p.m dc time uh with um vice president mike Mike Pence presiding over the Senate. And he gave a speech that was very much like what everybody else was saying, even all the Texas members on social media, Republicans and Democrats both condemning the violence that had occurred, the breaking in of the Capitol, just this lawlessness. Everyone had kind of condemned that, and so did Mike Pence in the speech,

and he's like, let's get down to business. We have a job to do. And so the Senators resumed their debate on the objection to Arizona, which is what they had been in the middle of. This was early in the afternoon. It should have been done much sooner, but because of what happened, it wasn't. So they resumed that. Senators James Lankford and Kelly Loeffler of Oklahoma and Georgia, respectively, both gave speeches pretty soon after they had gaveled in, saying that even though they had originally planned to object to the votes, after what after what had occurred, they changed their position on that and that they were going to vote to uphold the results of the electoral college.

And so now Loeffler, who also just lost a Senate election the day before in a special election. She was planning on objecting to the votes from Georgia, but then that didn't happen. And so the House member later, when they got to Georgia's vote in the tally, there was only one House member to object to that. There was no senator who signed on. And so they couldn't bring that to a vote. Now, as far as the members of the Texas delegation go, there really wasn't much change in their position. You know, there were several members, several Republicans beforehand, notably Representative Chip Roy, who had come out and said that he was in opposition to this objection to certifying the Electoral College, saying that the results of the election are really the responsibility of the states and that that belongs to them. And by the Congress stepping in and trying to take control of that is really a kind of

a violation of the constitutional duties of Congress was his position beforehand. And of course, that stayed the same afterwards. Now, what some might have expected were other Republicans like Loeffler and Lankford, who had previously said that they were going to support the objection, kind of step back after that and say, you know what, no, we're not going to do that. But in Texas, as far as the congressional delegation that I've seen, all the results, I think everyone held in their position. You had Senator Ted Cruz, who was kind of the main leader on this, and he didn't actually sign any more objections to any other states. However, when they did get to Pennsylvania, which Josh Hawley did, uh, sign an objection to with, um, some house members, uh, Cruz did vote, uh, to sustain that objection.

Um, so he, he stood his ground on that and Cornyn as well stood in opposition to the objections. And so it really didn't change that much. Um, so that's kind of what the Texas delegation looks like. Yeah. Well, folks, I would encourage you to go to Daniel's Twitter at Daniel J. Friend. All of yesterday, he was on the ball and compiling statements from different members of the Texas delegation about what was happening in D.C. He was on it. So if you want the rundown of what was said and what happened, go check out his Twitter feed.

Daniel, thank you for covering that for us so thoroughly. It was quite a day for you yesterday. It was not at all as boring as I expected. Yeah. Like boring was like the least proper adjective. To describe what happened. This ceremonial, you know, box check happened to be quite the event. Yes.

Well, thank you for covering it for us. Let's focus back on the Texas Capitol here for a minute. Brad, I think something that has been overshadowed largely this week is the impending start of the 87th legislative session come next Tuesday. Walk us through some of the protocols that have been enacted there, particularly in response to COVID-19 and how legislators in both the House and the Senate are going to respond. So walking back a bit, the Texas Capitol had been closed for quite some time, similar to what happened yesterday at the U.S. Capitol, only back during the summer, during all of the George Floyd protests, if everyone will remember, the Texas Capitol grounds were stormed by protesters and turned out to be some rioters,

most notably one of the White House, or not White House, the Texas Capitol fountains, historic fountains on the grounds was destroyed and upended. So that has been closed ever since June. And this was the first week, the week before the Texas legislature is set to, uh, convene that the Capitol reopened for the public and the governor, the Lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house all announced this, that it would open this week, um, either a week ago or the week before. Uh, so we knew coming, and obviously we knew the session was coming, and the two chambers had months and months to figure out protocols for the legislative session.

It happens once every two years. They convene for six months, then they have to gavel out unless there's a special session called. But that obviously did not happen during this interim. And so now they're getting ready for the session itself. Opening day is Tuesday next week, the 12th. And each chamber has issued some of their protocols. The House was very broad and not very specific on what they're going to do.

They issued a lot of recommendations like, you know, we recommend you wear masks. We recommend that you take advantage of the free testing for all staff and members and guests and whatnot. But it's not mandatory. The Senate, uh, guests and whatnot, but it's not, it's not a mandatory. Um, the Senate, meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, he issued more forceful regulations specifically that,

uh, there will be mandatory testing. All senators have agreed to that. Um, all the staff will be tested. All of the guests will be tested as well. Um, the people who get into the ceremony itself.

And they'll also have a shorter ceremony itself. And normally it lasts, what, the whole day, if not longer. And then they move on to the actual business that they have to attend to, like passing chamber rules and whatnot. But it looks like this is going to be a lot shorter. And, you know, we don't really know a lot more than that, other than that, you know, they're going to be highly regulating who gets into the Capitol, who gets into these ceremonies, into the chambers, the gallery, and whatnot. But it does look like the Capitol will remain to be open to all public. However, they have limited hours. It's open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to the state preservation board.

They're limiting where people can come in. It looks like the north door of the Capitol is the one that they're going to be letting the general public into. There's a testing facility. We were there the other day. There's a testing facility right outside a big, I think it's a National Guard tent. Now, they weren't mandatory testing when we went, but they will be by the time the session begins. And, you know, we'll see what happens. I think the rules are pretty set so far.

Like I said, the Senate has a lot more strict regulations for this as of right now. Yeah. And to, you know, go back to what you alluded to earlier at the very beginning of the session, rules in both chambers are debated and decided on and passed by the chambers. And those rules govern what members can and can't do, how each chamber decides to go about doing their business, both legislatively and in terms of protocol. So, you know, members can propose different amendments, whether it be mandatory testing, whether it be mandatory mask wearing in different parts of the Capitol, closures of certain areas of the Capitol. Those can all those are all on the table. So we'll see what happens. And that even comes down to who will be the chairs of the respective administration committees of both chambers.

Right. administration with a new speaker, new incoming speaker, presumptive speaker, Phelan. We'll see if he retains Chairman Guerin in that position in his House administration and whether those rules are subject to change. Yeah, the two days after the opening day ceremony, a lot of this will become a lot more clear. Whether it's the speaker himself being fully elected or the chamber rules for each Senate in the House. Right now, a lot of it's up in the air. We don't know what's going to happen. But after next week, we will have a much better idea of what the 87th legislative session will look like.

Absolutely, which we have a vested interest in in being that we want to be there and ensure that we provide good coverage for our readers. Absolutely. We'll see what happens. Isaiah, speaking of legislative sessions, uh, we're going to continue talking about this with you here.

Uh, you know, legislators have in the past, um, and currently proposed different alternative methods by which the legislature meets here in Texas. Currently it's five months every two years. Uh, walk us through a proposal from a couple couple legislators about what they'd want to change if they had their way. Yeah, as you noted, it's on a biennial calendar, which a lot of people

don't know. I never learned that in high school. And we've got two proposals so far right now is the time of recording. One comes from Lyle Larson, State Rep. Lyle Larson out of San Antonio, a Republican on the more moderate side. Mark P. Jones ranks him ninth from the left of Republicans from left to right. And his is a little bit simpler than the alternative that we'll get to. His would just have us meeting in regular session every year. The alternative comes from Representative Richard Peña Raymond, a more conservative Democrat. Mark P. Jones places him second from the right among Democrats, just below one other. And his is a little bit more complicated. His resolution would have the legislature meeting as it does now on the odd number of years for a regular session.

But on the even number of years in between, there would be another session just for deciding the budget. Yeah, absolutely. Which would be interesting in that currently the budget is constitutionally the only thing that is required to be passed during a legislative session. Right. So that is the first order, not the first order of business that they get to, but the first order of business in terms of priority. Constitutionally speaking, that's the only thing that the legislature is actually required to tackle and address during the legislative session. So this would, you know, kind of divide that out and par that out a little bit. Walk us through the arguments for and against this move. It's certainly something that, you know, on paper seems simple, but there are very specific reasons why it's set up the way

it is now and very specific reasons why these legislators think it could be a problem. Sure. So this discussion is kind of ongoing all the time. You know, people are suggesting that, you know, that we have a yearly. A lot of people, when they first learn that it is a two-year calendar, wonder why it's not annual. Lyle Larson has argued before in op-eds and such that history has just dictated that at the time when legislative sessions in Texas were first beginning, it was just way easier for the technology at the time to have them spaced two years apart. Because trips to Austin from far and on across the state would just take forever. And it'd be nice to cut down on travel time, just have them once every two years. So now that we have airplanes and automobiles and everything like that,

there's no reason, according to Larson, to not just have an annual session. There are arguments in opposition to that that hold that principle and not circumstance have led to the two-year system that we have now, and that the motive behind the Texas founders and deciders of the schedule tended to favor an underactive legislative session. So a lot of people would point out that in our very complicated process for passing a law, it seems a lot like it's been designed to keep the law from passing. There are a lot of pitfalls along the way. And, you know, many people would point out the two-year calendar as one such pitfall, you know, an obstacle to keep an overactive or potentially

overactive session from passing too many laws. So those are the two general arguments for and against it. Raymond has actually tried this before. In the last session, he filed the exact same joint resolution with another House bill to enable it. So this is a perennial effort and a perennial conversation in Texas. Certainly. And for those listening, just to make this point clear, a house grant resolution in HJR, if you're somehow looking on a state website and you come across this term, it means a constitutional amendment. So this is

something that would be passed and then approved by voters on the November ballot. So this is something that would go to the voters if the legislators should in fact address it and pass it. And redistricting to us to also come back to this, is required to be addressed by the legislature this year. As Brad pointed out to me earlier, I forgot about that, but sometimes there are multiple things, but the budget is the main point of contention on most legislative sessions as redistricting happens every 10 years.

So always an interesting time. But Isaiah, thank you for covering that for us. It'll be interesting to see if that goes anywhere. Sure. Hayden, welcome, welcome, welcome It'll be interesting to see if that goes anywhere. Sure. Hayden, welcome, welcome, welcome. We're coming to you next, my friend. Three welcomes for you. Three welcomes.

You are especially welcome today. You have largely covered Dallas for us. You are continuing to do so while you are here in Austin. Walk us through what happened with a commissioner up north who made some comments this week that definitely stirred the pot. Well, and before I talk about his specific statements, I want to add a little bit of context. The county commissioner's court is in fact, like a legislative body for the county. So this is not a court that is making rulings in the traditional sense. So they are overseeing the COVID-19 vaccination plan. And Commissioner J.J. Koch is in fact the only Republican commissioner on the commissioner's court. So he often spars with Judge Clay Jenkins, who presides over the court, and is really the face

of the county government. And this week, he posted a video on Facebook, Mr. Koch did, which is what he does every week, that criticized Judge Clay Jenkins and other commissioners on the court who are advancing a COVID-19 distribution plan that does not prioritize certain races per se. In other words, it doesn't put them in the front of the line. For vaccination. Right. Yes, for vaccination. But it creates a tiered plan that has a provision in it that bumps for racial groups, that advances their place in line. And the sentiment behind that

policy is since these four racial groups, which are African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and Native American, since those racial groups are disproportionately affected by the virus, the vaccine should be apportioned to account for that. However, what Commissioner Koch stated in his video was the basis for distributing the vaccine should be more along the lines of socioeconomic factors. In other words, there's no problem, in his opinion, with trying to correct some of these inequities. However, creating a race conscious policy is not the right way to do it, is his position. And of course, Judge Jenkins counters that by saying, if the data show that these racial groups are disproportionately affected, then they should be disproportionately given the virus. So,

or excuse me, not the virus, the vaccine, so to speak. That's kind of like, that'd be kind of cruel to disproportionately distribute the virus. But well, and that is the point that because the virus is individuals are being

infected disproportionately based on race that the vaccine distribution plan should account for that. So Mr. Koch did characterize that as immoral, having a race conscious policy, but he still respected the sentiment and believed that we should really steer the ship in a different direction in terms of accomplishing those objectives. Certainly. In terms of moving forward, I mean, will we see any sort of change happen in terms of the plan? Or is this really just, you know, this commissioner, specific Republican commissioner, you know, raising a flag and saying, hey, folks, not everybody on the court thinks this is the right approach? Well, as I understand it, the commissioner's court is fulfilling more of an oversight role.

The individual who's in charge of administering this plan is Dr. Philip Huang, which is the, he is the chief health official in Dallas County. But this plan, as I understand it, was developed in conjunction with the Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council. So these politicians on the commissioner's court, they are not the ones who are really getting into the nitty gritty of these policies. They're more directing philosophical movements within the county as far as and holding these chief executives accountable for providing clear information to the public and things of that nature. So it doesn't look like there are necessarily going to be any policy shifts. I think Commissioner Koch was really giving voice to a philosophical concern among people in his district and elsewhere in the county that we have this race conscious policy implemented in the county. It was more of

a philosophical note than a policy one. Awesome. Hayden, thank you so much for covering that for us. You're a rock star. Daniel,, thank you so much for covering that for us. You're a rock star. Daniel, we are coming back to you as if you did not have enough to cover this week. But let's talk about this is again, this is some some fiery stuff here. One congressman, a very high profile individual, went to bat this week with our top elected official here in the state. Walk us through what happened and what the scuffle was over. The official you're referring to is Representative Dan Crenshaw out of Houston area.

I think his district is entirely in Harris County, if I remember correctly. But regardless, he's over in that part of the state. And that part of the state is also facing an increase in coronavirus cases, like most of the state. Right now, hospitalizations have been continuing to go up since about November. They kind of went up steadily throughout the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And New Year's, of course, that's holiday too. Don't want to give that the short end of the stick, especially this year. But as those coronavirus cases go up, the hospitalizations are going up. which essentially state that if a hospital region, which there's a few dozen, I think maybe a little less than a few dozen,

hospital regions in the state of Texas, when coronavirus hospitalizations account for 15% of the capacity or more, then it triggers, under Governor Abbott's orders, some renewed lockdown provisions. That includes the closure of bars, as well as the new limited capacities back down to 50% for most restaurants and retail stores and other businesses like that, which have previously been at 75% since the coronavirus pandemic began last March. And so with those renewed restrictions, Representative Dan Crenshaw came out on Twitter in opposition to them, and he said, absolutely not. Businesses should not comply.

Lockdowns are not supposed to be are not supported by law they are unconstitutional edicts pretty strong language yes and he also said law enforcement should not enforce this stop stealing people's right to make a living so just some very strong language yeah all around yeah um that is kind of the two notable things there is, you know even going back on his social media feed i can't find anything where he was you know rah-rah about the lockdowns that began in march and april um i think like most people everybody was a little bit optimistic then that you know maybe we can lock down for two weeks and slow the spread 15 days 30 more and then and then as the days went on then it it it did seem to get under control in may as things reopened things didn't spiral out of control

but then when cases came back up in june uh mid-june and everybody was then screaming about how we needed more lockdowns crenshaw you, he was at that point opposing that and saying, like, no, we don't need more lockdowns. And he stayed very consistent on that particular measure, response to the coronavirus pandemic, you know, since June. Now, something to note is that just because he's opposed to lockdowns doesn't mean that he's not in favor of other policies. He came out, even though he was critical of Harris County's mask order, he came out in support of Governor Abbott's mask mandate. take some other measures that are more targeted, like possibly restricting hospital capacity, making more efforts with the vaccine production and distribution, more testing, making more testing available, doing the data stuff, and all that, more targeted measures rather than just a blanket lockdown and telling businesses that

they can't open. Um, so he's been very critical of that. Uh, he did an interview with the daily wire in December, uh, where he reiterated his, his criticism with, uh, lockdowns. Uh, but now is the first time that he's actually like really butting heads, uh, with governor Abbott. Um, it hasn't been a big clash, just this one tweet, not a huge, he's not going and pounding on the governor's mansion saying, you need to end this right now. But it is significant that Abbott is now facing increased criticism from notable members in Texas politics. Yeah, particularly of his own party. And for clarification and confirmation, the way we know in which Crenshaw is directly going to

bat here with the governor, it was confirmed by his office, right? There was a confirmation there. Walk us through that and then walk us through whether or not the governor has responded to this in any way. Yeah, so I reached out to Representative Crenshaw's communications head and, you know, I asked him like, you know, does, does Crenshaw want to like clarify this anymore? Like, is he actually, you know, kind of challenging the governor's orders? Is he asking governor Abbott, uh, to rescind his order? And his communications director responded back and said, yes, that is exactly what he's doing. Um, and so, you know, that's very clear indication. There's no ambiguity there. There's no ambiguity

that Dan Crenshaw is asking Governor Abbott to end his orders that are closing businesses. Now I reached out to Governor Abbott's communications team and lo and behold, I have not received a response back on that. So I can assume, I presume that they're just hoping that that'll just be swept under the rug and coronavirus cases will go down soon and the order will then, the trigger will no longer be enacted. Yeah, and it'll go away. Well, good stuff, Daniel. Thank you for covering that for us. Certainly fun to watch some fireworks go off between two of the top names here in Texas at the same party. Bradley, we're going to come to you back to the session and, you know, relating heavily to Governor Abbott's emergency orders and how he's handled the coronavirus pandemic.

Walk us through some of the proposals from legislators that have been proposed ahead of the 87th legislative session that would affect his ability to enact those kinds of orders in the future so um governor abbott has polled all of his authority for these um his various orders you know whether it's the business shutdowns the mask mandate the restriction on selling alcohol and all this stuff uh it comes from the Texas Disaster Act, which was passed in the second version of which was passed in 1975. And, you know, I have a really long piece about what's all in that, that we published probably a few months ago. So I recommend that if you're actually interested in the intricacies of where he is pulling this authority from. But going into this session, there have been a lot of calls, especially among Republicans, to try and constrict the authority that the governor has exhibited in this interim.

And one reason that the legislature has not been able to do anything about it is that there's this catch 22 in code where the only person that can convene the legislature outside of the regular session is the governor. And so if Abbott were to have called the legislature into session, you know, it would be, in effect, him risking the limitation of his own authority. And that's a real problem that obviously the people who passed this law did not think of. So, you know, the legislators, especially Republicans going into this are going their various proposals to try and, you know, tamp down on that. One of the most notable, in my opinion, addresses that specific catch-22 itself. And it's by Representative Brooks Landgraf of Odessa, a Republican. It would prohibit a disaster declaration under which 75% or more of the state is affected from being renewed past 60 days. And so what that would mean if that were in effect this year, you know, past, when was it, mid-April, mid-May, he would not be able to renew the declaration without the legislature's consent.

And so if that gets put into place, that would be the case. And that would only apply to basically a statewide disaster, which is something I talk about in the Texas Disaster Act piece. That's not something that those who passed this were thinking of. They were thinking of disasters like that of Hurricane Harvey and things like that. So more regional type issues where, you know, it's not affecting the whole state. Another one is more forceful than Landgraf's. It serves on Steve Tost of the Woodlands.

He's proposed a straight-up amendment barring a statewide disaster declaration from being extended beyond an initial 30 days and so Governor Abbott every 30 days he's renewed this disaster declaration and after the first term it would not be, without the legislator's consent he would not be able to issue a new declaration. And therefore, these powers that he is exercising, because of the disaster declaration, he would not be able to issue himself unilaterally.

A couple other ones that I thought were notable. One of the big themes of this pandemic has been the designation between essential and non-essential you know businesses and there are some words this last in 2020 that just became part of our vernacular that were not before yes those are those are two right there social distancing essential non-essential all that kind of stuff and so you know places like grocery stores um i'm blanking on other ones that's the main one because you know, places like grocery stores, I'm blanking on other ones. That's the main one because, you know, everyone goes and buys food. Hospitals, obviously, you know, they were designated essential while bars and restaurants and various other types of businesses were deemed non-essential and therefore subject to whatever regulation was being issued at the time.

A bill by Representative Matt Krause, it's HB 906, he's from Fort Worth, would prohibit that designation entirely. You know, there would be no, you would not be able to issue any distinguishing regulations between these two categories. And that would just be across the board. Representative Matt Shaheen, meanwhile, he's in Plano, has, you know, suggested, has filed this bill that would cement in perpetuity religious organizations, you know, churches, synagogues, mosques, as essential businesses at all times, whether there's a declared disaster or not. So,

there was obviously a huge uproar about grocery stores, Walmart being open, but churches being required to close to in-person meeting attendance. And Matt Shaheen is on the Freedom Caucus, and he is a, I think it'd be fair to label him as a more evangelical type. And so this is obviously a big issue for him, as it is for many of the legislators. And so... But this is Shaheen or Krause? Shaheen.

Perfect. Yeah. He would, you know, he finds this to be reprehensible that, you know, people were not able to exercise their First Amendment. And so if this would pass, there would be no such designation for – the governor would not be able to call to designate churches or other religious organizations nonessential and therefore close them. So those are some of the most notable. Actually, one more that should be mentioned was Representative Mays Middleton, who has proposed a bill that would disallow regulatory bodies like the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission from revoking business permits. Now, this comes in, the best example were bars.

They'd have their alcohol license suspended if they violated these coronavirus orders. And his bill would prohibit that entirely. You know, that obviously hurt a lot of businesses and there were many that went under because of it. But, you know, if he had his way, that wouldn't be the case. So there's various other ones in there and I recommend you check it out. This is going to be an interesting session. And obviously, you know, other than budget and redistricting, I would say emergency powers should be right up there.

You know, this is something the legislature. In terms of the hotly debated. Yep. And you had Republicans and Democrats criticizing the governor for not calling a special session, for not getting the legislature's consent in this. So I think it'll be something we'll see quite a bit. Absolutely. Thank you for covering that so thoroughly for us. Isaiah, we're coming back to you.

Let's talk some big knives. There has been a proposal actually from a Texas Democrat that has, you know, caused some eyes to follow it very closely. Walk us through the proposal. Yeah. So Harold Dutton Jr. out of Houston, the state rep, has filed a bill that would trim a few restricted locations off the list in the Texas Penal Code that, you know, that lets Texans know where they can and cannot carry big knives, which is over five and a half inches long. And the interesting thing about this is that Texas Code has two lists like this. One of them pertains to all weapons and is a comprehensive list of where you cannot carry a weapon at all. And some of the places on this list include, interestingly, any place where somebody is getting executed, can't carry a weapon at all. And some of the places on this list include, interestingly, any place where somebody's getting executed,

can't carry a weapon around there, racetracks, polling places, airports, courts, and schools. And the second list was added by Dutton himself in the 2017 session. There was a bill by, I believe, Frullo that was originally meant to legalize all knives everywhere. And he was going to achieve that by just removing the term illegal knife from the penal code and, you know, elsewhere where it appears in administrative code in Texas. And Dutton tacked on an amendment that swapped the term illegal knife for location-restricted knife.

And so there was a bit of legislative compromise here. And with that switch in language, he also tacked on a list of places where those knives would be restricted. And so that's the second list. And that includes bars, jails, hospitals, amusement parks, places of worship, and the premises of a sporting event or interscholastic interscholastic event excuse me so that was in 2017 when he added that list on there this bill that he has proposed now would take off amusement parks bars and houses of worship

so you know if this bill were to pass then where you could previously not carry them, now Texans would be able to carry them into the bar, you know, on the way to ride the Titan or the Batman or whatever. Probably not on the roller coaster itself, most likely. But, yeah, so it's interesting that he's revising a bit of code that his office added into the law. Yeah. There's some revision happening, and it's a very interesting thing to watch and last session i mean these are the kinds of bills that find their way through the legislature each session whether they're approved or not last session you know the carrying of clubs was a big debate that happened on the house floor and actually passed with bipartisan support so again a democrat yeah yeah absolutely authored by a democrat yeah that's

exactly right very interesting stuff so thanks for covering that for us, Daniel. We're going to come to you. We have another special election that is going to be coming up. We just finished SD30. And in light of that, we must turn to House District 68. Walk us through what's happening there. Yes. So Representative Drew Springer of House District 68 is no longer representative.

He was sworn in this week as a senator for District 30. There will be a special election held on Saturday, January 23rd to fill that new vacancy just shortly after this legislative session begins next week. And so there are several candidates who have filed, five actually filed before the deadline on Monday, four Republicans and one Democrat the republicans being john berry jason brinkley craig carter and david spiller and the lone democrat being charles gregory who is a retired postal worker um out of some little town up there there's about 22 counties in the district most of them are very rural this is north test north texas, kind of northwest of Dallas, northwest of Fort Worth, actually.

And I think it stretches even maybe west of Wichita Falls, if I remember correctly. But it's up in that region. And so Jason Brinkley is the, or he was the Cook County judge, and Cook County is the largest of the districts with about 38,000 people. Uh, so we'll see if his name recognition there among that large County, uh, kind of helps him in his, in the race, um, and might push him over the edge of 50%. Um, but it could be that another candidate might be able to outrace him, build up a lot more name ID in this short period of time, uh, between now and early voting, which begins on January 11th, not too far away. Now, Brinkley was the first one to file or the first one to announce his race like shortly after Springer won the special election back in December.

Craig Carter is one of the Senate district candidates that was in that race. He placed behind Shelly Luther and Drew Springer, didn't make it to the runoff in that race, but he lives in Springer's district and is now running for his seat. So he might have a little bit of name ID, having been on the ballot pretty recently as well, back in September. John Berry is a financial planner and actually served on the Jack County Commissioner's Court there in the district. And then David Spiller is an attorney from Jack County also. And I should note that Jack County is, I believe, one of the larger, not the largest county. It's not even close to Cook County in population size,

but it's closer, larger than a lot of the others. Anyway, Spiller is also a longtime board member for the Jacksboro ISD. So it also has some name recognition in the district. We'll see which of these candidates come out on top. Again, early voting begins January 11th. We'll know some more financial numbers eight days away from the election, and then the election is just around the corner. Yeah, and as Drew Springer was sworn in as a new senator, that seat will sit vacant. So we'll be sworn in at the legislative session

with 149 members as opposed to 150. Be interesting to see what happens. Hayden, you are our final. We're saving the best for last. As all the boy... Oh, wow. I got no reaction from these three. They're so used to this kind of thing. Walk us through really... This abuse. Walk us through

really fast a big announcement that rocked Tarrant County this week. Well, McKenzie, I really wish that kim was here because she's the expert on tarrant county but she wasn't available to take this one so i watched a press conference in which betsy price the mayor of fort worth since 2011 announced that she will not be seeking re-election and i found out that councilman brian bird of District 3 will be running for the office of Mayor of Fort Worth, and his district director, Michael Crane, will be running to replace Councilman Byrd on the council. Mayor Price thanked everyone in Fort Worth for her time as mayor, and she actually indicated

that she may run for office again in the future, but she said she didn't want to speculate and she didn't, had not made any decisions to that effect. So she declined to make any comments about that. And she also declined to speculate or make any endorsements as of this week in terms of who she wanted to replace her as mayor. Did you reach out to, I know there was a former state senator that lives up in that area, that her name has been tossed around. Did you reach out to Connie Burton? I did. I accidentally ordered 100 Vote Connie t-shirts and I've since had to cancel my order,

but she unfortunately will not be running, is my understanding from some credible sources that may or may not be in this room. Interesting. That's awesome. Well, great coverage on that, Hayden. And thanks for tracking down some of those interesting, you know, loose ends there that we had to go and find. My pleasure.

Wonderful, gentlemen. Well, let's talk about something fun. I had found out this morning that a relatively controversial topic had rocked, um wonderful gentlemen well let's talk about something fun i had found out this morning that a relatively controversial topic had rocked uh you know the team of the texan and i want to talk through this so i think there are a few particularly interested parties i will open the floor up for debate on whether barbecue sauce should be a socially acceptable addition to steak walk me through this argument gentlemen where do we begin

are like looking at each other with such so this has been an ongoing fight this is this didn't just happen this week this has been going on for a while and uh i will draw the line die on this hill that putting barbecue on steak is an abomination. Yes. And I said that you will die on that hill, and I will drive a steak through you topped with barbecue sauce. Oh, my gosh. This is horrible.

Wow. So, yeah, it got pretty threatening. Pretty heated. So, all that to say, Daniel and Isaiah are on team barbecue sauce on steak. Correct? Yeah, and this was all also wrapped up, how acceptable well-done steaks are. That's true. Yeah.

This is one of two differences that, you know, where Hank Hill and I part ways, maybe our only two. Wow. On these major topics like this. So it's surreal for you. It is. You know, it's on the subject of your idol, Hank Hill. Yes.

My idol, Hank Hill. But he's wrong on propane and he's wrong on well-done steaks, I've got to say. Very important planks of your belief system. Well, it all started with the debate over the well-done steak. I asked him, how do you like your steak? Yeah. And he gave this Isaiah-like answer of well like what is isaiah like what is explaining i'm doing it right now okay there um well you know i i enjoy

a good medium or medium rare steak but i also enjoy uh you know medium well here and there and then he started uh you know digging his heels in on that and it eventually resulted in him straight up defending the abomination of medium well steak. Another abomination. I feel like I'm Jonathan Edwards. Have a steak made from an Irishman. Sinners in the hand of an angry God.

Oh my gosh. I totally mixed it with Jonathan's. Unreal. So yes, it culminated this week in The addition of barbecue sauce i guess no it just resurfaced you know the wonderful media term resurface yes meaning that i dug it back up that's so true it's painful um so yeah you know i know sarah's on my team here but i might be outnumbered here on the mics so no you're not oh not at all i'm 100 with

you if you put sauce of any kind on a steak i think it's unreal and abomination and if you have to it tells you how good the steak is like if you feel like you have to hold on let me finish mine let me finish mine if you feel like you have to put sauce on a steak it tells you the steak is no good and you should reorder it first of all second of all well done steak who wants it the whole point is that it would be medium or i'd say even medium rare that's the best kind of steak and all you need is some rub cook it in some butter okay well what what do you put in this rub oh salt pepper it all depends steak rub has a myriad of different options okay so you could you could put various seasonings in there.

Garlic. Garlic. Thyme. Okay. So there's plenty of options there. Why can you not put those seasonings in the form of a sauce? What's the difference? Sauce and seasoning are two very different consistencies and two very different flavors. Okay. You were putting a ceiling on the taste of your steak when you say that, you know, it is good enough to not have sauce.

Sauce cannot detract from the flavor. It can only add. Yes, it can. It's like saying, I would like a bowl of ice cream, but if you put any toppings on there, it's just awful. It's not ice cream anymore if you put chocolate syrup. I think my plain vanilla is good enough. Maybe a single cherry.

A single cherry is all I have to add to my ice cream. Just Blue Bell homemade vanilla, that's all. Okay, well, that's a whole other topic. We're not going to get into that. This is boring purism. If I go to a steakhouse and pay a pretty penny for my steak, I want it to be good without anything else. I want maybe some mac and cheese or asparagus on the sides

and Brussels sprouts, but the steak itself, I should not add anything to it to want to eat. I think, or to think it could be the reason why Isaiah and I are coming from a different perspective is we probably have steaks less often at steakhouses. Yes. You rich Northerners.

Yeah. With your time. Sarah, our native Texas over here is crossing her arms in defiance because she stands with Brad and I on this. Very, very. I will say that, you know, growing up, barbecue was not a huge part of my life like it is down here. And, you know, what was our special meal when we would go anywhere? Steak. meal when we would go anywhere steak and so you know a good steakhouse was i spent many a birthday

in a good steakhouse that sounds really fun yeah and the thing is i will acknowledge that medium rare steaks or rare steaks are good if they're done well what's what frustrates me is the stubbornness of the other side to say you, this whole no true Scotsman bit where, you know, if I say that I think a well done steak can be as good as a rare steak, the first thing I hear is, well, you haven't had a good rare steak. You know, it's very pretentious. I understand. I don't believe I ever said that to you.

You've said variations. No, no, I don't think I have. You know, you're denying this now because there's no way for me to prove the truth. That was a witness. I guess there is a way. Something we should do tomorrow is put out a poll into the Twittersphere and determine whether or not

team correct or team incorrect is correct. One last argument I'd like to make. Admittedly, I also have a sweet tooth. And so barbecue sauce can add just that right amount of sweetness

to a steak. I also have a sweet tooth and I don't want sweet on my steak. I won't insult you like that. Okay. Are you about to make an I can't smell joke? I was. Oh, that's so good.

Well, now our listeners know Brad can't smell. This is true. Yeah, great. And it has not affected me one day of my life. Yeah. Except your opinion on it. Yeah, it's kind of a worthless sense. I am Helen Keller.

This is my personal. Oh, my word. Everyone is a victim. I am I am Helen Keller this is my personal oh my word everyone is a victim I am I am such a victim we must wrap this up before anything

else can be said that could possibly make Brad get cancelled Brad's lack of smell dovetails with his bland steak taste it does okay folks

well thank you so much for listening we will catch you next week thank you all so much for listening. We will catch you next week. Thank you all so much for listening. If you've been enjoying our podcast, it would be awesome if you would review us on iTunes. And if there's a guest you'd love to hear on our show, give us a shout on Twitter. Tweet at The Texan News. We're so proud to have you standing with us as we seek to provide real journalism in an age of disinformation.

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