The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - July 11, 2025

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.Mass Casualty Disaster Declared in Kerrville, Central Texas as First Responders Continue Flash Flood Rescue Efforts‘Today Will Be a Hard Day’: Death Toll Increases in Kerrville Flooding DisasterDeath Toll in Kerr County Rises to 59, President Trump Signs Federal Disaster DeclarationCamp Mystic Mourns 27 Campers, Counselors Lost in the Hill Country FloodTexas Hill Country Flooding Prompts Legislative Response Ahead of Special SessionTexas Elected Officials React to Trump Signing 'One, Big, Beautiful Bill'Randall County Republican Chairman Indicted on Election Fraud Charges5th Circuit Upholds Block on Texas Law Criminalizing Illegal Immigration at State LevelHouston FBI Announces Arrest of Alleged COVID-19 Chinese Hacker in ItalyMayor Eric Johnson Declares Dallas the First 'Sanctuary City from Socialism'

Hey folks, Mackenzie here with Cameron, Brad and Matt Stringer joining us as well. We're grateful, Matt, that you're able to join us today. We have, it goes without saying that we have an incredible amount to talk about after what happened in Texas over the weekend and Matt did a great job following so much of what was going on. And I think it, right up front, Matt, we just want to thank you for doing that. And want to say our prayers, our thoughts are with everyone affected by the flash floods in Kerrville and central Texas, the Hill Country. We'll talk through everything.

We'll get down to the nitty gritty. And I don't think we should delay any longer. Let's go ahead and jump into what happened over the weekend. Matt, I want to start with you. Walk us through how this all unfolded. Well, thank you, Mackenzie. And it's good to be back on here with the crew. Although under, I wish it was for a better story to report.

This is a bit of a side personal note to begin. This is the Kerrville area is where most of my family's from and it's been like a second home to me. So it's been a story that I've tried to cover, I've taken a lot of pride in trying to provide as best and as accurate and as quick information as possible. So it's been something very important to me. Friday, July 4th was, seems like a surreal moment now. I remember waking up pretty early in the morning and

seeing the reports of flooding there. I, of course, immediately reached out to my family that is out there checking on their situations. They live a good ways away from the river, but I just think about it in the context of what we know now versus as it was breaking out that morning. While the area is known to be sort of a flood alley, most flash floods that people are familiar with are, if you can imagine, three, four, five, six feet deep. I've seen a lot of hit this community this past week. There's been a few over the decades. There was a horrible one in, I believe, 1987, where 10 children were campers were unfortunately taken by a flood, but this flood seems to have surpassed those levels.

What happened in short was you had some remnant tropical highitude moisture being pulled in from the coast. You had this low pressure front that came down from the Lubbock area and just when the two combined kind of on the Mason area, it caused that tropical moisture that formed massive thunderstorms to just hold there and release a tremendous amount of rain right on the gathering area or the headwaters of the Guadalupe River. That and the fact that the entire region has flash flood for those who have been in that area and have driven over some of the bridges, et cetera, such as right there downtown Kerrville where the county, where the city park is, where the festivities were going to be. That's a tremendous amount of distance from the top of the highway bridge to the park below and the water was all the way up

to the top of the bridge there. With the festivities, lots of people from out of town, that river valley is very beautiful. There's a lot of people camped out along the river shores. Some people were right on the edge of the river. Some people were far back at distances that they thought historically waters never reached. But in addition to that, there's many, many beloved and famous kids' camps, summer camps, all along the river there. And they have been for decades. And it's something that's a very cherished institution in the Hill Country. Gosh, there's so many of them right along the Guadalupe River. And of course, all of those camps were full.

Now, during the first day, by the end of the day, the officials had their first press conference and they had an idea. They had already found up to about 10 deceased and a number missing. They started getting word in that some of the camps, including Camp Mystic, had a number of campers missing. But by the end of the day, we knew it was bad. We didn't know how bad until really Saturday, the picture started really taking hold that these numbers were going to get even worse. Absolutely. Brad, you were a huge part of the team getting news out to folks as this was unfolding. Walk us through your first reactions as news began to unfold in Kerrville. just the sheer death count in the currently missing and probably dead count is just awe striking and terrible. I think as we saw, heard what happened, got more details on how

things developed, we realized that this was a cascade of just horrible luck and bad circumstances, all that compounded on one another and made this thing from what is usually a pretty, you know, not good, but straightforward issue of flash flooding this area deals with all the time into this absolute disaster. Right, Matt? Correct. And so I actually heard today that the Eastlands, the ones who are still alive, Mr. Eastland obviously passed away, trying to save girls in one of the two bubble cabins, unfortunately, none of whom made it. At least it seems so far. at least it seems so far, they told state officials that the water level rose 10 feet in three minutes. I think it's important to note that no matter the kind of preparation or warning system

that exists or doesn't exist, you almost can't beat that. That is just an insane amount of speed from this water. The city manager has said multiple times that he was running by the river at 3.30 in the morning and the water might have been slightly higher than normal, but nothing of note. And relatively clear. Relatively clear. And then in the span of the next 45 minutes, 12 inches of rain started dumping on the area, fell and over the, according to Lieutenant Governor Patrick, 12 inches

each hour for the next two hours. And that had been happening upstream and that flowed down and then it mixed with the rain that was dropping on the area. It's again, it's compounding effect. So overall, series of very unfortunate circumstances and obviously there's a huge attempt to lay blame at various people. I think that's misguided. I think that's misguided. You know, you can't plan for everything and this was an absolute catastrophe, the worst disaster that I've seen in Texas at any recent time. You know, looking at fatality numbers, this is going to easily surpass almost everything except the the Gallistan hurricane in 1900, which we saw 6000 to 12,000 people die in that. This is going to rock the state of Texas for a long time, I think. Absolutely. And, you know, everything we say about this disaster in so many ways feels like it just it's understatement after understatement,

right? And this is just an unbelievable tragedy and the loss of life is hard to comprehend, even as so many close, but this is not that far away from anybody here in the state and so many folks are affected. Matt, as the weekend went on, walk us through how this began to shape up in terms of loss of life and in terms of response times. Each day as the more and more data came out, as more and more search and rescue workers The scale of the disaster continued to change to just unimaginable new heights. Each day you would see numbers rounding off 59 or 70 something. The number of missing would increase and officials would continue to stress, you know, that this is evolving information. And one of the worst point, one of the worst things

that they were facing was that there were so many visitors from out of town, they didn't know who was in their community, to be sure. They didn't all know who to be looking for, where they might have been camped at, et cetera, et cetera, as opposed to, you know, if you have a resident who had a house near the river, you know, you might know to look for them or their, you know, relatives might know how to get a hold of the police department better, you know, their visitors from out of town, you know, they saw it on the news. Also, as rains continued, as the floods moved downstream, other communities began to become affected.

We saw, well, just downstream from Kerrville is Center Point and Comfort, but then we also saw over in Marble Falls, we've had a number of fatalities out of that area. One really sad, the Fire Volunteer Fire Department Chief there was responding to a call. A wall of water hit his car. I've seen pictures of his emergency responding car. It's literally buried and you can only see the top surface of it. They still haven't located him. The stories, you know, I'm originally from Odessa and there was an Odessa police officer who was camping with his family on the Guadalajara River and they recently found, I believe, both him and some members of his family. And there was just an honor guard escort for the casket back to the city of Odessa. You know, I want to, there's two

things to note there, you know, with a volunteer fire department chief, a police officer. You know, the severity and quickness and scope of this flood was so severe that men who were trained in these areas could not escape it. And so, you know, as you see a lot of what abouts and finger-pointings and things like this, you know, bear it in mind that the scale of what's happened has not been seen by people who are alive. It's a very unprecedented thing. This morning at the press conference, one of the members of the Kerrville Police Department talked about how one of their officers upstream in Ingram was going to work and as he was crossing one of the low crossing points, the flood swept by and he backed up and he went to the next direction. And the way the roads and the river kind of snake back and forth, you end up getting marooned in the middle.

And that's what happens is the water catches you on the one front and then comes around the other side. And then as the water level comes up, it catches everybody stuck in the middle. And that officer, he managed to get over to another officer's house, bang on the door, get him up, they got their gear on, they went out and with a hundred, they got a, they got a water hose, like a hundred foot water hose and they started doing emergency recovery and just talking about the incredible work that these two officers did, you know, meanwhile calling in what they were seeing over the radio and that helped, you know, get the emergency response going.

Each day, as I started saying, last night, um, sorry. Um, as of Wednesday morning, there were 95 deceased out of curve County alone, and here we are. As of Wednesday morning, there were 95 deceased out of Curve County alone. And here we are. And yeah. Anyway. I think the, because last night we're recording Wednesday, or yesterday there was a press conference wherein a new number was floated as well of missing

folks. And I think that was a very, it was a number we'd not heard before. I believe it was 161 missing folks. 161 missing, I believe in Kerr County. And then I believe in all communities affected, I believe the total number of known deceased is up to 118. And that's of recording now, Wednesday afternoon. Yeah. And that's, again, these numbers are changing constantly. That's the latest as of now.

Now, we've all been desperate for some good news, and it just seems like every time we turn around, it's just a frying pan to the face of bad news. I do want to highlight, though, something that makes me really proud as a Texan in all this. And that has been the response. It's truly been overwhelming. As of now, there's 2,200 search and rescue workers in Kerr County working around the clock. There has been absolute outpouring from the community.

Everybody has chimed up to jump in. People have come from around the state. As a matter of fact, they ended up with a bit of a problem, a bit of a too many cooks in the kitchen sort of problem, whereas the train first responders were scouring the river area, you know, they have to go very methodical and keep track of what's been checked and keep track of who is in the river. And there was one point there where they had another flood warning and so, you know, they were stressing, you know, for people who are wanting to volunteer and come in to really pay attention to the directions

of local officials and, you know, be where you can be and not be where you're supposed to be so that, you know, if they have to evacuate the first responders out of the river bank, they have to know who all is in there, they have to make sure, you know, they're not double searching something, et cetera, et cetera. So we've seen a little bit of that. But overall, many businesses have been coming together. Many restaurants have been cooking hot meals for victims and those affected and for first responders. People have been finding every way they possibly

can to help chip in, whether it's getting out the barbecue pit and getting some barbecue going for first responders or like my brother, he lives out at Centerpoint. The Centerpoint Fire Department was having a hard time clearing a bunch of really big cypress trees that have built up into these just massive, deeply woven piles. And so he ran up the road to get his backhoe and got down there and helped them get all that busted up. And they were pretty glad to see that backhoe from what I've told. Just so many little stories. There was an incredibly powerful video that a guy who wasn't even from the area got in his truck, loaded up his big old John Deere tractor and got out there. He was taking one of the back roads into Kerrville

and ran into some firefighters who couldn't make it across this low water crossing because there was all this tree debris in there. So he unloaded the tractor, got the crossing cleared out and got the entire fire department, a crew across the river and literally escorted them all the way into town on that tractor. So many incredible stories. There was a coast guard diver who There was a Coast Guard diver who operated out of a helicopter, you know, where they rappelled down on the line and rescued people in the river. He rescued somewhere between 165 and 200 people, just absolute acts of heroism. So many stories that, you know, I do want to highlight. It's something to be proud of as a Texan and it's, you know, in a really, really difficult story in a difficult

time. It's just, it's a little bright spot. I'd encourage folks to go check out Matt's feed because I think there's a great compilation of exactly what did happen and confirmed news as well, which is very important in all of this. We'll stress that time and time again, but also some of these stories about locals and folks from out of town stepping up and serving the community in the best way that they can. locals and folks from out of town stepping up and serving the community in the best way that they can. So go check out that for kind of a, in a lot of ways, a full picture of what's going on in these affected areas. Brad, would anything else or talking about the just the devastation and everything that happened that sticks out to you? Yeah, I think I heard a story that was both really good and really bad at the same time. There was one of the rescuers, he managed to get a bunch of the, I think it was like eight or nine of the girls into out of the cabin and into a tree and they were all hanging onto him. And while that's happening, I think it was his dad he sees

who's in a truck over on the other side, they're unable to get to him because of the waters. His dad's in the truck gets washed away. So he's that has a lot of acts of heroism in it. I think we should also mention how kind of appalling some of the behavior has been in reaction to this. Online we saw ridiculous things said immediately. People saying that Texans voted for this. We saw conspiracy theories about cloud seeding and whatnot. It just went off the wire. And that's social media that's kind of to be expected even though it's not good. I think the bigger issue is, the bigger point of criticism I would levy is that the way media, especially

national media, has acted during this has been atrocious. Matt first mentioned that a media drone acted during this has been atrocious. You know, Matt first mentioned that a media drone collided with a rescue helicopter that forced it to land. And, you know, how long was that out of commission? These people are swarming the area trying to get their scoops. Matt said he knows of some people that have been getting hounded by reporters, not just people, but parents of missing children. You know, I've been watching these press conferences. And so they lost their children? Yes. I've been watching these press conferences and the way they're approaching these officials,

who by the way, have the main job on their hands right now is to find the missing people, to help with answering media questions at this time, and they are being abrasive and frankly quite ridiculous. It's like a caricature. It seems like I haven't recognized many of the people that are doing this. I assume it's mostly national media that have parachuted in here for this. Obviously, this is a massive story. This thing is monopolizing every TV station across the entire country. It's been appalling to watch. I'll say that. I'll also say that some of these press conferences have been pretty bad. The one that comes to mind more than any other is the second one that Governor Abbott held with Kristi Noem. It took them 30 minutes to give the statistical update on the number of people found dead and who are missing. 30 minutes, not just 30 minutes, but it took a reporter asking them the question

to get to that. And in the meantime, they wadded President Trump for 20, 30 minutes about his response to this before they even got to the actual information. I think that was astounding to watch. There's been a lot of word salad from the politicians that speak during this, but I will say the emergency responder crews, whenever you hear T-Dom, the sheriff, DPS, etc. speak, they are on point. Absolutely. Yep. And, you know, obviously this is a very horrific situation for everybody involved. I think people would do well to have a lot more grace on all sides of this, especially for the people that are actually pulling bodies out of debris.

You know, like your freaking scoop can wait. How about that? It's absurd. I'd like to chime in with a couple of examples that come to mind just real quick. One is just kind of a attack pointing finger story that was immediately leveled at Representative Wesley Verdel who represents Kurtville and a lot of those areas. And I just want to say from being in that area and having a lot of contacts, including talking to him and while he's been on the ground there from the very get-go, he's been one of the lawmakers who is there making sure the locals have the

state resources that they need, cutting through the red tape. He's been out doing search and rescue, working 24-7, consoling victims, all of that sort of stuff. So whenever he's confronted with an angry mob that sent his way because of a story claiming that, you know, he voted on some bill that caused all this. By the way, a bill that would have done nothing to stop this. Exactly. First and foremost, because it wouldn't have been in effect until September 1st.

Exactly. So it's tying up and I giving him as one that I know have direct knowledge of. But anytime you spin up one of these stories that has a political intent to it, just absolute parachutist sham journalism, it's costing precious time and minutes from those on the ground. And I'm very careful if I do reach out to an official to talk about what's going on, etc. I pose a very specific, I first I make sure that it's important enough for me to waste their time or to ask for a moment of their time. And I do not waste any more than I absolutely have to if I do talk to somebody. So something that I take in very seriously, you know, whenever I speak to sources on the ground there. Another one was a fake news, good news story. And I want to give an example of how that actually caused harm. There was

a story that blew all the way up to major national news outlets of two girls from Camp Mystic who were supposedly found miles downriver, 26 feet up in a tree and that they had been saved and everything was good and this was a miracle. Parachute journalists took that story and ran with it, blowing it up, you know, got millions of clicks. You know, of course the journalists, you know, the local journalists who are on the ground who know, you know, we sat noticeably quiet because there wasn't a word of that from local officials. And then it wasn't too terribly long that local newspapers were reporting that the sheriff had confirmed that that story was fake. It causes harm in two notable ways.

One, it's a rug pull. We're at a time where we desperately need some good news. Everybody needs some good news. But the last thing we want to do is report somebody, report good news, and then yank that away. That causes more harm than good. Secondly, good news is important to report on, and that is something that I will, you know, ask an official about, which again translates into taking a portion of their time. And if everybody is calling the sheriff, the DPS, TD, the lawmakers, et cetera, et cetera,

wanting to know the facts about this miraculous story, because if it was true, it would be important and good enough to ask them about, because we could all use something to lift us up. But then everybody who's now having to respond to that and address it is wasting their time. And they're not making sure that first responders have the resources that they need.

They're not spending time with the victims' families. They're not, you know, focused on search and rescue, you know, all because somebody spun up a story to get clicks. Absolutely. I do want to reiterate that I think our team sent out an email earlier this week just with information about everything also that included some links for relief help. I'll note that a lot of local officials have requested folks stay out of the area and let's say live in the area, but there are tangible ways to help from wherever. You are located in the state and it included 3 different links provided to us by those on the ground who the privy to this would actually be helpful and where money will be funneled. So if that is something you are willing and able to do, I'd encourage you to go check your inbox and to check that out as well. Yeah, Matt.

Also, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas and the Texas Attorney General's Office is asking people to be very cautious about scammers on this so check make sure you're getting good sources for any type of charity work absolutely absolutely thanks for that Matt tangentially related to this broadly we are recording Wednesday and the governor has been vocal in the last few days saying that there would be in addition to the existing special session announcement, not the special proclamation. We had, we didn't have that until today, but the existing announcement about the special session saying that he would add some sort of response to this tragedy for lawmakers to address. to address. Now we have the official special session proclamation. We know what lawmakers are going to be addressing. It's a whole slew of different things here, but let's start with flood response. Yeah, I'll say off the top that all three of the big three are locked up on this.

They might think one option is better than the other, but in terms of getting something done and figuring out some sort of legislative response, whether it's paying for sirens or paying for river gauges, by the way, there were river gauges in the Guadalupe River. Actually, from what I'm told, Camp Mystic did have their own and that gave them an advance warning. That is why it wasn't as catastrophic as it ended up being for that camp specifically. But the governor released his special call. The flood-related issues include legislation to improve early warning systems and other preparedness infrastructure in flood-prone areas, legislation to strengthen emergency communications and other response infrastructure in flood prone areas, legislation to provide relief funding for response in recovery from

the storms which began in early, for the storms that happened this time, the flooding, and then legislation to evaluate and streamline rules and regulations to speed preparedness for in recovery from natural disasters. So those are broad categories. A lot can fit in there and that's going to be up to the legislature to hash out exactly what it is we're appropriating money for, what rules we're changing, that kind of thing. But this has the... I'm frankly kind of surprised by the length of this proclamation just because the last time we had a disaster this big was

the 2021 winter storm, and that took a lot of oxygen out of the legislature. There was a lot of stuff that didn't get done that probably would have otherwise because this took up so much time and effort. I think we're going to be something similar here. And by the way, this is only a 30 day special session. They have a lot to get done. And obviously there are various opinions on all the other stuff we'll talk about. But they have a lot to get done just on this issue in 30 days. So I think that the speaker, the lieutenant governor, one of the two said they expect a investigative Tory committees to be formed maybe by the end of the week. They'll start having hearings maybe by next week. It'll start to build

up. We'll take testimony, start to build up the case for whatever it is they're going to prioritize in this. So there's the flood stuff. I'll run through a couple others. I'd say that the two other biggest ones are the THC ban. Now Governor Abbott wants regulation, not a ban. And there's a lot of different items on that part of the call, but specifically he just wants a less ham-handed approach to this. He says, legislation making a crime to provide hemp-derived products to children under 21 years of age. So there you go, that's something. Anyone under 21, there is legislation to comprehensively regulate hemp-derived products, including limiting potency,

restricting synthetically modified compounds. That's notable. So, you know, this natural hemp will not fit into that, provided it is below a certain grade, it looks like, and establishing enforcement mechanisms all without banning a lawful agricultural commodity. So that's going to be fascinating to watch. Lieutenant Governor has of course said that he is very, he's going to advance SB3 as it passed the legislature. You know, they got more than enough support in both chambers, passed it, Governor vetoed

it, thought they'll have to meet in the middle somewhere, meet in the middle somewhere. So there is that. And then the third one I would highlight above all the others is congressional redistricting. Mack, you and I have talked about this quite a bit in our Smokefield Room podcast. Notably, Similarly, the governor cites a letter from the Department of Justice that as justification for putting this on the call, they're going to redraw all of the districts, I presume. Now they highlight a handful of districts and those are districts, nine congressional districts, nine, 18, 29, and 33. All of those are Democratic held districts. The notable part of this is that at least a few of them, they're either adjacent to

or they are coalition majority minority districts. Under redistricting law, you cannot break up a majority minority district from a community. Previous law, until the Gallistan court case was ruled on recently this past year, what counted as one thing that counted as a majority minority district was a coalition district where let's say you have Hispanics at 31% and blacks at 20%. They make up a majority minority district. Now the Galveston County ruling found that even though they're both minorities, they're distinct enough that they don't count together as their interests or distinct, they don't count as

as one unified minority. And so you'll still have the majority-minority rule play in when you have a 51% Hispanic district or a 51% black district, 51% Hispanic district or a 51% black district, but it's the stacking these minority districts on top of each other, minority groups on top of each other that no longer needs to be followed. That opened a whole can of worms. We talked about it throughout session. We talked about it, especially since when talk of a special session on this heated up. Now they're moving forward with it. It's interesting that the DOJ itself, the Trump DOJ is calling the Texas maps racially gerrymandered using their

language. Clearly, it's a play to try and provide some sort of justification for this. We've talked about this before, but redistricting is the most political thing we do. There's no getting it out of that. And while there are some legal things here and there, overall, Mike makes right in this. And we see it in democratic held states where districts are drawn very oddly in order to increase the majority of the Democratic Party. Well, here in Texas, it's Republicans that do it. Democrats did it before, Republicans controlled the state.

So there's going to be a huge fight over this. And Democrats are, question is, will they show up? What incentive do they have? Well, all this other stuff, I think, makes the incentive for them to show up, particularly the flood stuff. So, I think this is going to be the most interesting fight in my mind in this special session, but obviously, it's not the most impactful. That's definitely, I think, the flood mitigation. The most contentious fight will probably be on THC. A few other items that are of note, property tax relief, additional property tax relief and property tax reform.

The governor wanted a two thirds vote threshold for localities to increase taxes. So there's that. I assume that's what he wants to come back. There's a ban on taxpayer from lobbying, the Women's Privacy Act, which is commonly known as the bathroom bill, elimination of the star test, which died in the tail end of session, and then restricting abortion access further. It didn't say this specifically, but in my mind he's referring to the abortion male pill ban. The male in abortion pill ban. So Mary Lee's covered that a lot during session. It looks to be back. But this thing is a huge call. And there's no way they can get all this done. There's also stuff he vetoed in there that he had mentioned previously that would be on the call.

This thing is just gonna be, no easy special session for us, that's for sure. Well, watching the list expand so rapidly and so broadly was pretty wild today. We already knew it was gonna be an interesting special just because of the dynamic of redistricting and the border. Something that we knew was coming on the pipeline and not been announced publicly that folks just knew that was coming. And of course, that being that border. Real, I meant being the carrot to keep Democrats in town when redistricting certainly could be an issue that might cause them to be tempted to break quorum. I think what's incredibly,

what has changed dramatically in the dynamic of that conversation is the flood and how that is now been added to the call. I think any temptation to flee the stage or to play that game will probably be squashed pretty rapidly or not even tempting at all for folks. So a very different dynamic at play following that announcement. And the governor did add many more issues that are certainly important to the GOP base to the call as well. Well, and back one thing that wasn't mentioned on the call, I don't think, but we'll play here is appropriating this board security reimbursement. That's $11 billion, $12 billion they have

to do more property tax relief, probably through compression, I assume, to pay for all this flood response stuff, whatever else they're going to want to spend money on here. So that is another thing that's on their plate. I assume the check will be written from the US Treasury unless we're broke by that, which maybe we will be. It's always a risk with the federal government. Bradley, thank you. We appreciate it.

Cameron, we're going to come to you here. You have been so graciously keeping all the other news stories afloat for us this week as we've, I think all hands have been on deck in a flood response and coverage there. And so we appreciate that, Cameron. Let's go ahead and talk about some very big federal news, speaking of border reimbursement and some wild things happening on the federal level. The president signed the one big beautiful bill into law last week. Tell us what people are saying about it and how this affects Texas.

Yeah, right off the bat, like you mentioned, the border wall reimbursement to the tune of $13.5 billion. That's the total number of grants that are going to be coming out of this one big, beautiful bill. And some other interesting things in the 870 pages of provisions. Senator Ted Cruz, he was able to get the newborn investment program a part of this bill. That's the $1,000 in tax advantage investment that newborns are going to get. Another aspect that's related to Texas here is Senator John Cornyn was able to secure a provision that will move

the space shuttle Discovery from Virginia to Houston. That was a big deal. Cornyn was really pushing for that. And we saw a number of reactions, lots of positive ones coming from Republicans. Governor Greg Abbott called it a big win. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick echoed similar sentiments saying it was a great day for hard working Americans. Interesting response from Representative Chip Roy. He was one of the early Republican holdouts in this process of getting the one big beautiful bill across the finish line. He said, quote, we were also able to get some significant assurances on what they're doing on

spending. That's been a big issue for a lot of the fiscally conservative Republicans on this bill, but getting some concessions on different things was able to get it across the finish line. Democrats both at the federal and state level were not as praising of the bill after it was passed and signed into law. Saw Representative Lloyd Doggett call it the big ugly bill. Representative Joaquin Castro, again, called it the big ugly bill that will devastate hardworking families in Texas and across the country.

So obviously split opinions between the two parties here on this, but some very tangible aspects of this bill is going to have effects here in the state. So we'll be looking forward to seeing what comes of it. Absolutely. And I'd encourage folks to go read the full story there. Cameron has lots compiled for folks to sink their teeth into. So Cameron, thank you for that. We're just going to talk to you for a little while, Cameron, because you covered a lot.

And we have lots to talk about. The Randall County Republican chair, the GOP chair has been indicted. This is a very interesting story and I think caught a lot of us off guard as we were scrolling through Twitter the other day. Tell us what is happening. Cameron McGrady Yeah, like you mentioned, Randall County Republican Party Chairman Kelly Giles has been indicted by a grand jury on allegations of election fraud, which allegedly occurred in 2023.

And so I'll read a little bit from the indictment here so people understand what's going on. Reading here, quote, while acting in his capacity as Rinald County Republican chair, Giles falsely certified on the Texas Secretary of State candidate filing system that his application and nominating petition were legally compliant for place on the 2024 Republican primary ballot for Randall County Republican Party chair. And what's interesting here is the indictment actually lists the violation as a felony charge. And that is because he was doing these alleged election fraud activities in his capacity as an elected official, which bumps up the charge. And we actually, soon after the indictment came out, we got a response from Republican Party of Texas Chairman Abraham George,

who wrote that, quote, the Republican Party of Texas is steadfastly committed to upholding election integrity and the principles of the rule of law. And we saw a statement that was obtained by KFDA of the Texas Office of the Attorney General that the indictment comes after an investigation that was conducted by the Texas Rangers. And additionally, after the Randall County District Attorney recused his office from prosecuting the case, the court appointed the OAG as attorney pro tem. So some just interesting news here about how there's been greater emphasis placed on election integrity and it's a cross party issue and we're seeing it having some effects here. Wow, my mute button was there being stubborn. Thank you Cameron. It's great.

being stubborn. Thank you, Cameron. It's great. Go rediscover folks. It's very interesting. Cameron, we're going to stick with you. I don't know if you know that, but we are. There's been an update on the lawsuit pertaining to SB4. Now, this is the bill that passed, not this session and the previous one, but tell us what's new and what's going on here, what the bill does. So the bill like you mentioned it was passed in 2023 and made a legal entry into the U.S. estate crime and this has gone through countless number of legal challenges through lower courts up to the Supreme Court and here we see in a two to one opinion, the US Court of Appeals has said that there are significant complexities

in determining an alien's immigration status. SB4 runs roughshod over them. So the opinion ruled against the enactment and implementation of SB4. And I'm sure we're going to see further legal challenges and appeals. We already have attorney general Kidd Paxson stating he plans to appeal this fifth circuit decision,

calling it quote blatantly wrong and adding that the dissenting opinion is correct. And an interesting aspect of this, I believe Matt reported on it that that the U.S. Department of Justice withdrew as the primary plaintiff in the case back in March. So there's been some maneuvering going on here. And as of today, I believe I'm remembering this correct, there was a Supreme Court order, Matt, you might have seen this, you could correct me on it, that ruled against a similar law that was attempting to be enacted in Florida.

Correct. I think they put a stay on a very similar Florida statute today. Just right before we started podcasting. Yeah, so lots of states attempting to do something similar, courts pushing back against that, but we'll see an appeal to this most recent order. So there'll be updates coming in the future. Thank you, Matt. Thank you for providing coverage we can build upon. We appreciate it. Let's, this is a pretty, I remember reading this draft, Cameron, and looking at your lead and just noting all the different countries and

states involved and cities involved in this story. So this is Italian police, a Chinese computer hacker, and then a Texas university all involved in this story. What the heck this is? It's interesting. So I came across this because a tweet from the Houston office of the FBI, where they said they had arrested this alleged Chinese computer hacker. And the DOJ announced that the Italian authorities have arrested this alleged Chinese hacker accused of conspiring to steal COVID-19 vaccine research information. And apparently this was done through a state-sponsored activity. So very interesting here. The individual

interesting here. The individual is a 33 year old, I'm going to attempt to pronounce the name Zhu Zui. He was taken into custody on July 3rd in Milan after arriving on a flight from China. And the indictment here was actually unsealed, so I got a chance to read through it and see what was being alleged. And the hacking operations allegedly took place in 2020, and they sought to take advantage of certain vulnerabilities within a Microsoft software program. And this was done in order to target a law firm and others with insight into the United States government policy and policymakers. And it names two individuals, the one that I've already mentioned, and then another person who is still at large. So they're still searching for this other person. And the charges that are listed include wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, unauthorized access to protected computers. And what's interesting is some of the information they were attempting to hack into, some of that research was being done at Texas universities.

So that's why the Houston FBI was involved here. So it's a very interesting story and I think it adds some interesting fodder for moving forward in terms of how the Texas Cyber Command that was a priority for Governor Greg Abbott tried to help prevent and detect these types of cyber crimes. So this is just an international incident to really highlight a major priority of Governor Greg Abbott. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you.

Last story before we pivot here. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson made a very interesting announcement this past week using the term we haven't heard in a little while. Tell us about what's going on. Yeah, usually when you hear sanctuary city, you don't think of it in this term, but Mayor Johnson stated in a social media post that Dallas would be the nation's first city to officially become a sanctuary city from socialism. And this declaration apparently is coming on the heels of New York State Assemblyman Zoram Amandi, a self-described democratic socialist, securing the democratic nomination for mayor in New York City. And this doesn't really have any legal footholds.

You know, it's the first of its kind that we've seen. It was sort of done as a declaration on social media, but it got the response from Governor Greg Abbott, who said, quote, the state of Texas will provide whatever support is needed to fulfill that mission. So it might have some links behind it. We'll see what happens if other cities do something similar, what the involvement from Governor Greg Abbott and the legislature, who knows.

We'll see what happens. It's still new, and we'll have coverage on whatever fallout comes from it. Absolutely, Cameron. Thank you. Let's pivot to our Twittery section here. I'll go ahead and start. Matt, you talked earlier about, you mentioned the Coast Guard swimmer Scott Ruskin who was responsible for saving well over 100, I think it was like 160 kids and folks in this rescue effort in the aftermath of the Texas floods. And I specifically would encourage folks to go listen to, it was just a quick interview

he gave, it was Good Morning America and he's done several interviews, but it's really just unreal to think about this young man who finished his Coast Guard swimmer training six months ago, was stationed in Corpus Christi, got the call, headed up here when disaster struck with his team and was quickly thrust into a situation where he was saying in the interview, people were telling everyone, hey, we have a professional here. And he basically was like, okay, people were telling everyone, hey, we have a professional here. And he basically was like, okay, so I have to really be a professional. I've got to step up and make this happen.

And at certain times, it was between 10 and 15 people at a time that he was helping get to safety. Really an unreal story. And I think another notable part of the interview is when he says, I took a lot of courage from the kids that I was helping because there were older kids who were helping younger kids and they were the ones really making this work and grabbing. Folks, so, as they were being brought to safety, more could be saved and it really is just a very humbling story and just 1 of many where folks on the front lines of this disaster stepped up and did absolutely everything they could. And it's just very. It's just humbling. I didn't encourage folks to go listen to the interview. It's absolutely incredible. Matthew, you're up.

Yeah, I just have a little bit of helpful information here. The Texas General Land Office, many might not know this, but they actually play a really big role in the recovery effort post-disaster. They work hand-in-hand with their federal counterparts to provide all kinds of types of emergency relief and direct support to people in need who are affected by these issues. And they just a little bit ago announced that tomorrow, Thursday, they will be opening up a disaster recovery center in Kerrville for Kerr County residents. So definitely go over to the Texas General Land Office's website and find out more information about that if you're a Kerr County resident that's been affected. That's a place that you can go and get some help.

Absolutely. Thanks, Matt. Cameron, let's go to you next. What you got for us? have is some continued coverage of Elon Musk announcing that he's going to start up a third party. I have dedicated a newsletter to the initial split between Trump and Musk. I dedicated another newsletter to this announcement of a third party. dedicated another newsletter to this announcement of a third party. And now it's like all my interests are colliding here with this New York Times story that Elon Musk consulted Curtis Yarvin, right wing thinker on third party. It seems like he has been thrust into the mainstream here. He's done interviews and feature pieces with major news outlets now. He used to be relegated to corners of the internet, people like me who like reading

this obscure political theory stuff, and now the richest man in the world has called him up and discussed this third-party aspirations with him. And this story is being communicated through people familiar with the conversation, so you can't take too much of it as gospel here, but it's just still interesting that these two figures But it's just still interesting that these two figures who wouldn't, you wouldn't think a decade ago would have any sort of interaction publicly in this way, but our current political circumstances have thrusted them together. I encourage people to go read it. If you're interested in both these figures, as political actors, do your research. And go read Redacted, where Cameron goes into some of this.

That's right, subscribe and go read Redacted. Bradley, what you got? There was a funny bit of federal political tomfoolery going on related to one poll that was given to the Daily Caller. It's fascinating seeing the results. The NRSC, the Republicans campaign committee for the Senate across the country put out a poll gauging democratic fields across five states, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Maine, and Texas. It's fascinating because they gauged a democratic field in Texas. And three of the names they gauged,

we've heard a lot about, talked about, Colin Allred, who of course has announced already, Beto O'Rourke, who is thinking about jumping in, Joaquin Castro, who is thinking about jumping in. By the way, he's got websites at Joaquin for Senate or Castro for Senate. One website, I assume that says it's coming soon. Something is there on the back end building, whatever it is they're building. So I think that gives you a glimpse into, you know, what's about to happen. Gagged them, notably left out though was James Talerico,

which was interesting. The fourth candidate though that they gauged in this was Jasmine Crockett, who early on was someone mentioned to run for the seat and then dropped off. I haven't heard her name mentioned for this in a long time. Here you have the NRSC shopping around a poll. I'm sure it's legit, at least for the most part, although it is pretty funny at Republican group polling in Democratic field, which of course they do behind the scenes, but they never really put it out there. The reason they're putting it out there is I think they believe Jasmine Crockett is a very beatable candidate opponent.

That said, they have her at 35%. Next in line was Colin Hall-Red at 20%, followed by Beto O'Rourke and Joaquin Castro, both at 13%, 18% undecided. That was done for a reason. And that was put out with Daily Caller for a reason. They didn't see this and be like, oh, that's interesting. Let's just throw it out there. Let's see if that works at all. No, they are trying to prod Jasmine Crockett into running for the Senate seat because for whatever reason, they feel like she's more beatable than any of these other guys in the general election. I don't think she's ultimately going to run for it. She's got a pretty comfy seat in Congress that she'll never lose as long as she wants to hold on to it. She's also a growing...

She runs for Senate. Ah, she runs for Senate. She's also a growing face of Democrats in Congress and across the country. I don't know. I haven't heard anything about her, changing her mind and all of a sudden looking at this more seriously, but I guess you never know. Maybe the NRC, maybe they'll be successful in providing her to actually jump in the race. I don't know. I don't think so. That's why considering who a poll is from is so important in looking at polls. Is what

motivators might be behind the names listed on any given poll. But it is very interesting regardless. I know Brad, the moment I saw that I texted you and I was like, oh my gosh, because it is it's a very notable poll regardless, and very interesting to see. Brad Kassan Well, and looking at her website, there is no under construction sign on it. It is Justin Crockett, Democrat for US Congress. I guess technically, Senate seat is in Congress. Maybe that's an end around there. I don't think there's much to this, although it is pretty funny to see the opposition try and sleekly get their more preferred candidate in there. We know Democrats are chomping at the bit to run against Ken Paxton. So it's only fair for the Republicans

to say, and maybe we have a Ken Paxton versus Jasmine Crockett general election. I think that's objectively the most entertaining of all general election matchups. That would be fun. That would be fun. Absolutely. Well, Bradley, thank you. Gentleman, thank you, each of you, for covering what you did this week. We're all very appreciative. And folks, I want to reiterate, there's an email in your inbox with you, a part of our orbit with resources and ways to help those affected by the floods.

So make sure to go check that out. And as Matt said, just be very wary as to where you're donating, where you're funneling funds and just make sure that that is tried and true in all those ways. Folks, we appreciate you listening to this episode of the podcast and we will catch you next week. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics. And send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at thetexan.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.