The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - June 20, 2025

Episode Date: June 20, 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.Thousands Rally in Anti-Trump 'No Kings' Protest at Texas CapitolNearly 300 Alleged Criminal Aliens Arrested, Hundreds Deported in Houston ICE OperationTexas GOP Signals Looming Push, Potential Lawsuit Over Closed PrimariesU.S. Supreme Court Upholds Tennessee Child Gender Modification BanTexas AG Ken Paxton Opens Investigation Into 33 Alleged Noncitizen VotersTrump Polling Firm Finds Bipartisan Opposition to Banning THC Products in TexasSCOTUS Tosses Texas' Legal Challenge to NRC’s Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage LicenseIllegal Immigrant Student Group Files Challenge to Order Overturning Texas Dream ActTexas Attorney General Paxton Requests Execution Date in Robert Roberson Death Row CaseDan Patrick Chairs First Hearing for Trump's Religious Liberty CommissionTexas Supreme Court Rules on Application of State Religious Services Clause in Local Lawsuit

Howdy folks, it's Mackenzie here with Cameron, Brad and Mary Elise, all three of which have very high IQs and EQs in this office. I just wanted to shout out the team for their skills in those areas. I mean, that's kind of innate, right? I mean, you can kind of work, but those are innate qualities. And so I just wanted to shout all three of you out for possessing such high quantities of both. Well like the Shane Gillis SNL skit, one beer, Brad's EQ rises when he gets his prescription. I think it's a couple of beers, camera, and not just one. Yeah.

Couple of years, couple of years. That sounds about right. Um, I have a question. I just realized I got an iced coffee this morning and this ice is going to absolutely rattle around this microphone. So I want to have to like, we'll have to drink it. Yeah. Or just drink it off camera. Although I will say the last like quarter of an iced coffee can kind of be the, it's the worst part of it. Well, I was, it's watered down more. I was more worried about the condensation. Yeah, you don't have a coaster. Correct. Yeah, no coaster. This table does not have any rings. It is ring proof. Ring proof. This table does not have any rings.

Interesting. It is ring proof. Ring proof. Hmm. Okay. So maybe I'll just, uh, sip it five feet away from this microphone or I'll just let it turn into even more of a watery mess than before. Did you order on the app or did you go? For sure. Oh.

App walk in, get out two seconds in two seconds out Okay, doesn't change your arrival time like it's on It's also the important thing with the Starbucks stop is that it's on the right side of the road So you don't turn left coming out of it. You can just yeah make it really fast Okay, and that's where the Starbucks is located. Do you do the app for convenience or for the customization options the convenience? Okay, because in person I actually it's much easier to customize in my opinion. So I can talk to the barista and be high maintenance with my words, as opposed to going through and clicking like 15 options.

Right. And sometimes the options aren't super clear on the app. Okay. See, I thought there were, from my understanding, there's like a whole genre on TikTok, right? About customized Starbucks drinks. Like people creating these new types of drinks. from my understanding there's like a whole genre on tiktok right about customized starbucks drinks like people really creating these new yes yes yeah mine is just a brown sugar oh milkshake and espresso like like the menu item oh okay and but then i put brown sugar cold foam on top

whoa yeah see this like foamy stuff? Yeah. Just a little extra something. Something sounds good. It's really good. Yeah. What's your Starbucks order? Uh, black coffee. That's what I thought. Brad's is black coffee too. Do you, do you, you, you mix it up sometimes? No, not anymore. Why? Trying to maintain your slim figure? Trying to maintain my man card. What little of it remains. I used to get my order used to be oat milk, vanilla lattes and Brad like piggybacked on my order and would call it his usual. And it always just to get a rise out of me. Mary Lee's do you have a Starbucks order? Like a coffee order that you go that you go to? Okay, if I go to Starbucks, I'll get, I don't know exactly what it's called,

but it's a blonde something. I think it's a blonde latte without syrup. Oh, okay. So like the blonde roast, like the coffee itself is the roast. Yeah, it's pretty much just black coffee with some milk in it. Totally. It's like foam milk at the top.

Yes. It's really good. That's so good. Yeah, I feel like we could go, we really should start talking about the news, but a Starbucks order is totally different than a normal or like a niche hipster coffee shop order. Oh yeah. Like I would never order this at a coffee shop. Yeah. There's no pink or purple drinks coming out of a corner.

And for good reason and praise the Lord for that, you know? Yeah. Just saying. Um, okay. Well, we should jump into the news. You'll want to do that. Let's do it. Delightful. Cameron, let's talk to you about what happened to this past weekend, across the nation, across the nation, but here in Texas too.

Absolutely. Walk us through it. Well, thousands of people descended on Texas state capital here in Austin. Brad seemed like 10,000. Yeah there's my estimate. There was a lot of people and I got a chance to you know go out there observe a little bit and there was lots of signage there were speeches there was a marching band and so this was the No Kings protest. I'm sure everyone who's listening is familiar with this protest movement that occurred over

the past weekend. Nearly five million people are estimated to have gathered across the country participating in these. And on their website, it says that their explicit mission was to create a nationwide day of defiance and this was in direct opposition to Trump and his administration and the the biggest thing that sort of happened here in Austin is prior to the protests occurring, Texas DPS sent out a public announcement saying that there was a quote credible threat that had been made against the lives of state

lawmakers. Earlier there was a assassination that actually occurred in Minnesota where a state representative and her husband were killed. And the person who has been apprehended in that Minnesota case, there's still investigations occurring. There's been reports that the individual had documentation that said they were going to be attending the No Kings protest so there was a lot of overlap here that really made the threat truly credible. Brad was able to obtain some information at the time where a DPS spokesperson told you that the individual was quote politically far left and was apprehended in La Grange and we're still waiting on more information to come out regarding this individual that was

apprehended. I don't know if you want to add anything. There was a Houston outlet did an interview with the guy and he says he thinks he was set up by whoever it was that called in to 911 to report him. Investigation is still ongoing they don't know either way which way this goes but he was you know at first there was a lot of talk about him being a right-winger in relation to the guy in Minnesota. If that is his orientation, I think there's some evidence either way, but some statements he's made shows he was probably the Minnesota guy, was probably right-wing. Regardless, that was the how

people approached this at first, this report that the guy, that some guy was coming to make a threat on lawmakers. Well, turned out he was politically far left and so it wasn't the same situation. And we'll see if the guy was set up, you know. Yeah and I think it's sometimes we we try to fit many of these assassination attempts into a political lens. And many times these are just disturbed individuals that don't have any sort of coherent ideology. But as of right now, like you mentioned, investigation is still ongoing. More information is bound to come out here. But the no-kings protest here in Austin,

it occurred without any violence or any rioting occurring, unlike things that have been happening other parts of the country. Specifically, we wrote about the Los Angeles anti-ice riots and Governor Greg Abbott's comments about deploying the Texas National Guard, State Guard in effect to try and prevent that sort of rioting from occurring here in Austin. So thankfully nothing to the effect of what happened in Los Angeles happened here in Austin. So just interesting moments here across the country with the number of people that were able to organize and demonstrate in this fashion. Absolutely and both of y'all were downtown in different capacities at the time and Brad you said they were just like the most people you've seen downtown. Yeah, even compared to the 2020 stuff, you know, it was,

maybe it was just they were all in one spot. And then in 2020, a lot of the skirmishes with police and other rioting or even just, there was just protests going on. That happened, I think across the city. But yeah, in terms of all being in one spot here, right by the Capitol I was amazed at how many people were there yeah and I wasn't even the middle of it

like you were on the Capitol grounds yeah I got caught for a moment on the stage what camera told me that I was like oh camera maybe get off stage I got there about 30 minutes because it was scheduled to start at 5 I got there about 430 you know was walking around and I had the camera with me and taking photos and I wanted to get on stage to get some wide shots of what was going on and people were just flooding in and so for a period of time all the everything was just blocked and so I was standing there on stage as the marching band is playing the chicken dance song, just like, uh, chicken dance.

No, I stayed very professional. And, you know, well, I was in my role as a reporter, right? So still, yeah, I want, I want to not be seen, you know, you want to be seen, but not seen, right? Totally. As a reporter at these types of things. But yeah, it was very interesting. It was the largest protest I've been to. I've been to a number of different demonstrations that

have happened here in Austin. And it sort of took the same track of where they begin to march down Congress and they go on a little route around downtown and then they come back at the state capitol and things finish up and people pretty much disperse after that so yeah that's the no kinks protest. Check out Cameron's piece there are some interesting pictures too. Yeah or check out redacted as well. And check out redacted. That's what the newsletter was about. All in one fell swoop. Lots of content for Cameron from that one protest and the weekend's events. Thanks Cam.

Bradley, let's talk about an announcement we're recording a little earlier Thursday morning but let's talk about something that we've been kind of eyeing for a while. Some names that we've heard floated around for a comptroller. Walk us through this, the latest development. Yeah, so we're recording Thursday morning later this morning. Kelly Hancock, senator from Fort Worth area, North Richland Hills, he will be sworn in as chief clerk of the Comptroller's Office and that will be basically be running the Comptroller's office when Hager, Glenn Hager, the current one, leaves to go to Texas

A&M University System to head up that. We've known that for a while. Hancock's name has been one rumored a lot ever since that opening became clear. He hasn't jumped in the race yet, but after he is sworn in as clerk, he will announce Comptroller for the midterm for 2026 and the quote I was given that by this point will be out by the time this podcast comes out will be out he says for over a decade I fought for Texas taxpayers in the legislature cutting red tape passing conservative budget reforms and holding government accountable as Comptroller I'll make sure your tax dollars are spent wisely, transparently, and responsibly.

Hancock's been in the legislature since I think like 06-07. He served a few terms in the House, then moved to the Senate, has been there ever since. He's held various positions. He scrapped with the lieutenant governor, notably over electricity repricing in 21 after the blackouts happened. He got kind of got put in the doghouse. It seems like he has since gotten out of the doghouse and while he's not top of the list among the lieutenant governor's favorite senators, he's definitely improved his standing with the lieutenant governor. And certainly is close with the governor. I was about to say that, thank you for stealing my thunder. But yes, he is very close with the governor. He was, he went on the stump for Abbott in the 22 campaign, was one of his campaign surrogates.

And this has been expected, I would say. He's kind of among the profile of someone who would be good at Comptroller, he fits that. He's run businesses, he's more fiscally minded. Don Huffines fits that as well. I think it's a pretty, they fit well in the general archetype of what a Comptroller's supposed to do. And so now they're gonna slug it out

because Ancock's running for this seat as of now. Both have served in the Senate together too. Both served in the Senate together. Then you have Kristi Craddock in the railroad commissioner. She as well, she's run an agency. It's gonna be a fun race to watch, that's for sure. Yeah, and she's certainly touting that agency experience and saying, I'm a statewide elected official in this race, this is, you know, my bonafide, so we'll keep an eye on all of that. Kind of explain how this is kind of a roundabout way of putting someone in charge of an agency without making them explicitly a comptroller. Explain how this process works. It is a roundabout way because normally the government would just appoint someone to fill the vacancy.

However, if you're a loyal reader of fourth reading, you saw this on Tuesday that... That was not a dig Cameron at all. Yeah. No, Cameron reads every one. He just didn't get to the third section. I didn't get to that part. Do you read redacted every week? No. About half of them. But so the way they're going about this is because there's an attorney general opinion from 2002 that states a legislator cannot be appointed to a position that they have basically voted to fund the budget for or the salary pension of in the same term in which they were elected to the Senate. And so who wrote that opinion? None other than Governor Abbott when he was attorney general.

So they went into this with that hanging over the head as an obstacle. Like, how do we explain that? And if we don't get a, basically a rescission of that from the current attorney general, by the way, who is no fan of Kelly Hancock because Hancock voted to impeach him, then they're stuck. And so they have to figure out a way around it. So the way around it was by hiring him as an employee and then basically promoting him when Hager leaves as to be acting comptroller from an employee standpoint rather than an appointment standpoint. Right? Okay. So

that's the way they got around it. Now there's other problems with this maneuver that they'll there may be legal challenges on this there may not be who knows if if how finds wants to fund a lawsuit over this, he probably could. But regardless, it will not affect Hancock's ability to run from my understanding to run for the seat. That's an entirely different thing. Because that's kind of viewed as a wiping the slate clean voters approve you to be in if you win. That's that right. So there are there is another section of the Constitution. So Hancock resigned, from my understanding, on Wednesday evening from the Senate to be then

appointed this morning, Thursday morning. But the constitutional holdover provision, from what I'm told, or at least there's questions about this this says that you are still enacting Texas legislator until your successor is appointed through for legislation legislators through a special election now the governor calls an emergency special election you need to get that done pretty quickly but not by the time Hancock is sworn in as chief clerk right so there's that and along with that holdover provision there's a prohibition against legislators holding other civil office in which they get any kind of profit so I don't know if he can just

say I'm not taking a salary and that does it. But there's there's other hurdles here that they have to clear, not least of which is if he's an employee of the comptroll's office, does he need to give the comptroll's office 40 hours a week of work? Meanwhile, he needs to run a statewide campaign. I don't know, it's it probably won't amount to hilly beans because what matters is the election, but this is not nothing because the governor's office and Hancock are going out of their way to try and finagle away around this stuff. Well let me ask, this all sounds incredibly complicated. Yes.

Why go through all this? It's a very good question. With Kelly Hancock, why couldn't they just appoint someone that they can just plug in there? Well, I think the logic is that being acting comptroller in whatever capacity will give him first of all experience running the office, and then he can use that in the campaign and say, I know how to do do this the other two guys don't And also give him more name ID statewide so this reminds me and I doubt Hancock will do this

Nobody else has done this that I have known but the reason Bob Bullock when he was comptroller got such high name ID was because he It basically he basically raided a bunch of businesses who were delinquent on their taxes and made a big show of it. And each one he showed up with state agents ready to go and raid the place and he also invited media. So this was back in I forget the 70s maybe but that was a lot of earned media that he got. Such a bulk move too. Yeah and it was very clever but that's if you get creative that's the kind of thing you can... Well that sounds great

for Kelly Hancock. What is the benefit for Greg Abbott making this appointment? Well he wants his person to have a leg up in the race and primarily he does not want Don Huffins to win leg up in the race and primarily he does not want Don Huffins to win because Huffins ran against him in 22 for the governor's race. And they haven't buried the hatchet since? Definitely not. Okay. No, no, there's no love lost between those two. Okay. So, Abbott is trying to get his guy, which is now Hancock, whatever leg up he can over Huffins. which is now Hancock, whatever leg up he can over Huffines. And that's why they're going through all this trouble. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So last thing I'll say about this in the race to come.

So Hancock, as of, he's a very good fundraiser, as of the beginning of the year, he had $4.6 million cash on hand. I assume that after jumping into this race in the coming like couple weeks that they have after the fundraising prohibition ends post-session he'll raise a lot more. I mentioned the Huffline C. Abbott twist to this but then you have Christy Craddock in the race. There's no push over. She's formidable. She has a lot of West Texas

ties. In fact, the the endorsement list she launched with was nothing compared to Huff Finds in terms of the like political figure and grassroots activist endorsements. But she had all the money. Huge names that were on. Kelsey Warren, I believe, Cody Campbell, a lot of big money guys who are also big money guys for Abbott. The question is, do they leave her and go to Hancock now that he's in? Maybe some do that, some don't, I'm sure. What happens, Craddock's campaign sent a statement to me that will be in the peace when it goes up saying that she's not bowing out. She's not, that's not happening.

Um, they're going to run this through and, um, it'll be shaping up to be a very interesting race. That's for sure. Yeah. More and more interesting by the minute. Absolutely. Well, Bradley, thank you. Let's go to Mary Elise here.

Houston ice connected a week long operation operation deporting and arresting hundreds. This is a story that certainly been trending on our site. A lot of folks care deeply about this. Give us the details. Yes. So we've talked about this a few times with different deportations and arrests happening of illegal aliens in Houston, but this was a particularly big one and it happened kind of right as these big riots were happening, protesting ICE, protesting deportations.

So this happened, it was mid-May, but they announced it just last Friday. And so there were, in Houston, ICE arrested 422 illegal aliens. And then they said that 296 of them were determined to be criminal aliens. And they're convicted with various charges. And this is from Houston ICE saying this, they said, these charges included homicide, sexual exploitation of a minor,

one was driving while intoxicated, robbery, and then various forms of assault. Some were carrying prohibited weapons, arson, and the possession of a controlled substance. Brett Bradford, the ICE director in Houston, who kind of was spearheading this operation in Houston, said that in recent years, some of the world's most dangerous fugitives, transnational gang members and criminal aliens take an advantage of the crisis at our nation's southern border to legally enter the US.

Then he said that after they enter the country, these violent criminals, criminal aliens have infiltrated our local communities and reign terror on law-abiding residents, leaving countless innocent victims in their wake. So pretty strong words from Houston ICE director here. So this operation was between May 4th and May 10th. And it took multiple agencies, as it typically does,

when you do an operation like this, you have the local FBI branch coming in, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and then we had, of course, this Houston branch of ICE, Texas Department of Public Safety, Drug Enforcement Administration, because typically there's some handling of drugs in these situations. So there were a few individuals that they listed in their press release talking about their arrest and their different charges. So one of them was Colombian, he's from Colombia, and then the rest of them that they listed were from Mexico,

ranging from ages 32 to 72. And two of them had actually been previously deported back to Mexico from the United States. And that, so two of them previously deported, but on five previous occasions. So this, you know, this operation happened while everyone's in the streets rallying, protesting these deportations and arrests of illegal aliens. People are raising concerns that maybe these folks are not necessarily criminals, or what

if they're not actually an illegal alien, but they're just being arrested. We saw a federal congressman shared this story and he said, promises made, promises kept. And so he's kind of reflecting what I've seen at least a lot of Republican congressmen are responding to this, these sorts of operations by just saying, look, this is what Trump campaigned on and he's fulfilling it.

Other people are saying that they, they wish that he was deporting more and doing more of these operations like this one in Houston. So lots of responses to it. Of course. Um, it's a hot topic right now, but. Absolutely. Very hot topic right now. Have you guys ever watched, um, this is so out of left field in some ways, Narcos?

No. Tough, tough watch. Very, very good. But it's, it's, uh, it starts with the whole Pablo Escobar operation and his whole enterprise and how American forces teamed up with Colombian forces, take them down and the corruption it's a wild and I think it really gives some insight into the genesis of a lot of this situation, but yeah, it's very interesting. Well for how tragic all the drug and human trafficking is Across the border. It does make for great film and television. Oh it's yeah

so many lives lost. It really unbelievable like cost both in the country and here in the States but. But Narcos, my favorite movie is Sicario. That's right. And very graphic. I don't necessarily like recommend it, but it's very good. It's just very graphic and a tough watch. So anyway, that's what my husband and I watched on our quote unquote baby moon was Nargos. Very on your what? On our like baby trip, like our Florida trip.

Yeah. People call it a baby moon and I hate the word. So why did you use it? Because it, what else do I say? That's the word. So why do you use it? Because it, what else do I say? That's the first time I've ever heard of it. Our pre-baby trip. That's what I've been saying.

But then people say, oh, a baby moon? And I'm like, yes. I can't wait. Did people say that? Yes, people have been saying that. They should be banned from polite society. Thank you. Those people.

That's what I agree. I over thought it. I over thought it. Okay. Well, Mary Elise, thank you for your coverage there Bradley Let's talk about an update to the state party the Texas GOP's attempt to close primaries. What's going on? So over the weekend the SREC the state Republican executive committee met in Austin and they did a few things nothing of like

incredible note, but one of the things they did was kind of move closer to either a potential lawsuit or resolution on closing primaries. This has been a big fight for multiple years, but it really took off last year particularly because of the very close margin between Dade Phelan and David Covey in the runoff. If you break down the voting returns, people that voted in the runoff, the race was about less than a 400-point vote margin. And there were enough people that voted in that race that had all or mostly

Democratic primary voting history That swung it that could have swung it and did swing it But if you look at the broader picture, it's not as simple as you know as the number that was cited Which was you know, like four thousand Let's say Democrats voted because you have a lot of people who were who have one Democratic primary Under the belt and two Republican primaries. It's split like that. But there were enough, because the margin was so low, so small, there were enough of

hard Democrat voters to swing it. So that's the reason it became such a big issue. Calls for closing, long time calls for closing the primaries ramped up to 11 on that so Party's been moving closer and closer. It would unless the state is cooperative Cooperative on this and the legislature to date. It's not passed any law mandating this It's gonna result in a very expensive lawsuit the kind of lawsuit that right now the party cannot afford Maybe they can later, but right now their finances are not good enough to afford that. So there's this push

there back in 2022 the party started the process towards this by in their rules striking every specific reference to state election code keeping like the requirements the the standards but just anytime I said Texas election code, keeping like the requirements, the standards, but just anytime it said text election code, dot dot dot dot, whatever, they struck that. So the argument was that we were untying this from the election code to later pass a rule that closes primaries. So in this, they adjusted the rule 46, which is closed primaries, that was adopted last year in the convention. And the new language says, in Texas Republican primary elections and Texas Republican primary runoff elections,

only a U.S. citizen eligible to vote in Texas who is registered to vote with the Secretary of State as a Republican may cast a ballot in those elections. It's a small change, but the change is putting in the Secretary of State as specific language in this section. Previously it did not. It just said more generic, anyone registered as a Republican. So in my view, I'm not a lawyer, but just reads like this to me, this is placing the onus on the Secretary of State but just reads like this to me, this is placing the onus on the Secretary of State to register people as Republicans. Now, there's a lot of logistical questions about this. How do you implement it? Is it difficult to do?

To date, we have not had registered primaries. Is there going to be an adjustment period? Can you even get this done before the midterm elections? A lot to go on this. We'll see if they're able to successfully close their primary. In my estimation, the argument is that the parties, they run their own elections even though they use the Secretary of State to conduct the elections, the primaries are a function of the parties, therefore they get to determine the parameters of that. And if you do that, you leave open the ability for the Democratic Party to decide what they

want to do as well, which they will not close their primary, there's no appetite to do that. They need all the voters they can get, right? So a lot of back and forth on this we'll see the legal arguments if it does come to a lawsuit but overall they are optimistic the party is that they're closer to doing this than they have been before we'll see if that pans out I'm just wondering what's what's the reason for going towards a closed primary? Is there examples in other states that transitioned from an open to a closed primary that got

the types of results they wanted from closing primaries or has it backfired in other instances? Well I've not seen any evidence about how it turned out, whether they got the results they wanted. The one that's cited often is Idaho, where they did this, what I mentioned about the striking every reference to election code, they did this and then they eventually won a court case saying that they could keep their primary closed. But does that result in the type of candidates that the party right now wants winning? Keep in mind, this is a party where we're viewing this in a state that is dominated by the Republican Party. Well, coming from a state that was not dominated by either party for a long time, that was very purple, Ohio,

you had more moderate candidates because those candidates were more likely to win. Right now, it's a race to be the most conservative. Because the Republican primary is the election of consequence in the state, generally. But if the state does get more competitive, does that shift the kind of candidate that A can win a race in a general election, right? B can get the party's support, right? And this is all happening amidst a push to also censure and keep from being on the ballot as a Republican a lot of these House Republicans, right? We saw Dallas County move

forward with that this week. I don't think those censure resolutions, first of all they censured Dustin Burroughs who does not represent Dallas. He's the speaker so he represents the members who elected him as speaker in the chamber and then he represents Lubbock. There's no force of that that is that that can be done used with that censure resolution. But they also censured Morgan Meyer and Angie Chen Button, two Dallas County Republicans, the last two Dallas County Republicans in the house. So my understanding is the party's probably not going to move on those and they'll wait until they come up with this criteria that the SREC is going to come up with to then say, hey, if you want

to send your members, you have to follow these things. Alan West, who is the party chair there, does, often does what he wants. In Dallas. In Dallas, does what he wants. He also used to be the Texas GOP chair. So a lot left to go on this, but there's multiple threads of this general fight and it'll be interesting to see how Abraham George manages this. Does this hurt him in his reelection bid for chairman next year at the convention? A lot to play here. A lot to play. Very interesting dynamic. The convention is always interesting, but this will be very interesting.

Yes, yes, very much so. And then like, how do we judge this session? How do they judge this session? Is it a failure because the speaker they didn't want got elected? Is the Texas GOP is openly touting the 37 priorities that they want that they got across the line, the legislature did it passed There's there's gonna be a fight here over and the center of it is whether this was an acceptable session and Whether a bunch of Republicans sitting Republicans need to be censured and tried to keep off the ballot which itself will yield

very expensive litigation, so Here it comes. Bradley, thank you. Cameron, let's go to you. A Supreme Court, US Supreme Court ruling on child gender modification treatments will have nationwide impacts, especially here in Texas after the passage of SB 14. Just like session. Tell us about it. In a 63 rolling, the Supreme Court of the United States. A lot of six to three rulings. Interesting, right? Has found that a Tennessee law, barring gender modification treatments for minors, does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and satisfies, quote,

rational basis review. And so I'll just read a portion of the leading opinion here from Justice John Roberts. And I think it's interesting to note, so I'll just read from it here, the voices in these debates raise sincere concerns the implications for all are profound the equal protection clause does not resolve these disagreements nor does it afford us license to decide them as we see best. Our role is not to quote judge the

wisdom, fairness, or logic of the law before us, but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment. Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process. So that's why I mentioned that this will have a nationwide effect setting this legal precedent where it's handing over much more of the ownership of these laws to the state legislatures because they are elected representatives of the people. So if they pass laws, that's representative of the will of the people that got them elected.

So I just think this is very interesting. And like you mentioned, SB14, which was passed, not during the latest session, but the session before, which banned child gender modification treatments here and was subject to a number of legal challenges, many of which we covered here at the Texan. And so with the legal precedent being set, we might see some further movement

on securing SB 14 in the state, even though it has been upheld by the Texas Supreme Court, but in other states as well. So just a very interesting case here. And the mention from Court, but in other states as well. So just a very interesting case here and the mention from Brad, the 63 ruling, it was along the normal sort of partisan lines with the six conservative justices all voting in unison and the three liberal judges voting in unison, dissenting on this opinion. So people are interested in getting into the nuances.

I encourage them to go check out the piece. It's up on the Texan.News. Childhood and modification never goes away. And that even that session where like that was two years ago, it feels so distant. And that was the biggest thing in the world at the time. Well we still see a lot of the groups that were advocating against SB 14 continuing to put out press releases and voicing their opposition to not just the Supreme Court ruling, but the law here in the state. So it's not an issue that's going to go away anytime soon.

Absolutely. No hot topic still. Cameron, thank you. Let's go to Mary Elise here. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating 33 potential non-citizen voters. Tell us what led to this. Yes, so we talked about this last week where he spoke on how Secretary of State Jane Nelson had referred 33 individuals that she suspected were non-citizens who did vote in the November 2024 general election. And so that was just a week ago and now Attorney General Ken

Paxton has announced that he is for sure launching an investigation into those 33 folks. So this came after Nelson was able to get access to this federal citizenship database. And essentially the way that her office did it was it kind of used this database to cross-reference the data they already have in their voter rolls. And then they shared on June 5th that it had found those 33 individuals that they're concerned are not US citizens. And so this is the long name, but U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database.

So this is a database that Nelson has been trying to get access to. It's typically utilized by government agencies such as the Secretary of State's office and so that they can verify immigration and naturalization status of different individuals to make sure, okay, should they be voting in our elections or just to check their their immigration status for other purposes. But it was made available to Nelson after President Donald Trump issued this executive order. Camera in your face looks like it's on fire from my camera.

It's got this like funny orange glow. Hopefully it doesn't show up. But yeah, so it was an executive order by Trump. And it was just like the series of directives to various agencies telling them how they can be a part of ensuring that election integrity is really prioritized. And so one of these was an order given to the Department of Homeland Security, and it required it to, and we mentioned this last week, that it give access to this database for all state and local officials and make sure they have free access to that information, the information on voters, citizenship, naturalization statuses.

And Paxton said as he announced the investigation on Tuesday morning, he said, non-citizens must not be allowed to influence American elections, and I will use the full weight of my office to investigate all voter fraud. And he said that in order for us to be able to really trust the integrity, the outcome of our elections, the results must be determined by our own citizens, not foreign nationals breaking the law to legally vote. So of course, there's been nothing confirmed yet. This is just the beginning of an investigation into these 33 folks.

And so it'll be, I'm sure it'll be a lots more, we'll see a lot more back and forth between Nelson and Paxton, because this had, back in 2024, Paxton had called on Nelson, it was September, 2024, just a couple months before the election, he had called on Nelson to really push to get access to this database so that she could confirm

that the different folks voting in the election were citizens. And then shortly after that she had sent her own letter to the USCIS and she told him, hey you have to collaborate with my office and help us get access to this information. And she said that they were able to identify these 33 folks within weeks of getting access to this database. So pretty recent. But of course, this is just the start of the investigation. So we'll see what this produces, whether we find out they really are citizens, if they're

not, if they truly did vote in November election, we'll just have to keep an eye on that. Absolutely. TBD, Mary Elise, thank you for your coverage. Cameron, we're coming to you. Let's talk about a poll. A new one. A new poll. A new poll. Brand new. We only talk about new polls here on the podcast. Never old polls. Never old polls. Yeah. Just so just so listeners can really take, you know, solace knowing that we're providing them with the newest news. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's a bit of a, like, no, that's not jumbo shrimp. I don't know, nevermind.

Yeah, that's the opposite of jumbo shrimp. Yeah, the newest news. The newest news. Isn't it just news? Yeah, but it was fun to say. You don't steal my joy. I stole your thunder earlier, now you're stealing mine, so I guess it is fine.

But let's talk about this poll. Let's talk about SB3, THC being here in Texas. What did this latest information have to tell us? Well, this new poll came out from Fabrizio Lee and associates. This is a public opinion firm known for being really a go-to pollster for president Donald Trump, which makes it that much more fascinating. This, this sort of information that came out. Like you mentioned, before I go into some of the numbers, SP3 is the ban on manufacturer

possession and sale of certain consumable THC products here in Texas has become incredibly contentious, not just as it made its way through the legislative process, but since it was passed, lots of groups coming out both in opposition and support of SB3. So there's a lot of energy being directed at this bill. But going into the poll here, it found 61% of survey respondents oppose Abbott signing SB3 into law. And then when you look at the partisan breakdown

44% of Republicans oppose the ban while 66 percent of independents and 80 percent of Democrats are against it a Majority 52 percent said they were aware of the potential ban on THC derived products and of that majority 57 percent said it made them feel quote less favorable toward the Texas legislature. And as we were discussing this in the office as I was working on this piece, Brad brought that number to my attention as being something that is worth mentioning is this has transitioned from a just a bill to ban THC, but then also could affect campaigns and could affect favorability ratings of individual lawmakers on how they voted on this potential

legislation, throwing into question how this might affect their re-elections when they run next cycle. So very interesting numbers coming out there. We still don't know how Governor Greg Abbott is going to act on this. We are recording this June 19th. He has until the 22nd to make some sort of action on it. If he doesn't, he can just let it go into effect. So there's a few options the governor has on this. This was a bill that was really championed by

the lieutenant governor holding press conferences, multiple press conferences. I'm sure everyone who's listening to the Texan podcast is familiar with the viral clip of Dan Patrick tossing what's those THC products to the media, really lambasting people covering this issue saying we, people in the media have not done a proper job of covering some of the things he has highlighted about the necessity for a piece of legislation like this. And after this pull up came out from Fabrizio Lee and Associates, Dan Patrick actually produced

his own, not a full poll or survey, but he produced a question that I'll read here. It says, while there are 1,100 McDonald's restaurants in Texas, 8,000 shops have opened in Texas in just the last three years, most of them close to schools and neighborhoods selling unregulated and dangerous THC products. Knowing this, should these dangerous THC products be banned in Texas for which it broke down based on ideology, those who said yes a ban, 60% very conservative, 55% somewhat conservative, 38% moderate liberal. So sort of dueling numbers here, one from Dan Patrick, one from this most recent survey we're mentioning and talking about here. I would

encourage everyone to approach these numbers with a keen eye on how the wording is put together on these questions. Their polling is a sticky business in how they can lead people towards or against certain opinions based upon what words are included or even excluded. So I actually think Brad's going to be writing up a little something on how polling is conducted and how survey questions are constructed. So if people are interested, go read my piece when Brad puts together his piece possibly. I encourage people to go read that because it is a fascinating topic how survey questions are constructed. I wish we could

go back in time and put together some compilation of us always qualifying poll results because it's it is part of the difficulty of navigating through these polls that are released or things that are handed to us as information obviously very notable and fun to look at and can be indicative of where the public or certain sect of voters stand on an issue but there's so many caveats to that. Even who runs the poll, who is polled, the margin of error, the sample size, like all of it is so important. Yeah same thing with any sort of

research scientific study that people are flaunting as supporting a certain opinion that they have. If you don't go and look at the actual methods that produce the results within that study, you know, you never know. And even then in campaigns, we talk about this all the time, a poll can go out the window on election day. So it's not what we're talking about here. This is not on the ballot, but it is worth noting Yeah, so Cameron, thank you for breaking that down for us Bradley Let's talk about a long-running lawsuit over a nuclear waste storage facility in West, Texas so

There was a ruling in by the Supreme Court, another six to three ruling, in a long running fight. This we've talked about on the podcast before was between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state of Texas and then there are a couple other, one or two other parties that have tried to join. But the main suit was between the state and the NRC. The center of it is the NRC's issuance of a high-level radioactive waste interim storage license. It's a mouthful. I know, right? What the heck does that mean, right? Yeah. So there's a

facility out in Andrews County that already stores low-level waste radioactive waste which is stuff like You know garments gloves that kind of thing that is used as part of the nuclear power Process generating process. You know that has been contaminated and needs to be disposed of low-level stuff There was a a permit or a license request it applied for with the NRC to at that site build an adjacent site facility that will store high level radioactive waste, which is the spent fuel, basically the uranium fuel rods that is used in the process Obviously, that's an entirely different category of thing, right? The reason that's happening is because in by the way interim storage is like

30 to 60 years. I believe it's not permanent the reason that's been a problem is because Congress has failed to create the permanent storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada for decades. They've had this plan for decades and they've not been able to get across the line. You know, most notably because people in Nevada don't want it there, right? They're running into that problem here. Everywhere this stuff goes, you run into that problem because, you know, I can't blame them. I wouldn't want a nuclear storage site in my backyard. It's what it comes out to, it's NIMBYism,

but understandable NIMBYism. The problem is we have nuclear power and it's generating waste and all of it's right now stored still in Texas at the site of the reactor. What are we gonna do in a longer term? It's a solution for this. One of them was to create this site. So that's been the fight. Right before the

license was issued in 23, the legislature passed a ban of storage of such stuff away from the reactor, sparked this legal fight. So anyway, a couple of things happened, guests to the Texas wins at the Fifth Circuit, gets appealed to the Supreme Court by the NRC. The majority of the court sided with the NRC, though on a procedural side of things. They said that Texas and Fasken did not prove their standing to intervene legally through the court in the license process with the NRC. The opinion majority opinion authored by Brett Kavanaugh read to be clear because Texas and Fasken's claims

are not judicially reviewable we need not and do not decide the ultimate question of statutory authority that the dissent focuses on. Statutory authority specifically for the NRC to issue a license in contradiction with state law banning it. The dissent wrote, the court says there is nothing we can do about it. Why? Because neither of the respondents before us is a, quote, party aggrieved by the agency's decision. Yes, the respondents are the state of Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals, a landowner with property near the proposed facility.

And yes, they are aggrieved by the NRC's decision. So you can read more in the article, go into more details, legal arguments, but I don't know, we'll see where this goes, but it's been a long running fight. And this was not a definitive ruling on whether the NRC can issue such licenses. So maybe we'll come to that resolution another time. Another time. Bradley, thank you.

Cameron, let's hit this last few. Well, we have like several stories. Let's be speedy on them here. We'll be quick. An immigrant advocacy group has intervened in the case that ended the Texas DREAM Act. Tell us about it. Being quick here, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a motion on behalf of students for affordable tuition, which is an association that is described as, quote, students without lawful immigration status who rely on paying reduced tuition rates to afford their education to allow this group of students to join the case so it can challenge

the court's ruling in order to pursue an appeal on behalf of those affected. Essentially the Texas Stream Act, that ruling that was filed by the DOJ, there was a motion by Attorney General Kim Paxton to repeal those education codes. They were successful in doing that. This motion now is arguing there wasn't enough time for essentially opposition to present their case to why the Texas Stream Act should remain in place. And so that's what this motion is trying to do is get those arguments included in this case So there is a potential for an appeal moving forward. So

We'll see what happens with this. Go check out Cameron Abrams reporting at the Texas dot news. Thank you. You're so welcome Another big story attorney general Ken Baxter was requested that the Anderson County District Court set a new Execution date for death row inmate Robert Roberson. What's happening here? So this is the latest Robert Roberson news. People are interested in checking out that case. We have extensive reporting on that. He's a death row inmate. His execution date has been delayed on multiple locations over the past year. There was no execution date that had been set since it has been delayed. Now like you mentioned Attorney General Kim Paxton is

asking the Anderson County District Court to set a new date for that execution. There was actually an update provided by Roberson's attorneys who are saying that the motion does not present enough time for new, because they're arguing they want a new trial to be conducted. And so they're essentially asking as well for an extension of time so a new, they can present this new evidence in Robert Roberson's case. So the next update, we'll have to see if it's a motion granting a new trial or new evidence or if a new execution date is set, but still lots to come with this Robert Robon case. Again, we have extensive reporting. This was a huge issue over the past year and a half. So I encourage people to go check out the Texan.News. Cameron started covering this before it became the thing that it is now. So definitely check out

his reporting on this issue. Cameron, thank you. Mary Lee, let's talk about losing a governor. Dan Patrick led the first hearing for the Religious Liberty Commission. Cameron, thank you. Mary-Li, let's talk about Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick led the first hearing for the Religious Liberty Commission. Tell us about it. Yeah, uh President Donald Trump established this new commission on religious liberty and he appointed our Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick as chair and then they had their first meeting on Monday which was in Washington, D.C. Um and it's just it's stated goal is so that it will

figure out how to safeguard and promote America's founding principle of religious freedom. So it's got a whole bunch of folks on this committee, different religious leaders, political experts, legal professionals, and vice-chairs, Dr. Ben Carson, some of you may be familiar with him. So they had this hearing on Monday, went most of the day, and they just discussed the different ways that they can protect religious liberty for all in the United

States, bring in a whole variety of perspectives on what that looks like and how to best protect it in the country and prevent future infringement on it by any future government efforts to attack religious liberty. So seeing as we're pressed for time, you can go check out the piece, read all the details, but that was on Monday. On Monday, Mary-Lise, well done. Cameron, last story, quickly give us a rundown of this state Supreme Court case you've been following.

Well, this goes back all the way to 2023. I won't get into it, but essentially, uh, this case stems from a group that, um, it was saying that there were religious practices, uh, were being infringed upon because of local government trying to Conduct some repairs on a park where they wanted to do these religious services In this eight-to-one opinion with justice james Sullivan dissenting the court concluded that while the texas religious services law operates with Categorical force when triggered its scope is quote not unlimited as it extends to certain governmental actions such as preservation and management of public land that only indirectly affect religious practices Again can't get into all of it here. It's very interesting opinion, especially with Justice James Sullivan dissenting People should go check it out on the Texas news check it out folks Texas news Cameron. Thank you Let's move on to the Tweetery section this week and we have a little bit more at stake

with what we've chosen to talk about in the Tweetery section as I've heard from some sources on Twitter slash X that we will be ranked for our choices. A lot of pressure. Sometimes I take a back seat on the Tweetery section if we're running lot of pressure. You know, sometimes I take a back seat on the tweetery section if we're running out of time. I'm in every week now. I'm bringing forward a tweetery. So you spent some extra time looking for a really good tweetery. I didn't. I actually just really have been obsessed with this thing this week. So it was pretty easy for me. But yeah, Bradley, why don't we start with

you? So and continued to fallout from the email, uh, post session email that blasted the speaker and some house members, uh, from TLR, uh, we talked about that on smoke filled room and hear that discussion more in depth, which continued to fallout. So after that, uh, TLR announced this morning on Thursday that Dictor Bolsey, uh, had retired from TLR after over 30 years with the green as a founding member with the group. Give him my TLR has been the biggest, most impactful pack in this entire state for the last 34 years. Like it's second to none. The amount of money they put in, the amount of

electoral and legislative successes they've had over that span is remarkable. They've run into very difficult times of late and they had a very poor session, I would say, compared with, you know, what they wanted to get and what they actually got. So, it's a group that has typically gotten most of, if not all of, what they wanted and they did in the session. We talked about the email that caused a ripple effect in the organization, not just that, but the way the session went and there are, there is some departures. So, Dick Trebolci is retiring. He was going to retire from what I understand, going to retire at the end of the year anyway But they moved up at a board meeting on June 9th, they moved that up and said alright, it's gonna be more immediate They also announced the departure of two

Board members one of them Joe Popolo He is being appointed as the ambassador of the Netherlands by the president. So that is a that's probably just separate from all this. Extra stuff. Yeah. But then you have a very notable one, Alan Hassonflew leaving the board. You know from my understanding there's been a long time clash between what's known as the Houston Wing of TLR and the Austin Wing. Just the direction, the strategy, how forceful they are in PR stuff, most notably taking the gloves off on the email. There's a lot there. I

still don't know the entire story, but it's not just leaving neither Tribulce nor Hasson Flu, it's just leaving out of their own volition, at least in the way that things are unfolding right now. So the fallout is continuing. We'll see if they can collect themselves and revamp things ahead of the midterm next cycle, which I've talked about is going to be very Fascinating with this dynamic between them and trial lawyers trial lawyers getting more involved in Republican primaries, which Until about last cycle or the one before has been entirely TLR's territory. So this is a

This is not storylines not gonna end here. I guarantee that but Yeah, and also give a current volt, Tony Ortiz, a friend of the pod in the Texan, shout out for getting it first on Thursday, at least the general departures. And Tribulsi is, I mean, that is a huge name and a huge change at TLR, that cannot be overstated. Oh yeah.

Right, this is somebody who's been at the helm in very meaningful ways. Since its founding. Since its founding. And so this is this is a huge, huge shakeup. And I just think it's so interesting with how you mentioned the shakeups at TLR. We talked about the open and close primary issue and how all these different things can affect the upcoming campaigns in the next cycle, money, who's voting and things. And it just really emphasizes how complicated politics is. Really, because, you know, it's one thing if you care about your XYZ issue, and you have a formed opinion

on that. But it's all these things happening in the background that really have a huge impact on whether you're ex whatever issue you care about ends up getting discussed or bill filed or eventually passed into law. There's all these things happening behind the scenes that if you're not aware of it you have no idea. I often recite maxims well one of them is everything affects everything right and that is at play here more than in a lot of places. Good job Bradley. Cameron what you got? Well I was searching for a Texas focus tweeterie, because sometimes I'll just pick something fun.

Well, fun is fun. Fun is fun, but it might not always be Texas-focused. But I happened to come across this letter that was put out by a group of seven Democrats in the Texas House and Senate, where they're asking Tesla, which is a Texas based company to delay its launch of robot taxi operations here in Austin, which is in Texas. And that is because of a state law state that state being Texas that was passed

this past legislative session. And so we'll have to hear if Tesla responds which is owned by Elon Musk, Texas resident, and so there's just lots of overlapping Texas issues with this one story. Did you get an angry email or something about how you never pick a Texas topic? I don't know what you're talking about. Did you really? Oh my topic? I don't know what you're talking about, but did you really? Oh my gosh. I was like, what?

I'm just really trying to win this. You think that, and you think the Texas angle is the angle? It's the only angle that matters. I got you. Well, then I need to change my tweeter. Too late, not happening, but I've got to change my tweeter in the future. So that's my tweeter, uh, asking to delay the launch of these robot taxi operations, something we've written about something we've, yes.

Absolutely. We follow this and by we, we mean you. Yeah. Only me. No, none of the readers, even it's just, it's just me in my corner. So good. So good so good camera thank you Mary-Lise we're gonna come to you what are you throwing in the ring here okay well this isn't a side for my tweeter II but during the span of this

podcast I've gotten ten scam calls oh my gosh I don't know how to I need to figure out how to prevent these but this is like one after the end and then I leave two second long voicemails but that's annoying that they actually like that is that is not my tweeter either my tweeter II is a UCL graduate celebrated his graduations at the graduation and he holds up his laptop and he's like scrolling through chat GPT like chat to be history and showing how he completed all of his like final exams using chat GPT and he's like up on the jumbotron and I don't know if they're gonna like take away his degree or anything but it's hilarious because he's

like Sam but no Texas tie I just thought that was funny. So that's wild. That's so wild. Um, yeah, chat GPT is becoming more and more of an obstacle and an asset at the same time in these education circles. And that makes it very, uh, interesting to kind of navigate Mary Lee. Thank you. I want to talk about Caitlin Clark. Oh, Caitlin Clark, my girl.

Now if you're unfamiliar with Caitlin Clark, you might be living under a rock, but some people still are unfamiliar with WNBA players, I understand. But she has become one of the most famous athletes in the country. Sensation. An absolute sensation. She's a straight baller. In more ways than one. That means, yes, I agree. More ways than sensation. She's a straight baller. In more ways than one, that means yes, I agree. More ways than one, what's the other way? A person can be a baller and not play ball. It's used more casually. So I'm saying not only is she a baller of a human, but she's actually a baller.

And of course there's been a lot of talk, and this is her her rookie season. Is it or is it actually her second now? I can't remember regardless I think it is still her rookie season. No, it's her second. It's her second. Yeah. Wow time flies when you're having fun but She's made a lot of news this week specifically because over the course of her WNBA career she has over the course of her WNBA career, she has been the subject of a lot of conversation. Folks in the league having a lot of criticism saying, we've all been playing great basketball this whole time. We didn't need Caitlin Clark to shine a light on what we're doing here at the WNBA. Just because a very popular player has not come into the league does not mean that we

are not and have not been providing great entertainment for folks for many years. Now it is undisputable that Caitlin Clark has brought a new audience to the WNBA and a lot more money and I doubt that many other folks would be able to name other WNBA players other than Caitlin Clark who are just tangentially watching right. Those who started to get into the league now have a different perspective and certainly can name other players but she is by far by by far the most prominent and popular player in the league but it's also like I said brought forward criticism and not just criticism but she's been fouled constantly in these games to an extent where she's like top three most fouled players in

the league as a rookie. She had a great year as a rookie. Her second year is going really well as well. And this last, she was out for an injury for, I think it was a hamstring injury for a little while, just returned for the latest game. I think it was against like the Connecticut Sun. I'm not totally fluent in WNBA team. So if I'm wrong on that, let me know but I think it was the Connecticut Suns and This was immediately just her returning to the league after an injury was the third most watched WNBA game of all time Wow, okay She's in the game going through the motions going through the motions

Caitlin Clark never goes for the motion. No, Caitlin Clark is going through the motions going through the motions Caitlin Clark never goes for the motion no Caitlin Clark is going through the motions and it's always exceptional it's unreal it's been if you watch her play it's just like constant three-pointers it's just like she's just knocking yes Bradley means yes I mean you didn't know what infamous men so yes I did oh my gosh but my point is that she makes it look easy that's what I'm trying to say is that she makes it look easy now she She's going in for A shot she gets fouled this girl what and if you watch the slo-mo, it's kind of crazy

Like she just gets poked in the eye and caitlin clark is like, oh my gosh like immediately it's like This wild shot of somebody just taking that hurts and it hurts and like oh my gosh like immediately it's like this wild shot of somebody just taking that hurts and it hurts and it wasn't just like it looked pretty malicious I'll say it did not look just like oh an accident so the game stops like the whistles blown and another player on the opposing team comes over and just checks her. Well knocks her to the ground. Again this is after the whistle's been blown and the play

stopped. Wow. Just knocks her to the ground. Not only is she sitting there with her hand over her eye, all of a sudden she's just, she did not see this person coming, it's just leveled. Like completely on the ground. What's wild and of course the announcers you can hear them saying oh oh, this person's going to get it, like going to get ejected. This person who body slammed Caitlin Clark. Um, that's the expectation when you make a move like that, right? Right. All three of these people involved, including Caitlin Clark, got just technical fouls. Caitlin Clark got fouled. For what? Well, afterwards she got a little, she got mad, obviously, but she was kind of just like on the ground.

Like, I don't really know. Like it was just unreal. So then of course, criticism sparked, like, this is insane. The league is not enforcing what it needs to enforce. It's allowing behavior like this. It's insane. And none of her teammates kind of stood up for her, which was also really wild.

And, but at the very end of the game, one of her teammates, Sophie Cunningham, is like guarding a player on the opposite team, and it's the last 40 seconds of the game, and quite literally just like kind of tackles her to the ground, the same player who body-jacked Caitlin Clark. Just, but like completely levels her.

Now she gets ejected, but she's like, it's the last 40 seconds of the game. I don't care. You mess with my girl. You mess with me. And it was awesome. Now they kind of switched around the fouls a little bit. Somebody got fined. Somebody got ejected. Like they switched it around a little bit where it was like flagrant fouls and all this stuff. But it was wild to watch. And I think really case in point that there's a lot going on in the WNBA that

needs to be addressed. Well I don't know if you were going to say something but yeah it is it is wow because I saw the clip that you just described and it's it's interesting seeing all the think pieces come out not just after that incident but the whole Caitlin Clark sensation. Phenomenon yeah. Yeah and it's caused a lot of discussions online about female sports and how these are financed and things and just the the interactions Caitlin Clark has with the other players not just on her team but in the league and with former players Everyone has an opinion on Caitlin Clark It's it's a deep rabbit hole you people can go down. Oh my gosh

It's very interesting if you're into that sort of stuff. I don't even you know, I don't watch a lot of sports I don't watch the NBA and definitely not watching the WN. But somehow Caitlin Clark is on my timeline. Totally. So tells you a lot. Yeah, it tells me a lot definitely. So it's very interesting. It's very. And of course there are all sorts of memes popping up about like Angel Reese. I could go into this. Angela Reese? Angel Reese, yes. all this. Her rebounding prowess. Something like that. But it's all very interesting. It's worth watching. I loved watching, I think, why in part,

Caitlin Clark has been revered to by the public. Because it is very, by the public, she is loved. People love Caitlin Clark. It's in the league, and the refs, and the coaches, and the players, where there's all this controversy. And certainly, some people don't like her. like by and large she's loved by the public. Because it doesn't seem because there's the the level of play she brings to women's basketball but there's also the identity angle to all of this. Well not just that she responds with class

really really like she's very disciplined in how she responds to things where at the press conference after they were asking her like, what do you think about that? Like trying to get her to kind of respond and she's like, let's talk about basketball. Like, let's talk about basketball. I want to talk about this. And like her coach kind of took those questions in stride and were like, was essentially just saying there's a, there's a ref problem and we have to, if you're going to allow the best in the world at their sport to get Riled up at each other and a lot like let that slide. They're going to do so. So this is a rough problem Yeah, it was very interesting. But

Anyways, thanks for placating me on that one. It's been no It's so interesting. You're right the whole I didn't like the identity politics part We could go into a whole different conversation. But this one was, this was very interesting, very interesting angle. I'm glad you brought that up. It's something I've been seeing on my timeline. Okay, good. We didn't even get into the Karen Reed maybe we'll do that later. Oh my gosh. We'll get into that later. Don't get me started. We need another hour. We're at 1 15 already. I know. Well, folks, thanks for listening to our weekly roundup

and we'll catch you on next week's episode. 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.