From Cape you news in Austin,
you're watching Texas this week
with actually good. Oh good
Sunday morning and Happy Father's Day
to all the dads out there this week.
Governor Greg Abbott released details
about his plan to build a border
wall at the Texas Mexico border and
used your tax dollars to make what
he calls a down payment on the wall.
That's where we'll start with the three
things you need to know in Texas politics.
Building the wall in Texas has officially
begun exact details about the wall,
where it will be built,
how long it will be,
and how much it will cost are still unknown,
but Governor Greg Abbott,
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick,
Speaker of the House, Dade feeling,
and other state leaders signed paperwork,
allocating $250 million in state
funds for the border wall Wednesday.
The governor also signed a letter to
the Executive director of the Texas
Facilities Commission instructing
him to hire a project manager to
oversee construction of the wall.
And a letter to President Joe Biden
asking him to return the land the
federal government acquired from
Texas property owners for former
President Donald Trump's Wall.
Abbott says the state plans to
talk with those land owners about
building the state wall.
He also promoted a website where
people can donate to the project
by the governor didn't say how
much the project will cost.
Last week,
the White House released information
about the previous administration's
efforts to build a wall,
noting 52 miles of Wall was built
where no previous barrier existed.
And it costs up to $46 million
per mile to build.
Starting September 1st,
Texans 21 and older who are eligible
to own a handgun can carry one
openly or concealed without a
license to carry Governor Abbott
signed House Bill 1927 into law
Wednesday and held a ceremonial bill
signing in San Antonio Thursday,
saying there is a need for Texans to
have weapons to defend themselves.
But there is strong opposition
to the new law,
the 2nd in charge of the Texas
House of Representatives.
Speaker Joe Moody and El Paso Democrat.
Released a statement opposing it,
it says in part quote,
it's been almost two years since the
racially motivated mass shooting in El Paso.
A lot of promises were made
after that tragedy.
This session when there was a chance
to make good on those promises.
What we got was a partisan blockade of
common sense reforms to our gun safety laws.
Instead of fixing our broken
background check system taxes,
Republicans voted to make it even
harder to tell whether someone who has
a gun will act responsibly with it.
Until the shooting starts and
all doubt is removed.
Texas Democrats were on
Capitol Hill this week,
meeting with members of Congress
and Vice President Kamala Harris.
They're calling on the US Senate to
pass a bill to protect voting rights
just weeks after representatives in
the Texas House broke quorum to kill
a controversial voter reform bill in
the state for the past few weeks,
former Texas congressman and presidential
candidate Beto O'Rourke has traveled
the state of Texas leading
town halls on democracy.
Today, he'll be in Austin.
We caught up with him to learn
more about the project. Mr Ward,
thank you so much for taking some
time to chat with us today. Tell us
where you are. I'm making my way to
Beaumont and I just pulled off on the
side of the road to have a chance to
talk to you in rural Jefferson County.
We're on our way to have a conversation
about voting rights and democracy.
As we've been doing all across
the state over the last two weeks
and big cities and small towns,
rural counties and places like
Houston and Dallas as well.
And it's been so enlightening
and encouraging to me,
given how precarious voting rights
and our democracy is at this moment.
So many people.
Across geography and party lines.
Want to step up to be counted
and have a say in protecting
voting rights and and that.
That gives me some
hope. You know. Talk to us about what
you're really hearing from people.
Are they expressing concerns
to you about voting rights?
Now, one of the most
constant concerns I hear,
no matter where I am in the state,
is the lack of accountability
for the insurrection attempt.
On the 6th of January and not just for
those people who came from Texas more
than they did any other state carrying
Confederate battle flags and Trump banners.
But for the politicians in power,
who in large part helped to inspire
the attack and then have apologized,
covered up, or justified it ever since.
They connect that to the
voter suppression bill that.
Introduced in Texas SB seven,
it would take a state that is
already the toughest in which to
vote and make it even harder,
especially for communities of color
for the very young and the very old,
and voters with disabilities
across the state of Texas.
They realize our democracies on the
line and they want to do something
about it and and that's what
gives me some some hope because
of all of us decide that we were
going to make this a priority,
then we can stop voter suppression
in the state legislature and we can
move voting rights legislation.
In the US Senate,
like the for
the People Act voting rights,
an election integrity should
be a nonpartisan issue.
But a February poll by the University
of Texas and Texas Tribune found that
a majority of Republican voters said
that they trusted the Texas election
but not the national election results,
even though that was the same election.
So that perception that the 2020
election wasn't fair is driving a
lot of this push among Republicans.
For election reform and those
election reform bills,
how do you combat that narrative?
It's tough 'cause we really don't have
two parties in this country anymore.
We have the Democratic Party that's
trying to fight for democracy and voting
rights and you have the Republican
Party that's inspired and is now
trying to cover up for insurrection
and justify voter suppression.
Not just in Texas but 46 other state
legislatures considering bills
just like the one that was narrowly
defeated right here in Texas.
As you said, this isn't something
that should divide us the Voting
Rights Act was reauthorized by.
Overwhelming majorities on a bipartisan
basis every time it came up for a vote in
Congress until the 2013 Shelby decision.
When you have the ex president of the
United States trafficking in the big lie
that there was widespread election fraud,
you can understand why 10s of
millions of our fellow Americans,
including in Texas,
believe that the way to restore faith
in democracy is to make sure that we
have free and fair elections that we can
count on the results of those elections.
And these bills,
like SB-7 in Texas.
Run counter to that they would in
fact allow Texas to overturn lawful
legitimately decided elections and
and that's not good for Republicans
or Democrats or independents.
It's not good for Texas,
and it's certainly not good for democracy.
You know,
talk to
us a little bit about the rally,
the culmination of all these town halls
you've been holding all across this state.
That's going to come to an end this
Sunday at this rally at the Capitol.
Talked to us about it.
If you care about this democracy
that so many have given so much to
preserve and to save and to defend
whether they wore the uniform in
service to this country or whether
they were civil rights leaders
who put their lives on the line,
then no, that is under attack unlike
any other time in our life and the
way to respond to that is to show
up in person to be counted today.
5:30 PM in Austin,
in front of the state Capitol.
If we show up in numbers large enough,
not only will those who represent us.
In the state legislature, take heed,
but I'm confident that the President
and the members of the Senate who
have the power to pass voting
rights legislation right now.
We'll hear our call and will
take action accordingly.
So that's the power of people.
And that's what I'm asking
folks in Austin Ann,
really across the state to do today.
5:30 PM State Capitol right here in Austin,
TX.
We hope that you'll be with us.
Let's talk
a little bit about the action.
You want the Senate to take,
passing the for the People Act.
There are some who characterized this as.
Overreach by the federal
government into state elections?
What do you say to that type of criticism?
That's exactly what they said
in the 1950s and the 1960s,
when African Americans in Texas and
throughout the South could not vote,
and Lyndon Baines Johnson,
our fellow Texan President,
United States 65,
proposed the Voting Rights Act and that
Voting Rights Act ushered in the first
true multiracial democracy in America,
and that Voting Rights Act is what's under
attack right now in Texas and Georgia
in Florida and throughout the country.
As you have provisions in SB-7 in
Texas that would target black voters
by ending Sunday morning voting and
canceling the souls to the polls program,
making it harder for those with
disabilities and other communities
of interest who may not look like
the majority in this country
or the majority in this state.
So there is a precedent for federal
intervention with the 1965 Voting Rights Act,
and it is that precedent that I hope
our President Joe Biden and the Senate
where there's a Democratic majority,
follow.
At this moment of truth,
because if they fail to do that will
not only lose voting rights in Texas,
we might very well lose democracy
in this country.
And that's why I think it is so
important for all of us to show up
today at the state Capitol and ensure
that our voices are heard to rally for
voting rights and to save this democracy.
You know, I would be remiss if I
didn't ask you. While I have you,
if you're willing to share with us some
of your future plans when it comes
to possibly running for office again.
This fight for voting rights is the
most important thing that I or any
of us could be doing right now,
so I want to see this through to the finish.
After that, I want to understand how
I can best serve Texas that might
be as a candidate that might be
supporting other candidates that might
be focusing on voter registration,
which is what our organization powered
by people does day in and day out.
But one way or another.
I'm all in for Texas and will
do all I can for this state.
You can find more information
about the rally at kview.com.
That's Texas this week.