From Cape you news in Austin, you're
watching Texas this week with Ashley Guddo
Good Sunday morning.
This week we're learning
frustrating new details about law
enforcement failures during the
Rob Elementary School massacre.
As lawmakers in the Texas House of
Representatives serve a notice of
deposition to one law enforcement leader
who they say has refused to testify,
let's get to the three
things you need to know
in Texas politics.
On Wednesday, state
representative Dustin Burrows,
chair of the Texas House
Investigation Committee on the
Rob Elementary School shooting,
sent a notice of deposition to
Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Alasco,
who Burrough says had refused to testify
the next day in Alaska responded,
saying he thought it was
untimely to participate,
but added he will testify via
zoom that the committee's next
hearing set for tomorrow,
but only to the extent it
doesn't jeopardize the criminal
investigation being conducted by the.
BI and Texas Rangers.
This all comes as we are learning
more about law enforcement failures
in the shooting that left 19
students and two teachers dead.
A new report from advanced Law
Enforcement rapid response training,
known as alert spells out how
law enforcement agencies handled
the May 24th shooting.
According to the report, a Yuval,
the officer armed with a rifle,
had sights on the shooter before
he went inside Rob Elementary but
did not fire because he was waiting
for permission from his supervisor.
That permission either never
came or he didn't hear it.
The report states that was a key moment
when the gunman could have been stopped,
but also noticed the gunman
was outside of the range.
Officers are trained to shoot at the report.
Also states after several officers were
met with gunfire when they tried to
enter the classroom where the gunman was,
their response seemed to lose momentum.
The report also states officers
could have tried to go into the
classroom through outside windows
or even ripping out sheetrock,
and it repeated.
What state police leaders have said the
officers had ample firepower and protection,
including tear gas canisters and it
remains unclear why they waited an hour
and 10 minutes to enter the classroom.
The mayor of Uvalde is disputing the
report that an officer missed the
chance to stop the gunman saying,
no,
you vowed the officer saw the shooter
before he went into the school.
But the team at alert says they
stand by their report.
Governor Greg Abbott is taking executive
action to address migrants entering
Texas unlawfully at the Mexico border.
On Thursday,
he issued an executive order authorizing
the Texas National Guard and Texas
Department of Public Safety to
apprehend migrants who crossed the
border in between ports of entry and
take them to a port on the border.
Opponents call the move a political
stunt that violates civil rights and
the White House is condemning the order.
Meanwhile,
reporters with Pro Publica and
the Texas Tribune learned the
US Department of Justice.
Is investigating Operation Lone Star the
governor's multibillion Dollar border
initiative for civil rights violations?
Texas based abortion provider,
whole Women's Health,
is moving its abortion
operations to New Mexico.
The group has clinics in Austin and
several other cities across the state.
But with abortion bans taking
effect after the US Supreme Court
decision to overturn Roe V Wade,
sending abortion rights back to the states,
they'll no longer be able
to continue their work here.
New Mexico is the closest
state that still will allow
some level of abortion access.
As we inch closer to the November election,
a new poll from the Texas Tribune
and Texas. Politics project that
UT Austin is giving us new insights
on where Texas voters stand.
James Henson, director of the Texas
Politics Project, joined me to talk
about the results. First,
briefly layout for us the
methodology behind this poll.
Yeah, we pulled 1200 registered
voters using a tried and true method
using the Internet that provides
us a really strong random sample.
We were in the field collecting data
from June 16th through the 24th,
which means that we caught much
of the discussion and and the
controversy over the shootings.
And you've all day. But.
Collected data up until the
day that the Dobbs decision on
abortion was handed down.
You know, perhaps the biggest
headline governor Greg Abbott's lead
against Democratic opponent Beto.
O'Rourke is shrinking.
Tell us where voters stand.
Yeah, we had a Greg Abbott
with 45% of registered voters.
Beto O'Rourke with 39% about 10%
undecided and then about 6% distributed
among third party candidates or people.
They're just kind of
waiting for someone else.
So A6 point lead for Governor Abbott,
which is within the range that we've
seen this race in the last six,
six, or eight weeks we were in the.
Field with a poll in April and we
had this race at about 10 points.
There have been several polls
now between roughly 5 and eight
or nine in the last few weeks,
so I think we fell within that pattern.
Are there other results from the
poll that give you some insight
on why Governor Abbott's lead
could possibly be shrinking? Well,
I mean, I think some of it is in the poll
and some of it is just sort of in the ether.
In the poll, one of the things
that that we saw that really.
Recurred throughout this particular
poll is that Texans are incredibly.
Negative mood about incumbents,
about economic conditions,
about the direction of the state.
I think one of the most telling results
in this poll is that when we asked Texans
whether they thought the state was,
you know, on the you know,
headed in the right direction
or off on the wrong track.
The wrong track number was 59%, which is.
As high as we've seen it since we
started doing this poll in 2008,
so there's an enormous amount
of negative energy out there.
Virtually everybody's job approval
ratings from Joe Biden down to the
Texas Legislature and to Congress.
Everybody's job approval ratings
were down in this poll,
so I think there is a a real simmering
dissatisfaction out there because frankly,
kind of reaching a boil,
and I think that.
It it hurt all incumbents
in addition to the November races,
your team also asked Texas voters
about several other issues.
Now one of the big issues of course
that will be before the legislature in
2023 school safety and in the wake of
the Rob Elementary school shooting,
there is a call for gun reform.
Your team talked to voters about that.
One of the results that I thought
was really interesting is you asked
which factor is most to blame for
the recent mass shootings in the US?
What did the respondents say?
Well, you know we gave respondents
a a choice of of, you know,
several factors, eight or nine factors.
The most common response is that
people blame the current gun laws.
About 1/4 of Texans said that current
gun laws were the factor most to blame.
But coming in fairly close at 20% was
failures in the mental health system.
So you know, as with so many
poll results that you and I have
talked about over the years,
Ashley, you have to look at the
differences between the two major
parties to kind of sort this out.
Among Democrats, not surprisingly,
the overwhelming least you know the
the the cause, overwhelmingly cited,
is the most important factor.
Our current gun laws,
half of Democrats say that,
you know, that's the main factor.
Republicans look very different about 1/4
of Republicans say that this is failures.
You know that that the main cause is
failures in the mental health system.
21% then say unstable family situations.
So this is something that we see in when
we probe these attitudes fairly consistently.
Democrats are inclined to see gun
laws as the main factor here.
Republicans are more inclined
to see more personal factors.
Like one's mental health or or
their family background rather than.
Directing their attention to gun
laws and the presence of guns,
yeah there are some issues though
where Republicans and Democrats do
see a little more eye to eye US voters
about expanded background checks.
This seems to be one of those things
where the both sides can somewhat agree.
Yeah, one of the interesting aspects
of the gun issue and and and.
You know, in some ways one of the
more frustrating is that they're.
Is a lot of public support for some
of the more moderate measures.
In the realm of gun safety,
so as you mentioned,
we found majority support among
Texans for more comprehensive
background checks and for so called
red flag laws which would allow for
judicial proceedings that would
remove guns from the possession
of people that are deemed to be a
risk to themselves or to others.
You know?
What you see there is overwhelming
support among among Democrats.
Strong support among independents.
And while you find support among Republicans,
there's still substantial opposition.
You know, in many cases in these issues,
it's minority opposition,
but it's a non trivial share of Republicans,
and it's the most conservative
Republicans that are driving party
politics inside the Republican Party.
You've been doing this for some time now,
and I don't think many results
surprise you, but was there?
Anything in this poll that kind of made
you scratch your head a little bit? Well,
it surprised me a little,
but I I think one of the things that I
really noticed in this poll because I
think it's a little bit of a signal,
is just how much John Cornyn's
job approval ratings dropped.
Senator Cornyn's approval
ratings just cratered.
He went from about, you know,
negative 7 in his in his
favor in his job ratings,
which meant that you know 7% in April,
7% more people in April disapproved of
the job he was doing than approved of it.
In June, after he took leadership
on the gun issue in the Senate and
in Washington DC, the negative,
you know his his job approval
rating is is north of negative 20
he lost support among all groups.
His job disapproval rating among
Republicans doubled and I think it's it's.
It's really telling about where we are
institutionally that Cornyn was was,
to some degree lauded for taking
a leadership role and finding
a way to compromise.
A bill that nobody was fully satisfied with,
but that demonstrated a certain
amount of institutional leadership.
Whether you were satisfied
with the bill or not.
He got a lot of press coverage and I think
a lot of his colleagues appreciated it.
He got no appreciation in Texas.
His job approval ratings went down
precipitously among Republicans,
and noticeably among independents
and and to the extent that there
was room also among Democrats.
And it's a, you know, it's a real commentary.
I think on where we are at this moment with,
you know,
the traditional process of
compromise that has driven Congress.
You can find a link to the full poll
in the Texas this week section of
ktvu.com that's Texas this week.