‘Arrested’ on Return: Greg Abbott Responds to TX Democrats Flying to Washington, DC

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) responded Monday night to Texas Democrats fleeing to Washington, DC, to protest Republican integrity laws efforts by stating the legislators “will be arrested’ on return.

“As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done,” Abbott stated. “Everybody who has a job must show up to do that job, just like your viewers on watching right now. State representatives have that same responsibility.”

Abbott also said the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives Dade Phelan (R) can “issue a call to have these members arrested.”

Phelan, who was elected speaker on January 12, 2021, issued a statement Monday, only saying he “expects all members to be present in our Capitol in order to immediately get to work on” election integrity.

Abbott continued to press the withdrawn Democrats by stating he will “continue to call a special session after special session after special session all the way up until election next year.”

Texas, shamefully, isn't the first time they'd pulled a stunt like this. https://t.co/yARsoBSXFO

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 13, 2021

“And so if these people want to be hanging out wherever they’re hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they’re going to have to be prepared to do it for well over a year,” the Texas governor warned.

Breitbart News reported Monday pictures showing several smiling, maskless, Texas Democrats on a plane fleeing Texas to stunt election integrity efforts in the state, which would have placed additional restrictions on voting by mail, creating new ID requirements and expanding the freedoms for partisan poll watchers.

Abbott said June 2 to the Dallas Morning News that “One of the primary things that we sought to achieve was to address flaws, as well as the possibility for cheating in mail-in ballots.”

“The voter law in the state of Texas is far more accommodative and provides far more hours to vote than it does in President Biden’s home state of Delaware, where he voted in the last election, where they offer exactly zero early voting days,” he said. “If there’s any voter suppression taking place, the easier allegation is say that voter suppression has taken place in Delaware, not Texas.”