A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Republican speaker of the Texas House and the state attorney general are giving Democratic lawmakers until tomorrow to return to Texas or risk losing their seats. Dozens of House Democrats left to deprive Republicans of a quorum and block a vote on a new congressional map sought by President Trump. Now, Trump says Republicans are - his word - entitled to pick up five more U.S. House seats from Texas. So for an update on this standoff, we've called Austin American-Statesman reporter Tony Plohetski. I asked him about Governor Greg Abbott's escalating threats against Democrats.
TONY PLOHETSKI: This is an extraordinary event. Democrats leaving the state of Texas has been done. It is not entirely unheard of for Democrats to bust a quorum and to leave the state. What is so extraordinary now, however, are the steps that Republicans are taking to, A, get them back or, B, remove them from office. And so we saw the governor of the state file essentially a suit with the state Supreme Court trying to remove the chair of the Democratic Caucus. And there are a lot of legal discussions about whether or not the court has jurisdiction, whether or not the governor was legally allowed to bring this kind of suit or whether or not that it's really up to the attorney general, Ken Paxton. And so because we are in this really unknown territory, it's unclear what the next steps are going to be in the legal process.
MARTÍNEZ: So how does President Trump's statement about potentially using the FBI to get some of these lawmakers back figure in here?
PLOHETSKI: If you ask the Democrats who are in the Chicago area - I was with them, interviewing them earlier this week. The truth is, they are not especially alarmed about the FBI using its power to haul them away, for example, in handcuffs and to literally arrest them. Their attorneys tell them - and many of them are attorneys, as a matter of fact. They say there's no real legal underpinning to do that. They haven't violated a law. They are private citizens. I mean, they are legislators, yes, but they're not criminals. They've not violated any sort of criminal law. And so the idea that the FBI could or would go to that extreme is something that they're not particularly worried about.
But to be clear, I think that they size it up as the governor and the president and the Republican leadership, both in this state and even nationally for that matter, basically trying to curry favor among their constituents and, you know, try to assert their own power in this conversation.
MARTÍNEZ: How are they feeling about how overall their plan is unfolding?
PLOHETSKI: The question is consistently asked among reporters who are with them, and the way they have responded is that they are taking this day by day and potentially even week by week. I think many of them know that perhaps ultimately the governor will call another special session and that they simply can't stay away forever. That would not be feasible. I think in the meantime, what they tell me is that they're hoping, perhaps against hope, that there is some sort of compromise, that there is a softening on the position to perhaps draw five new GOP districts in the state.
But barring that, I think that they are also looking even more broadly to the future. Not just what may happen here in Texas, but one of the reasons that they left the state and took such an extreme measure was to call attention to this issue. So I think they are hoping that if this does not necessarily resonate or cause action within the state of Texas that the electorate across the country perhaps will be galvanized and have a better understanding - in their words - about how Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.
MARTÍNEZ: What do people in Texas think about their move to leave the state?
PLOHETSKI: This has been lost in the conversation. Texas is just a little over a month after a very tragic, deadly flood that killed more than a hundred and thirty people. That's their conversation. They want to know what the state is doing to provide relief for the victims of the flood, but also to put new policies, new plans in place that could potentially prevent that type of natural disaster or at least mitigate the loss of life when that type of natural disaster or other emergency impacts the state.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Tony Plohetski, a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman. Tony, thanks.
PLOHETSKI: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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