Messing with Texas is never a good idea–and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has allegedly messed with the state of Texas big-time.
Joining The New Abnormal podcast this week to discuss the twisted tale is the Texas Observer’s special investigative correspondent, Steven Monacelli, who sums up a number of allegations surrounding Paxton’s impeachment scandal as “salacious.”
“To sum it all up, our top cop in Texas has been impeached and is under multiple investigations for various forms of corruption and fraud,” Monacelli explains.
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In what was a historic vote in May, an overwhelming majority of Texas House members voted to impeach Paxton, accused of breaking a litany of laws in office along with accusations of covering up a potential sex scandal.
“It’s highly unusual to see Texas Republicans overwhelmingly support an impeachment vote for the attorney general,” Monacelli says. “Now we’re at the stage where after having been impeached, the state Senate of Texas will have to conduct a trial and some really powerful big-name lawyers are involved both on the prosecution and defense side.”
Paxton is the state’s first statewide official to be impeached since 1917 after most Republican and Democratic members of the House voted for his impeachment. Paxton, for his part, called the proceedings in a statement last month “unjust” and a partisan “sham.”
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The trial, Monacelli says, has to happen no later than August 28. Adding a twist to the case, Paxton’s wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, said in a statement released Monday that she will not recuse herself from the impeachment proceedings against her husband.
“These sorts of conflicts of interest are almost impossible to avoid in a highly political body, so I wouldn't have been able to predict any of what we have just been talking about happening,” Monacelli says. “Certainly, I’m not going to be able to predict what happens with the Senate, but it will be certainly something to watch.”
The seven-member committee–consisting of five Republicans and two Democrats–is expected to announce the rules of Paxton’s impeachment trial on Tuesday.
Plus! Molly Wood, a climate tech investor and host of the podcast Everybody in the Pool, joins the show to talk about the smoke from the Canada wildfires that gripped the city of New York, as well as millions more people, in its path with its toxins.
“America is probably not going to lead on climate policy,” Wood says, “We’re kind of a long-time petrochemical state. We have made good steps recently, but as you can see from the political fight, it’s far from settled.”
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
