The ambush impeachment and removal of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was a shocking and undemocratic assault on the will of the voters. Paxton won reelection by 800,000 votes last November, yet merely one legislative chamber was able to override those votes with a scheme hatched in secret and sprung as a last-minute surprise.
Imagine if Congress could force the removal of a president by secretly plotting an impeachment, suddenly executed a few days later without a single public hearing. The American people would not stand for what the New York Times called “unexpected — as of a week ago there was little public indication that an impeachment could be imminent.”
Who really plotted this unprecedented theft from voters remains a closely guarded secret. Donald Trump led the way by truthing his opposition: “Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed—I will fight you if it does.”
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who was elected by pandering to Democrats, “kept this under wraps until the end, there wasn’t a lot of time for Paxton’s defenders to react,” observes Rice University political scientist Mark Jones. It was obviously improper to deprive the voters of an elected official without first informing the public and hearing from them.
As pointed out during the brief debate on the Texas House floor, there was no justification for concealing the plot to remove Paxton from office until shortly prior to the vote. Paxton has been the leader in litigating against open borders and other unlawful policies of the Biden administration, and two months ago he opened an official investigation of Pfizer over its Covid-19 vaccine.
“For the last nine years, Ken has been the strongest conservative AG in the country. Bar none,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) stated in opposition to the ambush impeachment of Paxton. Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi strongly defended Paxton and described the proceeding as a “sham” that was “led by a liberal speaker trying to undermine his conservative adversaries.”
A total of 23 Republicans courageously voted against removing Paxton, while none of the Democrats did although some criticized it. The most senior Democrat in the House, the African American Harold Dutton, Jr., eloquently spoke against how improper the impeachment was.
On TruthSocial Trump exclaimed to thunderous support by tens of thousands, “MISSING IN ACTION! Where is the Governor of Texas on his Attorney General’s impeachment?”
The silent Republicans share something in common. In addition to Abbott’s shamefully going AWOL, Trump’s presidential rivals have likewise been silent, as has the senior U.S. Senator from Texas, John Cornyn.
All these Republicans depend on heavy support by dark money mega-donors, who are mostly globalist billionaires seeking their own self-serving agenda that includes an open border. DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, and wannabe Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn all depend on millions from this network to fuel their political ambitions.
Most of the 60 Texas Republicans who voted for Paxton’s removal probably feared retaliation by the dark money globalists, as there are no campaign donation limits in Texas. Gov. Abbott himself has been a frequent attendee to the Koch network donor confabs, whose members funnel money to those who back their agenda and try to punish those who get in their way.
The influence of globalist mega-donors is also reflected in how Texas Republicans enacted the Convention of States resolution to seek a new convention under Article V to change the U.S. Constitution. When the late Justice Scalia was asked in 2015 about the desirability of holding a new constitutional convention, he called it a “horrible idea.”
Yet to appease his ego-driven donors, Texas Gov. Abbott made the Convention of States one of his highest legislative priorities in 2017, ahead of border security and other more important issues. Republican legislators who would ordinarily oppose this were then bullied to vote for it, but on the condition it would expire in eight years.
Conservatives in ten other states have defeated this “horrible idea” of a Convention of States this year. Yet the dark money backing this deceptive attempt to change our Constitution insisted on tacking another 8-year extension to the 2017 Texas application to Congress for a convention.
Every Republican in the Texas legislature then voted this spring for a new 8-year extension on this horrible idea. These were not sincere votes, but rather the product of a campaign funding system driven by large donors.
The good news is that a Democrat state representative raised a point of order against the 8-year extension of the Convention of States, so it died when the Texas legislature adjourned on Monday. The other good news is the upcoming impeachment trial in the Texas Senate should flush out the dark money puppets seeking to overturn the election of Paxton.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles Organizations with writing and policy work.