Deadly events of the pastweek cast a pall over opening day
Texas Republicans would like to move on from the deadly events in Washington, D.C. last week — and surely from Donald J. Trump’s presidency.
“He’s in office, what, another week?” said Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday, when asked about calls for Trump’s removal in the wake of the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
He defended the president, albeit not particularly vigorously, when asked if Trump bears any responsibility for inciting the riot, which left four rioters and one Capitol Police officer dead.
“Violence always, obviously, is unacceptable,” Abbott said. “But the people responsible for that violence are the people who did it, and they’re the ones who should be punished for it.”
That’s a conclusion that many Republicans have swiftly embraced over the past week while calling on Democrats, including President-Elect Joe Biden, to move forward in the name of healing and “unity.”
It’s a line of argument that is bound to cast a pall over this year’s regular session of the
Texas Legislature, which began on Tuesday.
The first day of the session is usually a festive one; that wasn’t the case this year, thanks to the ongoing COVID pandemic. Although the Texas Capitol is open to the public, a negative COVID test is required to enter, and most members have adopted some sort of social distancing policies for visitors to their offices.
In addition to that, there was a heavy Department of Public
Safety presence at the Capitol Tuesday — whichwas welcome, given that the FBI is warning of armed protests at all 50 state capitols in the days leading up to Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
All things considered, however, it was a smooth opening day for the 87th Legislature. Under different circumstances, it might well be described as auspicious. Democrats and Republicans are mostly on the same page about the need to
address the coronavirus pandemic, as well as continuing to build on the investments made in public education education two years ago, along with other mainstream priorities.
And Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar had good news for lawmakers when he released his Biennial Revenue Estimate Monday: the Lege faces a budget shortfall of some $950 million — significant, but much less severe than analysts had feared as the pandemic and shutdowns battered the state economy.
There will no doubt be some pitched partisan scuffles as the session goes on. “I’m hopeful that Republicans will remember what their party stands for and enact policies accordingly,” state Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican who represents part of Harris County, told me Tuesday.
But as it stands, the pet populist issue du jour for Republicans, who control both the House and the Senate, seems to be passing legislation that would allow Texans to purchase alcohol to go — a pandemic- era innovation intended to support the struggling restaurant industry — permanently. Freedom!
And a nice display of comity came from the Texas House, where state Rep. Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican was elected Speaker with the support of all of the chamber’s Democrats, and all but two of its Republicans.
As legislators were taking their oaths of office, however, Trump was on his way to Texas to tour a section of the border wall erected in the Rio Grande Valley during the course of his presidency. The trip may have been planned as a way to keep the temperamental president busy, if not happy, during the grim denouement of his one term in office. Still, it struck many Texas Democrats as sending quite a different message .
Trump is “like a criminal who returns to the scene of a crime,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from El Paso. Escobar represents a city where 23 people were shot and killed at a Walmart store in 2019 by a white nationalist fromsuburban Dallas who had posted an online manifesto that echoed Trump’s immigration statements.
The president who launched his 2016 presidential bid warning of “rapists” fromMexico would surely reject Escobar’s characterization, as he’s rejected all calls for him to take any responsibility for his role in the Jan. 6 mayhem. In brief remarks to reporters Tuesday morning, he insisted his comments calling on thousands at a rally outside the White House to march on the Capitol were “totally appropriate.”
After arriving in the Rio Grande Valley, Trump expressed displeasure about the fact that he is likely to become the first president in history to be impeached twice.
“The impeachment hoax is a continuation of the greatest and
most vicious witch hunt in the history of our country,” he said, “and is causing tremendous anger and division and pain — far greater than most people will ever understand — which is very dangerous for the USA, especially at this very tender
time.”
Former state Rep. Poncho Nevárez, a West Texas Democrat, told me legislators shouldn’t be naive about the risk of mischief that might be perpetrated by Texans who are, even now, having their griev
ances stoked by Trump and his allies. He thinks the 2021 session “really requires a day-today strategy.”
“It is up to the members to tamp down constituency nonsense that would bring them to the (state) Capitol, putting others in harm’s way,” Nevárez said.
Credit is due to Phelan, the new speaker, who acknowledged “the dark side of political and social division” we’ve all seen, and encouraged his colleagues to confront it directly.
“History is born out of adversity,” Phelan said, “and legacies are made by doing what is right.”
That’s a better approach than the dismissive attitude Abbott embodied Monday.
“Listen, all the political machinations in Washington, D.C., about the last few days of his presidency are nothing more than political machinations,” Abbott said.
The governor may well believe that. It’s hard to tell, these days, what Republican leaders actually believe.
But those who hope that Americans will simply forgive and forget what we’ve witnessed in these final days of Trump’s presidency are likely to find that healing won’t be so easy—and unity may require some work.