The Return Of Race Riots To America

In a stunning turn of events, the GOP-controlled Texas House of Representatives voted Saturday to impeach the state’s Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. In a 121 to 23 vote, with five others absent or abstaining, the state House approved twenty articles of impeachment against Paxton on grounds including bribery, obstruction of justice, and dereliction of duty.

Donald Trump rallied around Attorney General Ken Paxton as the Texas House prepares for a historic impeachment vote today, the Dallas Morning News reports. Said Trump: “I love Texas, won it twice in landslides, and watched as many other friends, including Ken Paxton, came along with me. 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.” New York Times: Paxton is counting on political support that he’s amassed as a Republican legal firebrand.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would be “welcoming” of a measure from Congress to defund the Internal Revenue Service if he’s elected president next year, Fox News reports. Said DeSantis: “I think the IRS is a corrupt organization and I think it’s not a friend to the average citizen or taxpayer.

The latest episode of Trial Balloon: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign launch on Twitter Spaces had all the appeal of a glitchy conference call. And the debt ceiling looms. Add the show to your podcast player for the best experience. If you’re not yet a member, check out your options.

Hours before announcing his 2024 campaign for the presidency on Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law allowing him to continue to serve as governor while he pursues the GOP presidential nomination. While that was the headline, the new law contains a series of provisions making it harder to vote in the state, including new restrictions on mail-in ballots, efforts to make it easier to purge the voting rolls, and limitations on third-party voter registration groups that could gut community registration drives. As a result, DeSantis is facing three new federal lawsuits from organizations including the NAACP, League of Women Voters, and the Hispanic Federation, which argue that the new restrictions violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, including the right to free speech and association, and fundamental protections of the right to vote. Voting rights groups say the new rules for grassroots voter registration groups are particularly burdensome.

A South Carolina judge temporarily blocked the state’s new six-week abortion ban on Friday, one day after it was signed by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster. “The status quo should be maintained until the [state] Supreme Court reviews its decision,” said circuit court Judge Clifton Newman. “It’s going to end up there.” The state Supreme Court blocked a similar ban on abortion at the roughly six-week mark, which the GOP-controlled legislature passed in 2021, and which took effect after the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs v.