Page 68 - Quorum News Today

Continue to defeat republican voter suppression. what we did in may, in july, and now. looking for us to telegraph exactly what were going to do, were not able to do that at this time. governor would like that, were not going to. >> texas governor greg abbott is calling another session to pass voting restrictions. convenes noon texas time on saturday. remains to be seen if the texas democrats breaking quorum in washington will return. theyre in town to pressure congress to pass federal voting pr...

Remain in dc out of their home state of texas as part of an effort to stop republicans from passing this restrictive voting law. joining me is one of those democrats, texas state represent everybody, and were so happy to have you on with us. youre still in dc. you had no plans of going back to texas today for the special session. what is the end game here? how long can you conceivably stay there before youll have to return to texas? >> we take it day by day. and so right now we can stay here and...

Texas time on saturday. it remains to be seen if the texas democrats who have been breaking quorum in washington will return. theyre in town to pressure congress to pass federal voting protections and issue an attorney general is weighing. on merrick garland writes, on this anniversary of the voting rights act, we must say again that it is not right to erect barriers that make it harder for millions of eligible americans to vote. and it is time for congress to act again to protect the fundamenta...

12:00 p.m. is that local time there? texas? >> reporter: yeah, local time in texas. 12:00 local, 1:00 eastern. what theyll do is gavel, call the roll, and theyll go through the process again, saying theres no quorum, allowing the dps to find and retrieve those lawmakers if they can. again, most of them are out of the state. >> of course. jay gray, thank you so much for that. well see you throughout the day. were going to speak with jasmine crockett about her colleagues plans. tune in for that....

All right. matthew dowd is back with me. the texas governor calling for a new special session tomorrow to try to force a vote on restrictive voting bills. democrats have to decide whether theyll stay out of texas. is this the best way to fight this? is there any more that can be done there? >> at this moment, pro proceedurally, i think thats what has to happen. ultimately, i think greg abbott will face the wrath of the voters, but texas democrats, they have to keep a quorum from happening. i thi...

Is coming on a slimmed down version of the for the people act, written by senator merkley who stood with texas democrats as they marked the final day of their special session, the ones who broke quorum over a month ago stalling that restrictive voter bill and theyve been in washington pushing on the issue. >> they say everything is bigger in texas. but what is bigger than defending our national right to vote and our freedom to vote? they say dont mess with texas. i say dont mess with these texan...

State legislator from texas who is here in dc holding the line for the voter suppression in texas. i want you to take a listen to an interview she had on msnbc and well talk about it after. >> and i can tell you what im not doing, which is i will not be at the capitol -- you know, its been really tough. i cant sit here and pretend that its been easy to corral this many elected officials and get us all on the same page. but we agree that if democracy goes, we have nothing else. and so we are stil...

Last check this morning, there were 27 texas democrats still in washington, d.c. others have left the city but didnt necessarily come to austin, phil. that sets up potentially a showdown between the republican speaker of the house and those members. they can vote for the authority. one of the few things they can do without quorum to authorize warrants to go in and compel lawmakers to come back to the floor using state troopers if they have to. again, thats something that the speaker has been ret...

Take. and then should we fail on that, well have a chance several weeks in between returning here to try to recruit an additional ten republicans to join us in the fight for freedom. >> nbc news correspondent jay gray joins us now live if there texas. of course, if these lawmakers go back to their state and dont report back to work, they face arrest? >> reporter: well, not arrest like we think of. theyll be gathered by the department of public safety and brought back to the chambers here, and th...

Voting is concerned as well as early voting, and thats something they say is too restrictive and doesnt need to be in place. they say even the republican secretary of state has said that everything went well in the 2020 election here and theres no reason to change these laws. look. this is going to be a tough go for the democrats. only eight are needed to form a quorum here. remember, theyve been out here for almost a month without their families, without their jobs. how long they can hold out i...