Veteran Political Analyst Warns We Are ‘Very Close’ to ‘Real Chaos in This Country’ Over Texas Border Dispute

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Joe Klein and John Ellis, the hosts of the weekly podcast Night Owls, joined Charlie Sykes on Wednesday to discuss a range of topics from Taylor Swift to election security to fears of civil war emerging from the border dispute in Texas.

Sykes asked the two veteran political commentators to weigh in on the situation on the Texas border, where the governor is refusing to adhere to a Supreme Court decision that gives sole border policing rights to the federal government.

“There’s been sort of this vague, you know, talk about, well, you know, are we going to have a new civil war?” Sykes noted on his Bulwark Podcast, adding:

Is there going to be secession? What if a state basically says we’re going to ignore the federal government or ignore the courts? And now suddenly this is like bubbling up and it’s not just a one off. You have Governor Abbott there. You have other governors, Republican governors who appear to be aligning with him. I mean, how dangerous a moment is this?

“It’s just so volatile,” replied Ellis, adding:

If you’re calling, which Abbott is, sort of calling for people to come to Eagle Pass and protect the border from these federal agents against a Supreme Court ruling that says the feds have every right to do what they’re going to do.

You’re attracting a group of people who, A, are going to be heavily armed, B, look, a lot like Proud Boys and so on and so forth. This is the action that they want. And I mean, think about just even if there are a thousand people there that come, you know, militias and crazy right-wing people, gun nuts and so on and so forth. It only takes 3 or 4 people, you know, to go off the rails, with AK-47s and AR-15, and suddenly you’re in Waco again.

“Oh, jeez. So, Joe, your thoughts?” Sykes then asked Klein.

“I’m obsessed with a different aspect of this. Joe Biden can federalize the Texas National Guard. Dwight Eisenhower did it with the Arkansas National Guard back during, the attempts to desegregate the schools in Little Rock,” replied Klein.
“But what if Biden acts and the Texas National Guard refuses to obey orders from the president of the United States? We are getting very close to the bright line of real chaos in this country,” he concluded.

Listen to the full podcast here.