Ken Paxton Tells Fox News Anchor He Was ‘Just Following Texas Law’ When He Claimed 3 Primary Residences
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) explained to Fox News’s The Sunday Briefing about the controversy surrounding his three primary Texas residences and 15 total homes he owns worth some $9 million.
Paxton, who is running for Senate against James Talarico (D), came under fire for being able to afford such a large portfolio based on his $153,000 a year AG job, and for the appearance of potential mortgage fraud on the three primary residences.
Paxton explained that he supplemented his AG salary by working as a “successful lawyer” and a “successful business guy.”
“And guess what? When you do a good job as a business person, as a lawyer and you take care of your clients, they pay you. And that’s how I have made my living. And I’m proud of it, by the way. Very proud,” Paxton said.
“And you should be,” said Fox News anchor Jacqui Heinrich. “Everyone in a capitalist society should be proud of the living that they make.”
Heinrich then asked about the homes, saying, “The reason I bring it up is because it’s exactly the same substance with the — which the president, the administration, went after Letitia James, Adam Schiff, Lisa Cook. Was that reporting wrong, or is there anything that you can say to that reporting?”
“Yeah, so in Texas, the constitution used to require that you — if you’re a statewide office holder — you have to move to the capital. So I used to live in Collin County. When I became attorney general, I bought a condo in Austin so that I could live in the capital pursuant to what the constitution required,” Paxton said, continuing:
Well, then my wife became a state senator, she wanted to buy a house. And, by the way, that became my primary residence because it was required by the constitution. When we bought a new house, we moved our primary residence to a house. So both were dictated by the constitution. And then they changed the constitution, they got rid of that requirement that you have — as a statewide office holder — that you have to have a residence, or you have to live, whatever that means, in Austin. So when that happened, I moved back to Collin County. So, this idea that somehow that’s fraudulent, they, of course, aren’t following Texas law. They either don’t realize or they’re being deceptive about what was required under the Texas constitution that was changed.
“Thank you for clearing that up,” Heinrich said.
Watch the clip above via Fox News’s The Sunday Briefing.
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