Texas Democrat Blames GOP Rhetoric for Bomb Threat: ‘Lighting a Match Under Zealots’
A Texas state lawmaker is placing blame on Republican rhetoric for a recent bomb threat that required him and other Democrats to evacuate a Chicago hotel on Wednesday morning.
Texas Democrats fled to Chicago in order to protest and stall a vote on redrawing Texas’s congressional map. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) issued civil warrants after the lawmakers fled, and Sen. John Cornyn (D-TX) even called for the FBI to step in and track the Democrats down — suggesting they may be guilty of “criminal acts.”
Abbott has also sought to expel Texas State Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic leader, over the redistricting standstill.
NBC News correspondent Ryan Chandler shared a fiery statement from Texas State Rep. John Bucy III, who blamed Abbott and other Republicans for the bomb threat.
“He says, we’re all safe here, everyone is fine, and we are undeterred. This is Representative John Bucy I was talking to, a Democrat out of Austin, and he was quick to blame the rhetoric of Republicans that we’ve heard all week. He said, quote, this is speculation here, but this is just how they are framing this, Ana — he said, ‘some zealot acting on behalf of Ken Paxton’s threats and Greg Abbott’s bluster, they are lighting a match under zealots who think they can be good soldiers for Donald Trump,'” Chandler reported.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) called for the Democrats who fled the state to be “hunted down” in an X post.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he wrote. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”
“The politicization of this, the hyper-partisan environment that we’re in,” Chandler said on Wednesday, “clearly leading to — and we don’t know anything about the source of this bomb threat yet — but Democrats are clearly worried for their safety,” Chandler reported.
Watch above via MSNBC.
