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Tag: Ted Cruz

  • Comey seeks to have indictment tossed, arguing senator’s questions were “confusing,” “ambiguous”

    Washington — Former FBI Director James Comey is urging a federal court to dismiss the two federal charges brought against him over allegedly false testimony he gave to Congress in September 2020. He’s arguing that the questions he answered, which were asked by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, were “confusing” and “fundamentally ambiguous.”

    In a new filing with the court in Alexandria, Virginia, Comey’s lawyers argued that his testimony in response to Cruz’s questions was “literally true” and cannot support a conviction. The former FBI director’s legal team suggested that the government is attempting to try Comey on “cherry-picked statements” given during a four-hour long Senate hearing without specifying which parts of his testimony it believes were false or misleading.

    They argued that while the government has the authority to prosecute witnesses who mislead federal investigators by giving false answers to clear questions, “it does not authorize the government to create confusion by posing an imprecise question and then seek to exploit that confusion by placing an after-the-fact nefarious interpretation on the ensuing benign answer.”

    Comey’s lawyers also asserted that “basic due process principles in criminal law require that the questioner frame his questions with clarity so that a witness does not have to guess.”

    A federal grand jury in Alexandria indicted Comey late last month on charges he lied to Congress and obstructed a congressional investigation. The alleged offenses stem from testimony Comey gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to both counts.

    Comey has already filed one tranche of motions with the court that argue the indictment should be tossed out on the grounds that it is based on a vindictive and selective prosecution. He is also challenging the validity of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan‘s appointment to that role. 

    Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in one of those filings that he would seek to dismiss at least the first count of the indictment — the allegation that Comey lied to Congress — because of Cruz’s questioning.

    In addition to his latest bid to have the charges dismissed, Comey’s lawyers are asking for more details about the conduct underlying the two counts. They are claiming the indictment is “sparse” and has a “total absence of factual allegations.”

    The indictment against Comey references an exchange the former FBI director had with an unnamed senator, believed to be Cruz, during the Judiciary Committee hearing more than five years ago. During the questioning, Cruz asked Comey about testimony he gave in May 2017, in which the former FBI chief was questioned about whether he had ever been an anonymous source or authorized anyone to be an anonymous source about matters relating to investigations into President Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.

    Cruz then referenced comments from Andrew McCabe, who was Comey’s deputy at the FBI, and claimed McCabe publicly said that Comey authorized him to leak information to the press.

    “Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true; one or the other is false. Who’s telling the truth?” Cruz asked Comey.

    Comey said in response, “I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what, the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.”

    Cruz reiterated that Comey was testifying that he “never authorized to leak. And Mr. McCabe when if he says contrary is not telling the truth, is that correct?”

    “Again, I’m not going to characterize Andy’s testimony, but mine is the same today,” Comey replied.

    But prosecutors have claimed that Comey’s testimony was false because he authorized Daniel Richman, a longtime friend of his, to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about the FBI investigation involving Clinton.

    The government confirmed to Comey’s lawyers that an unidentified individual referred to as “Person 3” in the indictment is Richman. A Columbia University law professor, Richman is a former federal prosecutor who also served as a “special government employee” at the FBI when Comey was director.

    Richman has not been charged with any wrongdoing. His name also did not come up in the exchange that appears to have led to the charges against Comey.

    In their bid to have the indictment dismissed, Comey’s lawyers said that any false-statements charge that rests on an interpretation of a “fundamentally ambiguous question” must be dismissed.

    “Fundamental to any false statement charge are both clear questions and false answers,” they wrote. “Neither exists here.”

    Comey’s lawyers argued that a “reasonable person” would’ve interpreted Cruz to be asking only about whether the former FBI chief had authorized McCabe to be an anonymous source, rather than broadly inquiring about Comey’s interactions with anyone at the FBI.

    “The indictment contains no allegations that Mr. Comey’s answers were false: it never alleges that Mr. Comey made a false statement regarding Mr. McCabe,” they wrote. “On the contrary, the indictment omits Senator Cruz’s statements about Mr. McCabe, obscuring the context necessary to understand both the questions themselves and Mr. Comey’s responses.”

    Comey’s legal team reiterated that he maintains that his 2017 testimony was truthful, but was also argued that his “statement that he stood by his prior testimony was truthful regardless of whether that prior testimony was itself truthful.”

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  • Jack Smith defends subpoenaing Republican senators’ phone records: ‘Entirely proper’

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    Former special counsel Jack Smith is standing by his 2023 decision to subpoena several Republican lawmakers’ phone records, calling the move “entirely proper” and consistent with Justice Department policy.

    Smith said through his lawyers in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital that the subpoenaed data, known as toll records, belonging to eight senators and one House member were carefully targeted to support his investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged subversion of the 2020 election.

    “As described by various Senators, the toll data collection was narrowly tailored and limited to the four days from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021, with a focus on telephonic activity during the period immediately surrounding the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol,” Smith’s lawyers wrote Tuesday to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

    JACK SMITH INVESTIGATORS NEED TO ‘PAY BIG’ FOR JAN. 6 PHONE RECORDS PROBE, WARNS SEN. GRAHAM

    Former special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an unsealed indictment including four felony counts against President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington.   (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    Toll records do not reveal the contents of phone calls but instead reveal when calls were made and to whom.

    Smith’s lawyers said that although Grassley, who brought the subpoenas to light, has not reached out to Smith, they felt compelled to write to the chairman to address claims from Republicans that Smith improperly spied on lawmakers.

    Grassley responded to the letter, saying he would continue an unbiased probe into Arctic Frost, the name of the FBI investigation that led to Smith’s election-related prosecution of Trump.

    “I’m conducting an objective assessment of the facts&law like he says he wants So far we exposed an anti-Trump FBI agent started the investigation/broke FBI rules &only REPUBLICANS were targeted SMELLS LIKE POLITICS,” Grassley wrote on X.

    The targeted senators included Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. 

    In addition to the eight senators, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday that he recently discovered Smith also attempted to subpoena his toll records but that his phone company, AT&T, did not hand them over.

    DEM REP DEFENDS DOJ OBTAINING GOP SENATOR CALL RECORDS IN 2023: ‘YOU WEREN’T SURVEILLED’

    Sen. Ted Cruz

    Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

    The Republicans have broadly claimed they were inappropriately spied on, and compared Arctic Frost to the Watergate scandal.

    Smith’s lawyers emphasized the normalcy of seeking out phone records and said that public officials are not immune from investigation.

    Smith brought four criminal charges against Trump alleging he illegally attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, but he dismissed the charges after Trump won the 2024 election, citing a DOJ policy that discourages prosecuting sitting presidents. 

    Special Counsel Robert Hur testifies before Congress

    Former special counsel Robert K. Hur testifies before the House Judiciary Committee March 12, 2024, in Washington.  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

    Former special counsel Robert Hur sought toll records during his investigation into former President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. The DOJ subpoenaed phone records of former Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, who is serving prison time after he was convicted in 2024 of corruption charges.

    The first Trump administration subpoenaed phone records of Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and then-Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and dozens of congressional staffers from both parties as part of a leak investigation.

    Former DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz warned in a report about the leak probe that lawmakers’ records should only be subpoenaed in narrow circumstances because it “risks chilling Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch.”

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    Smith’s lawyers also disputed FBI Director Kash Patel’s accusations that he attempted to hide the subpoenas “in a lockbox in a vault,” noting that the former special counsel mentioned subpoenaing senators’ records in a footnote of his final special counsel report.

    “Moreover, the precise records at issue were produced in discovery to President Trump’s personal lawyers, some of whom now serve in senior positions within the Department of Justice,” Smith’s lawyers said.

    Read Smith’s letter below. App users click here.

    Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.

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  • Slowdown in US hiring suggests economy still needs rate cuts, Fed’s Powell says

    WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharp slowdown in hiring poses a growing risk to the U.S. economy, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday, a sign that the Fed will likely cut its key interest rate twice more this year.

    Powell said in a speech in Philadelphia that despite the federal government shutdown cutting off official economic data, “the outlook for employment and inflation does not appear to have changed much since our September meeting,” when the Fed reduced its key rate for the first time this year.

    Fed officials at that meeting also forecast that the central bank would reduce its rate twice more this year and once in 2026. Lower rates from the Fed could reduce borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans, and business loans. Powell spoke before a meeting of the National Association of Business Economics.

    Powell reiterated a message he first delivered after the September meeting, when he signaled that the Fed is slightly more worried about the job market than its other congressional mandate, which is to keep prices stable. Tariffs have lifted the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation to 2.9%, he said, but outside the duties there aren’t “broader inflationary pressures” that will keep prices high.

    “Rising downside risks to employment have shifted our assessment of the balance of risks,” he said.

    Economists said Powell’s remarks solidified expectations for further rate cuts, starting at its next meeting Oct. 28-29.

    “While there was little doubt the (Fed) was angled to cut rates at its next meeting, today’s remarks were strong confirmation of that expectation,” Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase, said in a note to clients.

    Powell also said that the central bank may soon stop shrinking its roughly $6.6 trillion balance sheet. The Fed has been allowing roughly $40 billion of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to mature each month without replacing them.

    “We may approach that point in coming months,” Powell said.

    The shift could slightly lower borrowing costs over time. Economists at BMO Capital Markets estimated that the yields on Treasury securities ticked down slightly after Powell’s remarks.

    Separately, Powell spent most of his speech defending the Fed’s practice of buying longer-term Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities in 2020 and 2021, which were intended to lower longer-term interest rates and support the economy during the pandemic.

    Yet those purchases have come under a torrent of criticism from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as some of the candidates floated by the Trump administration to replace Powell when his term as Chair ends next May.

    Bessent said in an extended critique published earlier this year that the huge purchases of bonds during the pandemic worsened inequality by boosting the stock market, without providing noticeable benefits to the economy.

    Other critics have long argued that the Fed kept implementing the purchases for too long, keeping interest rates low even as inflation began to spike in late 2021. The Fed beginning in 2021 stopped the purchases and then sharply boosted borrowing costs to combat inflation.

    “With the clarity of hindsight, we could have—and perhaps should have—stopped asset purchases sooner,” Powell said. “Our real-time decisions were intended to serve as insurance against downside risk.”

    Yet Powell said that moving earlier would not have prevented the COVID-era inflation spike: “Stopping sooner could have made some difference, but not likely enough to fundamentally alter the trajectory of the economy.”

    Powell also said the purchases were intended to avoid a breakdown in the market for Treasury securities, which could have sent interest rates much higher.

    The Fed chair also addressed a move by a bipartisan group of senators to stop the central bank from paying interest on the cash reserves banks park at the Fed. A measure to prevent the Fed from doing so was defeated in the Senate last week by the lopsided vote of 83-14.

    Still, it garnered support from both parties, including Republican senators Rand Paul from Kentucky and Ted Cruz from Texas, as well as Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

    Powell said that without the ability to pay interest on reserves, the Fed “would lose control over rates” and wouldn’t be able to carry out its mission. The Fed lifts the short-term interest rate it controls when it wants to cool borrowing and spending and slow inflation, while it cuts the rate to encourage borrowing, growth, and hiring.

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  • Virginia US Sens. Kaine, Warner seek to keep Discovery space shuttle in the commonwealth – WTOP News

    One of Virginia’s crown jewels of tourist attractions, the Discovery Space Shuttle, could be blasting off somewhere else.

    This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury. 

    One of Virginia’s crown jewels of tourist attractions, the Discovery Space Shuttle, could be blasting off somewhere else as U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine seek to prevent the move from its home in Virginia to Texas.

    The effort to relocate the space shuttle comes as support has increased for moving it to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, which is considered central to the United States’ human spaceflight program. Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both from Texas, are pushing the relocation effort. The ship has been at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly since 2012.

    Last week, the senators wrote a letter to Senate appropriators, hoping to block federal funding included in the Big Beautiful Bill Act for relocating the shuttle, arguing that it would waste taxpayer dollars, put it at risk of damage and diminish public access.

    The Smithsonian estimated that transporting Discovery could cost more than $50 million, with another $325 million needed for planning, exhibit reconstruction and new facilities, the letter states, exceeding the $85 million appropriated in the Act.

    “From a public access standpoint, the Udvar-Hazy Center, located in the Washington, D.C. region, offers free public admission and draws millions of visitors annually, including students, veterans, and international tourists,” Kaine and Warner wrote. “The Smithsonian provides Discovery with professional stewardship and global visibility. The Smithsonian is unique among museums for providing visitors with access to a national treasure meant to inspire the American public without placing economic barriers.”

    The center has become one of the top 20 most-visited museums in North America, garnering more than a million visitors per year, according to the Smithsonian.

    Between 1984 and 2012, Discovery orbited the Earth almost 150 million miles more than its two predecessors, flying 39 missions. The ship, named for renowned sailing ships of exploration, was transferred to the Smithsonian by NASA in April 2012.

    Recently, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum announced plans to expand the center in Northern Virginia, following the last major construction project in 2003. The project will enable the Smithsonian to showcase more artifacts and new acquisitions, likely enhancing the shuttle and the center’s offerings.

    Construction is expected to be finished by the end of 2028.

    In an August interview, Cornyn said the then-NASA Administrator and former Discovery astronaut Charles Bolden Jr. gave Houston “short shrift” when it came to considering the city as one of the homes for four retiring shuttles in 2010. Bolden assigned the remaining three shuttles to California, Florida and New York.

    However, Cornyn believed the Johnson Space Center is “a natural place” for the ship to be located, as it is the home of human spaceflight.

    As part of the process to have Houston reconsidered, the Act required the current administrator to make a new determination, which favored Houston. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, nominated by President Donald Trump, is serving as the acting administrator.

    Cornyn said he hopes that when current and future generations see the shuttle, they will find inspiration in subjects related to the space industry.

    “Seeing this firsthand and understanding its significance will hopefully make a very positive influence on them and their life, and it would be great for tourism and the economy,” Cornyn said.

    In a statement to the Mercury, the Smithsonian said it owns the Discovery and holds it, along with all its collections, in trust for the nation.

    “The Smithsonian has a unique responsibility to properly manage, preserve, and make accessible the collections in its care for current and future generations to appreciate, enjoy, and study,” the research institute stated. “The Smithsonian carries out its stewardship responsibilities through systematic collections management policies, procedures, and plans based on professional and discipline-specific best practices. The Smithsonian will carefully evaluate any request to move Discovery in light of these obligations.”

    Will Vitka

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  • Opinion: Even Sen. Ted Cruz Thinks FCC Went Too Far with Kimmel

    On Friday, Houston’s own Sen. Ted Cruz took to his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, to denounce Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s overt call to push late night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air and his threats to pull ABC’s broadcast license.

    “I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off the air if we don’t like what you’re saying,” Cruz said, noting, with a surprisingly fun movie mobster accent, that Carr was acting like he’d wandered out of Goodfellas.

    And just like that, Cruz, the vaunted Constitutional law expert best known these days for taking poorly politically timed vacations and sometimes staggeringly pragmatic and politically expedient stances that seem to fly in the face of all of that Constitutional expertise, found that there is, in fact, a line he’d rather not cross.

    It (possibly, maybe) had to happen eventually.

    So how did we get here? Well, in case you’ve been on a distant tropical island without any cell signal, this all started on Monday when Kimmel pointed out in his opening monologue for Jimmy Kimmel Live! that MAGA conservatives had spent the weekend “trying to score political points” off Kirk’s death by insisting Kirk’s alleged assassin Tyler Robinson was not one of their own. (Kimmel recorded his monologue before Utah officials issued more information about the suspect and his background.)

    Conservative media began whipping itself up into a frenzy over these comments. The late-night host reportedly planned to clarify his statement on his Wednesday night show, but he never got the chance.

    Earlier that day FCC Chairman Carr was asked about the FCC’s stance on Kimmel’s comments during an appearance on far-right podcaster Benny Johnson’s show. Carr decried the comments, calling Kimmel’s monologue “some of the sickest conduct possible” which does make one wonder what all of today’s modern media Carr has been exposed to. He then went further, criticizing ABC and its parent company Disney for not reprimanding Kimmel, noting that he “could certainly see a path forward for suspension on this” and that the FCC has “remedies we can look at.”

    And then he made himself clearer, Goodfellas-style, though without the use of a fun movie mobster accent.
    “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

    After that two of ABC’s largest affiliates, Sinclair and Nexstar, both eyeing large mergers that will need FCC approval, announced they wouldn’t run Kimmel’s show and by Wednesday evening ABC had shelved Kimmel indefinitely.

    So, here’s where things get interesting.

    The Lone Star State’s junior senator isn’t the guy you think of these days when looking for an example of political bravery, a politician with the true courage of his convictions. He’s the guy who spoke out eloquently against then-candidate Donald Trump’s rise in at the 2016 GOP National Convention, before quickly changing his tune when his speech was meant with vehement boos from an irate Republican audience. And he hasn’t blinked since.

    Even as Trump has made fun of Cruz’s wife, accused his father of being involved in the JFK assassination. Even in the face of MAGA supporters storming the U.S. Capital Building and the stacks of criminal charges and convictions. Even as Trump has issued a slew of executive actions that essentially seem to divest Congress of Constitutionally mandated powers, the powers that Cruz and his coworkers are supposed to be wielding on behalf of the millions of constituents who sent them there.

    But on Friday, Cruz spoke out against the FCC chairman’s actions.

    “I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,” Cruz said. (Note: Cruz isn’t quite accurate here. Kimmel’s show has been shelved but he has not reportedly been fired.) “But, let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said. We’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”

    And he went further from there. “I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,” Cruz said. But, let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said. We’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”

    “Going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again, wins the White House,” he warned. “They will silence us. They will use this power and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous.”

    Even as President Donald Trump has been vocal in his praise and support of Carr’s actions, Cruz hasn’t – at least as of this moment – walked his statements back.

    And keep in mind, Cruz has not maintained his seat since 2012 because of his charisma and charm. (Former President George W. Bush told donors, “I just don’t like the guy.” U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham once stated that if someone took Cruz out on the Senate floor the Senate wouldn’t convict. Former GOP House Speaker John Boehner called him “Lucifer incarnate.” Former Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat, wrote in his memoir, “I like Ted Cruz more than my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.”)

    Instead of being likable, Cruz has another set of skills. Specifically, his 2016 GOP Convention debacle aside, Cruz seems to have an almost unerring ability to put a finger to political winds, read political tea leaves and then to, well, thread a political needle that always has him exactly in line with his donors and his constituents.

    Thus, while it’s possible that all of this has hit some tripwire in his Constitutional scholar’s mind that requires him to take a stand, it’s potentially a much more interesting shift, carefully worded, and carefully framed, for Cruz.

    In fact, when NBC News asked Cruz, who is Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC, if Cruz would do as Senate Democrats have requested and call Carr before the committee for a hearing on this incident, Cruz didn’t say hell, yes. But he also explicitly did not say no, telling NBC, “We will certainly engage in oversight of all of the agencies within the committee’s jurisdiction.”

    So far, Cruz has garnered a smattering of support from his fellow Republicans, with U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas and Pennsylvania Republican Sen. David McCormick speaking out in support. Cruz is also in line with a contingent of the conservative podcaster manosphere, many of whom have taken issue with Kimmel being pushed off the air, noting concerns about how this potentially violates First Amendment rights of free speech.

    Cruz cites the same concerns in his podcast episode, pointing out that this is the kind of thing that the GOP could bitterly regret someday.

    “Going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again, wins the White House,” he warned. “They will silence us. They will use this power and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous.”

    Meanwhile Trump has continued to celebrate Carr’s actions, noting that since, in his view, most TV broadcasters give him and his administration negative coverage “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”

    Dianna Wray

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  • The FCC’s Involvement in Canceling Jimmy Kimmel Was ‘Unbelievably Dangerous,’ Ted Cruz Says

    Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas) is happy that ABC decided to indefinitely suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show. But like Fox News political analyst Brit Hume, Cruz is not happy about the role that Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), played in that decision. By threatening TV stations that carried Jimmy Kimmel Live! with fines and license revocation, Cruz warned in his podcast on Friday, Carr set a dangerous precedent that could invite similar treatment of conservative speech under a future administration.

    “I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said,” Cruz declared, referring to the September 15 monologue in which the late-night comedian erroneously suggested that Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college in Utah five days earlier, was part of the MAGA movement. “I am thrilled that he was fired. But let me tell you: If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said; we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”

    In an interview with right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday, Carr warned that there are “actions we can take on licensed broadcasters” that dared to air Kimmel’s show, including “fines or license revocations.” He added that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Either “these companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel,” he said, “or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

    Hours later, Nexstar, which owns 32 ABC affiliate stations, announced that it would preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! “for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show.” Sinclair, which owns 38 ABC affiliates, likewise said it would “indefinitely preempt” Jimmy Kimmel Live! beginning that night. ABC, which produces the programming aired by those affiliates and owns eight of the network’s stations, fell in line the same night, saying it would “indefinitely” suspend the show.

    Cruz likened Carr to a mafioso. “He says, ‘We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way,’” the senator noted. “And I got to say, that’s right out of Goodfellas. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar [and] going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’”

    In fact, Carr’s threat was more explicit than that. “This sort of status quo is obviously not acceptable,” he declared, saying it was “past time” for “these licensed broadcasters” to say, “Listen, we are going to preempt, we are not going to run, Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out, because we licensed broadcaster[s] are running the possibility of fines or license revocations from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.”

    That rationale for punishing stations that carried Kimmel’s show was absurd on its face. The policy to which Carr alluded applies to a “broadcast news report” that was “deliberately intended to mislead viewers or listeners” about “a significant event.” While Kimmel’s remarks were certainly misinformed, it is doubtful that he intended to “mislead viewers.” It seems more plausible that he committed to a partisan narrative without bothering to ask whether it was supported by the facts, an example of carelessness rather than deliberate deceit. But whatever you think of Kimmel’s intent, a comedian’s monologue is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a “broadcast news report.”

    By abusing his power to exert pressure on ABC and its affiliates, Cruz said, Carr was setting an example that Democrats are apt to copy. “Going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat…wins the White House,” the senator said, and “they will silence us. They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous.”

    Although “it might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel,” Cruz said, “when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it….It is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying, ‘We’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying.’”

    Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) agreed that Carr’s involvement in kiboshing Kimmel was “absolutely inappropriate.” The FCC’s chairman “has got no business weighing in on this,” Paul said on Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press. “If you’re losing money, you can be fired. But the government’s got no business in it. And the FCC was wrong to weigh in. And I’ll fight any attempt by the government to get involved with speech.”

    Conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson perceives a similar danger in Attorney General Pam Bondi’s response to online commentary that celebrated Kirk’s murder or justified violence against conservatives more generally. “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech,” Bondi said last week, erroneously asserting a constitutional distinction between “free speech” and “hate speech.” She later claimed she had in mind “threats of violence that individuals incite against others.” But the speech that offended Bondi generally would not meet the First Amendment test that the Supreme Court established in the 1969 case Brandenburg v. Ohio, which requires advocacy that is both “directed” at inciting “imminent lawless action” and “likely” to have that effect.

    “This is the attorney general of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, telling you that there is this other category…called hate speech,” Carlson remarked on his show last Wednesday. “And of course, the implication is that’s a crime. There’s no sentence that Charlie Kirk would have objected to more than that.”

    With good reason, Carlson said: “You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we’re seeing in the aftermath of his murder won’t be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country. And trust me, if it is, if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that, ever. And there never will be. Because if they can tell you what to say, they’re telling you what to think.”

    It is encouraging that at least some of President Donald Trump’s allies recognize that freedom of speech is unreliable unless it protects their political opponents. But Trump himself seems oblivious to that point. When asked about Cruz’s criticism of Carr on Friday, Trump described the FCC chairman as “a great American patriot,” adding, “I disagree with Ted Cruz on that.”

    Of course he does. For years, Trump has been eager to wield the FCC’s powers against broadcasters who air programming that offends him. During Trump’s first administration, he averred that “network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai rejected that suggestion in no uncertain terms. “I believe in the First Amendment,” he said. “The FCC under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment, and under the law the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast.”

    Trump’s views on the subject have not changed. Last week, he cheered Kimmel’s suspension as “Great News for America” and urged NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, two other late-night comedians who are often critical of him. “Do it NBC!!!” he demanded. In case there was any doubt that Trump was not merely offering advice as a businessman or TV critic, he signed that Truth Social missive “President DJT” and later clarified the underlying threat. “You have a network and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump,” he complained to reporters. “It’s all they do….They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.” When network newscasts “take a great story” and “make it bad,” he averred, “that’s really illegal.”

    The difference this time around is that the FCC’s Trump-appointed chairman, an avowed free speech champion, has no constitutional compunction about using his powers to bully broadcasters into submission. “They give me only bad publicity or press,” Trump said on Thursday. “I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr.”

    Jacob Sullum

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  • Elon Musk resurfaces Harris’s old call to suspend Trump from Twitter platform amid Kimmel controversy

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    Elon Musk resurfaced former Vice President and former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ years-old call for President Donald Trump’s ban from social media as she claims “free speech” concerns over Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air.

    Harris has weighed in on Disney’s decision to pull ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air “indefinitely,” defending Kimmel and slamming what she calls an “outright abuse of power” by the Trump administration.

    “What we are witnessing is an outright abuse of power. This administration is attacking critics and using fear as a weapon to silence anyone who would speak out. Media corporations — from television networks to newspapers — are capitulating to these threats,” Harris wrote on X about Kimmel’s suspension. “We cannot dare to be silent or complacent in the face of this frontal assault on free speech. We, the people, deserve better.”

    Many X users, including Musk, the platform’s owner, were quick to point out Harris’ own past statements, some suggested they appeared to support censorship.

    Musk resurfaced a 2019 tweet by Harris when Trump was serving his first time. Harris, a U.S. senator representing California at the time, was running for vice president when she made the post on X, now Twitter. 

    “Look let’s be honest, @realDonaldTrump’s Twitter account should be suspended,” Harris wrote on Sept. 30, 2019. 

    DISNEY’S JIMMY KIMMEL BENCHING PROMPTS CELEBRATION, BUT ALSO CAUTION, FROM CONSERVATIVES

    Jimmy Kimmel, left, was pulled from ABC over his remarks on Charlie Kirk. (Melissa Majchrzak/AFP via Getty Images; Michael Le Brecht/Disney via Getty Images)

    Musk re-posted the message on Friday, adding a thinking face emoji. 

    Kimmel’s show was pulled after he accused conservatives of reaching “new lows” in trying to pin a left-wing ideology on Tyler Robinson, who is accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk, even though prosecutors reaffirmed those ties in an indictment.

    “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said, sparking outrage.

    There have been several questions about the role the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) played in the suspension. Those questioning the move are on both sides of the aisle, with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warning conservatives that they “will regret” setting the precedent.

    “What he is saying is Jimmy Kimmel was lying. That’s true, he was lying, and lying to the American people is not in the public interest,” Cruz said on an episode of his podcast. “He threatens explicitly — we’re going to cancel ABC News’ license. We’re going to take him off the air, so ABC cannot broadcast anymore … He threatens it.”

    CRUZ WARNS CONSERVATIVES ‘WILL REGRET’ FCC CENSORSHIP PUSH AGAINST ABC, OTHER MEDIA OUTLETS

    Protesters outside Walt Disney Studios

    Around 200 protesters lined up outside of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California to rail against Disney’s suspension of ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday evening. (Christina House / Getty)

    FCC Chairman Brendan Carr joined Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Sept. 17, the day the suspension was announced, and defended the move.

    “Broadcasters are different than any other form of communication,” Carr said, pointing to affiliate groups like Nexstar and Sinclair that announced they would no longer carry “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” He argued that local stations acted appropriately, saying they were “standing up to serve the interests of their community.” 

    “Over the years, the FCC walked away from enforcing that public interest obligation,” Carr said. “I don’t think we’re better off as a country for it.”

    FCC CHAIR BRENDAN CARR DEFENDS ABC AFFILIATES PULLING JIMMY KIMMEL SHOW AFTER MONOLOGUE ABOUT CHARLIE KIRK

    Former VP Kamala Harris, Jimmy Kimmel, Elon Musk

    Elon Musk resurfaced a 2019 tweet in which then-Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., urged Twitter to take down President Donald Trump’s account. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images; Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Saturday that the decision to “fire Jimmy Kimmel and to cancel his show came from executives at ABC.”

    “That has now been reported,” Leavitt said. “And I can assure you it did not come from the White House and there was no pressure given from the president of the United States.” 

    The Biden-Harris administration has seen its share of censorship controversies, particularly in its interactions with social media companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    During a 2021 press conference, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the administration was “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.”

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    In August 2024, just ahead of the presidential election, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans.

    Zuckerberg made the admission in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, more than a year after providing the committee with thousands of documents as part of its investigation into content moderation on online platforms.

    Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

    Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

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  • Cruz warns conservatives ‘will regret’ FCC censorship push against ABC, other media outlets

    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz” on Friday cautioned those advocating for Federal Communication Commission (FCC) action against adversaries, noting if a censorship precedent is set, “every conservative in America … will regret it.”

    ABC suspended late-night host Jimmy Kimmel “indefinitely” after he said the alleged assassin of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was a fellow MAGA supporter.

    Kimmel failed to set the record straight after the indictment against suspect Tyler Robinson was made public on Tuesday, prompting a response from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr, who told Fox News’ Sean Hannity the agency plans to reinvigorate enforcement of the public interest obligation.

    DAVID MARCUS: FCC ISN’T ‘GOING AFTER’ ABC, IT’S PROTECTING PUBLIC AIRWAVES

    Sen. Ted Cruz said it would be a mistake for the FCC to ramp up action against television stations. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

    The FCC grants broadcast licenses on the condition that stations serve the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” 

    Though the First Amendment protects free speech, the agency can revoke or deny license renewal if there is misrepresentation, fraud or lack of character or candor.

    In Cruz’s podcast on Friday, he questioned Carr’s decision to crack down on stations accused of misrepresentation or false statements, claiming “what he said there is dangerous as hell.”

    “What he is saying is Jimmy Kimmel was lying. That’s true, he was lying, and lying to the American people is not in the public interest,” Cruz said. “He threatens explicitly—we’re going to cancel ABC News’ license. We’re going to take him off the air, so ABC cannot broadcast anymore. … He threatens it.”

    Donald Trump on Jimmy Kimmel Live

    Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off-air after making comments about late Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. (Randy Holmes/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Image)

    ABC INSIDER HOPES LIBERALS TAKE THIS LESSON AWAY FROM JIMMY KIMMEL SAGA

    Cruz compared Carr’s wording to something “right out of Goodfellas.”

    “Jimmy Kimmel has mocked me so many times,” he said. “The corporate media—they are dishonest. They are liars. I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired. But let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying ‘we don’t like what you, the media, have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves’ … that will end up bad for conservatives.”

    He added it may be “attractive” to conservatives to feel that they have the governmental power to ban the media, but going down that road, would hurt them when a Democrat takes back the White House.

    “The next Democrat FCC—they will silence us,” Cruz said. “They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly, and that is dangerous. … They’ve defined anything counter to the leftist narrative as misinformation.”

    Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz

    Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noted he has faced media scrutiny of his own, but said issues can be resolved in civil court. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

    Cruz argued that if a station commits slander related to Kirk or his family, there is already a remedy.

    He suggested suing stations for defamation and “let[ting] the process play out.”

    “I think it is unbelievably dangerous for [the] government to put itself in the position of saying, ‘We’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off-air if we don’t like what you’re saying,” Cruz said. “It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, but when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it. 

    “So again, I like Brendan Carr, but we should not be in this business. We should denounce it. It’s fine to say what Jimmy Kimmel said was deplorable. It was disgraceful, and he should be off-air, but we shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off-air. That’s a real mistake.”

    FCC CHAIR BRENDAN CARR DEFENDS ABC AFFILIATES PULLING JIMMY KIMMEL SHOW AFTER MONOLOGUE MOCKING CHARLIE KIRK

    During a news conference in the White House Oval Office on Friday, President Donald Trump said he did not agree with Cruz’s assertion, describing Carr as “courageous.”

    “I think Brendan Carr is an incredible American patriot with courage,” Trump said. “I remember in the old days, networks would want to get re-licensed, it was always a big deal. They had to show honesty and integrity. … I think Brendan Carr doesn’t like to see the airwaves be used illegally and incorrectly—and purposely, horribly. [He] doesn’t like to see a person that won the election in a landslide get 97% bad publicity before the election. I mean, it’s amazing that I won the election … The people have given the networks no credibility.”

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    During the Biden administration, a nonprofit called the Media and Democracy Project filed a 2023 petition with the FCC asking that the license renewal of a Fox-owned local station in Philadelphia be denied, citing Fox’s election-related coverage.

    The FCC, under then-Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, rejected the petition on Jan. 16, four days before Trump assumed office for his second term, noting it would be “fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment” for the government to deny renewals based on protected speech and content, according to court documents.

    Cruz’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

    Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.

    Alexandra Koch is a Fox News Digital journalist who covers breaking news, with a focus on high-impact events that shape national conversation.

    She has covered major national crises, including the L.A. wildfires, Potomac and Hudson River aviation disasters, Boulder terror attack, and Texas Hill Country floods.

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  • Ted Cruz blasts FCC chair’s ‘mafioso’ tactic to bench Kimmel | Fortune

    Senator Ted Cruz has become the most prominent Republican to criticize Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, saying President Donald Trump’s top media regulator resorted to “mafioso” behavior to pressure Disney Corp.’s ABC to remove late night host Jimmy Kimmel. 

    Cruz, the chairman of the Commerce Committee and a frequent defender of the Trump administration, took to his podcast in the wake of Kimmel’s indefinite suspension this week to describe Carr’s actions as “dangerous.” 

    Carr earlier in the week implied on another podcast that ABC could face serious consequences from the government over Kimmel’s remarks about the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Only hours later, ABC pulled Kimmel’s show. 

    Cruz said he doesn’t believe the government should punish media companies over political disagreements. 

    “I like Brendan Carr, he’s a good guy,” Cruz said on his podcast, which was taped late Thursday. “But what he said there is dangerous as hell.” 

    “That’s right outta ‘Goodfellas,’ that’s right out of a mafioso going into a bar saying, ‘Nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it,’” Cruz said, using the iconic New York accent associated with the Mafia. “If the government gets in the business of saying ‘We don’t like what you the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”

    Throughout the podcast, Cruz emphasized he disagreed with Kimmel’s comments, which he called “reprehensible.” But he said a defamation case would have been a better approach than Carr’s intervention.

    “It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, but if it is used to silence every person in America, we will regret it,” Cruz said. “I like Brendan Carr but we should not be in this business.”

    Trump rejected Cruz’s criticism of the FCC chair.

    “I think Brendan Carr is a great American patriot. So I disagree with Ted Cruz,” Trump told reporters later Friday during an event in the Oval Office.

    Cruz and Kimmel have their own history. 

    The Texas US senator challenged Kimmel to a one-on-one basketball game after the comedian mocked his appearance during a show. Kimmel accepted, with the proceeds from the 2018 event going to charities the two men chose.

    In a brief interview in the US Capitol on Friday, Cruz noted the FCC falls under his committee’s jurisdiction even as he took a swing at the other party. 

    “When the Democrats had the majority they did not engage in oversight,” he said. “We will do our job and engage in oversight.” 

    Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a moderate who is not running for reelection in the swing state of North Carolina, applauded Cruz for taking a stand on what he called “unacceptable” behavior from the administration. 

    Cruz “showed a lot of courage, and he will be on the right side of history and he’s definitely on the right side of the law,” Tillis said. 

    Most Republican lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have spent days insisting Disney made its own financial decision by suspending Kimmel and declining to criticize Carr. Carr said the company made its own decision but said there will be more changes to the media ecosystem ahead.

    Democrats have uniformly said Carr has violated the First Amendment and have called on Republicans to push back. 

    “Republican senators should not want to see a weaponized FCC that can go after conservative commentators by some future administration,” said Senator Adam Schiff of California.

    Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.

    Emily Birnbaum, Steven T. Dennis, Bloomberg

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  • Ted Cruz Wants to Help AI Companies Duck Regulations

    Most tech firms like to operate under the adage of “ask forgiveness, not permission,” but they don’t even have to do that when they have lenient overseers like Ted Cruz trying to preemptively tell them to go ahead and get reckless. According to a report from Bloomberg, the Texas Senator plans to introduce legislation that will waive federal regulations for artificial intelligence companies and allow them to test new products without the standard scrutiny or oversight.

    The proposed bill, which is still being drafted and has not yet been introduced, would reportedly allow AI firms to apply for a two-year waiver that would protect them from having to comply with any “enforcement, licensing, or authorization” requirements from the federal government. Instead, they’d operate in what Bloomberg calls a “regulatory sandbox” that would be operated by the White House’s science and technology office, which is currently headed by Michael Kratsios, the former managing director and head of strategy for Scale AI. So, you know, don’t expect much in terms of crackdowns.

    In addition to the two-year hall pass, companies would reportedly be able to apply for eight more years of freedom. That would be a total of 10 years of unregulated development, which is in line with the previously proposed 10-year ban on state-level regulations that would govern how companies can operate. That proposal, which was initially part of the One Big, Beautiful Bill but eventually got voted down by a 99-1 count, was also brought by Cruz. It’s enough to give you the sense that maybe the Senator really wants to axe those guardrails.

    While it’s not clear yet what provisions will make it to the final copy of the bill, Bloomberg reported the expectation is that Cruz will introduce the proposal on Wednesday while Kratsios is testifying before the Senate. If he does, it’ll make good on something he’s been promising AI firms for months. He first floated the idea of a “light touch” approach to AI regulations back in May, and Politico first reported on this expected piece of legislation last month. Whether it passes will likely depend on whether Republicans have remained skeptical enough of the technology to not fully strip away the ability to regulate it, though the fact that they let states retain their rights to pass AI-related laws might make it more likely that they sign on to letting the federal rules get lax.

    AJ Dellinger

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  • Cruz, Paxton issue dueling endorsements in Texas attorney general GOP primary

    Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday endorsed his former top deputy, Aaron Reitz, to succeed him, giving Reitz a significant boost in the four-candidate Republican primary to be Texas’ top civil lawyer.

    Paxton’s endorsement comes after Sen. Ted Cruz, a former solicitor general of Texas, backed Rep. Chip Roy for attorney general. Both Reitz and Roy have served as Paxton’s legal deputies and Cruz’s chief of staff throughout their tenures.

    But while Paxton and Roy publicly split in 2020, when Roy called for Paxton to step down after the attorney general’s senior staff reported him to the FBI for alleged bribery and abuse of office, Reitz has positioned himself as the heir to Paxton’s movement, calling himself the attorney general’s “offensive coordinator.”

    In his endorsement, Paxton agreed with that assessment, crediting Reitz with handling some of the office’s most high-profile — and controversial — cases.

    “He drove our Texas v. Biden docket and spearheaded some of our most consequential battles — on border security, immigration, Big Tech, Covid tyranny, energy and the environment, pro-life, Second Amendment, religious liberty, free speech, and election integrity,” Paxton said in a statement. “Aaron Reitz is the only candidate who is fully vetted, battle-tested, proven, and ready to be Attorney General.”

    Reitz and Roy’s careers working for prominent Texas Republicans have mirrored each other in numerous ways.

    Roy was the first top aide tapped by both Cruz and Paxton in their current roles. He served as Cruz’s first chief of staff from 2012 through 2014, helping pioneer Cruz’s strategy during the 2013 government shutdown over Obamacare, and then was hired by Paxton as the newly elected attorney general’s first assistant attorney general.

    Roy held that position as Paxton’s second in command through early 2016, at which point Roy left after Paxton incited a dramatic staff shake-up in the wake of the embattled attorney general’s first legal troubles. Roy went on to be elected to Congress in a Central Texas district in 2018, a position he has held ever since.

    Reitz’s career played out in the reverse order. He was Paxton’s deputy attorney general for legal affairs from 2020 to 2023 before leaving to be Cruz’s chief of staff through early 2025. He then went on to a short stint at the Department of Justice this year before resigning to announce his run for attorney general.

    Cruz, a former Texas solicitor general under then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, endorsed Roy on Saturday. While noting that Texas is “blessed” to have a strong slate of conservatives running for the position and that he is friends with each candidate, Cruz said he has known Roy for nearly two decades and, during that time, Roy has consistently displayed the “courage, integrity and conviction” required to be attorney general.

    “As my very first chief of staff, Chip has been a close friend and ally of mine for over 12 years,” Cruz said in a statement. “We have been in more fights together than I can count, and I know Chip will always, always, always fight for conservative values.”

    Both Cruz and Paxton had previously been letting the attorney general race, the first prominent statewide seat to open up for Texas Republicans in years, play out without weighing in. But Roy’s entry into the race Thursday appears to have upended both men’s calculations.

    Roy received further endorsements from some of Congress’ most conservative members, including a fellow Texan, Rep. Keith Self of McKinney. He also won the backing of Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, Byron Donalds, R-Florida, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

    State Sens. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston and Joan Huffman, R-Houston are also running to succeed Paxton. Paxton is forgoing running for a fourth term to instead challenge Sen. John Cornyn in a primary.

    Both Reitz and Roy have positioned themselves as the ideological heirs to Paxton’s conservative legal movement, which has put Texas at the forefront of high-profile cases on religious liberty, abortion and election law.

    Calling himself the “only pro-Paxton candidate in the race”, Reitz pledged to continue his old boss’ fights.

    “Under Ken Paxton, Texas has been a shining example for the conservative movement on how to fight and win against the enemies of Law, Order, and Liberty,” Reitz said in a statement. “My promise to Texans is that I will keep my foot on the gas and energetically carry on Paxton’s legacy.”

    Though Paxton and Roy have split over the former’s conduct, Roy said in an interview with conservative radio host Mark Davis Thursday that the two share a similar conservative worldview.

    “Ken and his team have done a great job fighting to defend Texas,” Roy said in the radio interview. “We’re going to continue that legacy going forward.”

    More all-star speakers confirmed for The Texas Tribune Festival, Nov. 13–15! This year’s lineup just got even more exciting with the addition of State Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo; former United States Attorney General Eric Holder; Abby Phillip, anchor of “CNN NewsNight”; Aaron Reitz, 2026 Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General; and State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin. Get your tickets today!

    TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.

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  • One Day to Go Till Election Day 2024

    One Day to Go Till Election Day 2024

    In a presidential battle that despite all their polling, most political experts says is too close to call, voters will have a last chance on Tuesday, November 5, to cast their ballots. How long it will take for voters to know the results is anyone’s guess.

    At issue, besides the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, is the Ted Crux vs Colin Allred contest for the U.S. Senate seat that Cruz holds right now.

    Another primary concern in Houston is whether voters will approve the $4.4 billion bond issue that Houston ISD is asking for. The sticking point there is not so much whether the campus facilities improvements are needed,) but whether voters can trust Superintendent Miles Miles, his administration and the state-appointed Board of Managers to do right by all that money.

    In Harris County, election polling sites will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Go to harrisvotes.com to determine where’s the nearest handy voting place for you to cast your ballot.

    Harris Votes even offers 

    a quick instructional video on how to vote with the county’s machines.


    Houston Press

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  • Opinion: The Cruz-Allred Senate Debate Laid Out the Choice

    Opinion: The Cruz-Allred Senate Debate Laid Out the Choice

    Going into Tuesday night’s debate between Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and his opponent Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, you’d be pardoned if you were anticipating a complete rout for Allred.

    After all, Houston’s own Cruz, who has served as the Texas junior senator since his 2012 election, has long been acclaimed for his debating prowess. Allred wasn’t bringing such bona fides to the stage.

    But Allred, the Dallas-born, former-Baylor football captain, former-NFL player and current congressman representing the 23rd District, had polls in his back pocket.

    After months of being viewed – and dismissed – as a longshot candidate by both the Republicans and his own party, Allred has surged in the polls in recent weeks. The polling data now shows the two contenders in a much closer race than expected. (A University of Houston poll published Tuesday before the debate showed Cruz leading 50 percent to Allred’s 46 percent, but a week-old internal GOP super PAC poll, obtained by Politico, only has Cruz garnering 48 percent to Allred’s 47 percent of the vote. In other words, the odds still favor Cruz but his victory is far from a lock.)

    Thus, both candidates entered the debate, deftly moderated by Jason Whiteley, political reporter for WFAA, and Gromer Jeffers, political reporter for the Dallas Morning News, with something to prove.

    Could Allred hold his own against Cruz and show voters that his rep as a true moderate isn’t just for show?
    Could Cruz — reputed to be one of the most unpopular members of Congress and described by GOP former-U.S. House Speaker John Boehner as “Lucifer in the flesh” —come across as, well, likeable?

    In his opening statement, Allred, who won the coin toss and opted to go first, hit Cruz in one of the senator’s softest spots by promising right off the bat that, if elected to the U.S. Senate he’ll put Texas and Texans first. Allred pledged, in a moment that saw Cruz smiling hard, that he won’t head off to Cancun the way Cruz did in the middle of 2021’s historic winter freeze.

    For his part, Cruz took a measured stance in his introduction, noting he is the son of a Cuban immigrant father, complementing Allred having been raised by a single mother, and explaining that his plan of attack was to return repeatedly to Allred’s record.

    Over the course of the next hour, which galloped by as the debaters picked up speed, Cruz and Allred talked over all of the big-ticket issues, from abortion to the economy to the border, their respective approaches to the ongoing conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, the events of January 6, IVF regulations, transgender rights and affordable housing.

    On abortion, the issue that stands to shape how many of our elections play out on November 5, Cruz kept calm. With his signature unflappable smoothness, Cruz repeatedly avoided laying out whether he supports exemptions for rape or incest. Instead, he contended that Allred’s abortion stance—which Allred described as “support of protections and restrictions as laid out by Roe [v. Wade]”—represented a disregard for Texas state laws.

    When pressed to answer the question, Cruz again made a well-oiled swerve toward Allred, prompting a blistering response from Allred.

    “It’s not pro-life to deny women care so long they can’t have children anymore. It’s not pro-life to force a victim of rape to carry their rapist’s baby. It’s not pro-life that our maternal mortality rate has skyrocketed up to 56 percent,” Allred interjected in a moderator-approved rebuttal. “To every Texas woman at home and for every Texas family watching this, understand that when Ted Cruz says he’s pro-life, he doesn’t mean yours.”

    Pressed a third time to answer the question, Cruz still wasn’t having it—or answering.

    Cruz attempted to hammer Allred on the economy. “When it comes to inflation, inflation is caused by the policies of Kamala Harris and Congressman Allred,” Cruz stated. “Kamala Harris and Congressman Allred came in and they went on a spending binge.” (It should be noted that the Trump administration ran up the national debt by $8.4 trillion versus the Biden administration’s $4.3 trillion.)

    Allred countered that Cruz, for all of his concern for Texas senior citizens and people on a budget, actually voted against the popular measure that lowered the cost of insulin.

    “He talks tough but he never shows up,” Allred interjected in a moderator-sanctioned rebuttal. “We have a phrase for this, ‘all hat and no cattle,’ and that’s what Sen. Cruz is. Six more years of this? Come on.”

    On transgender rights, Allred said he wants to protect children, while Cruz insisted Allred wants “boys to play against girls.”

    On the question of whether January 6 rioters should be pardoned, as former-President Donald Trump has said he intends to do, Cruz stated that he believes “all people who commit a crime should be penalized,” noting that Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has endorsed him.

    In response, Allred claimed that he was trying to block the door against rioters attempting to gain entrance to the House Floor while Cruz was “hiding in a supply closet.”

    Allred sailed into Cruz on his vote opposing the bundled foreign aid for Ukraine and Israel, noting that even Sen. John Cornyn, the senior Texas senator, voted in favor of providing aid while Cruz voted against it.

    “When I was elected 12 years ago, I resolved then to be the leading defender of Israel in the United States Senate and I’ve worked every day to do that, to stand up and fight to support Israel,” Cruz responded. He also claimed that Allred “has consistently lined up against Israel” by pointing to his support of sending U.S. aid to Gaza and the Biden administration’s 2023 sanctions waiver that allowed Iran to access $10 billion.

    Now more at ease, Allred dismissed Cruz’s claims that Allred is against what Cruz described as holding Hamas responsible for using children as human shields and defended his support of sending aid to Gaza civilians. “This has to be our responsibility, this has to be Israeli responsibility,” Allred said.

    The rest of the debate played out along these same lines with Cruz and Allred dissecting their respective views on a series of issues, including the border (both accused each other of being weak on border and immigration policy) and IVF (both are in favor of protecting IVF access but Allred noted how Cruz’s pro-life stance has imperiled the practice, while Cruz brought up his failed IVF protection bill).

    A question on what to do about high food prices went mostly unanswered as Cruz’s response zigged into a claim that the high prices are due to an unfriendly policy toward Texas oil and gas. Cruz tried to paint Allred as against it, while Allred pointed toward his public call on the Biden administration to end its pause on permitting new liquified natural gas export projects. They debated about affordable housing policies and Cruz’s decision to vote against the $35 billion federal infrastructure bill in 2021. Allred touted his award for being one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, while Cruz referred to bipartisan bills he has cosponsored.

    And then, just like that, they were out of time.

    “We’re all Americans and we’re all Texans. We need a leader who will bring us together around our shared values,” Allred said. “If you don’t like how things are in Washington right now, [Cruz] is singularly responsible for it.”

    “The stakes of this election are the highest of my lifetime,” Cruz said, going on to claim that if Allred is elected, he’ll vote to “allow every illegal alien in America” and “turn Texas blue in an instant … I will fight to keep Texas Texas,” Cruz concluded.

    Coming away from this debate, a few things are clear. Yes, Cruz remains a remarkably skilled debater. He can talk his way around anything. But the fact of the matter is that his actions may finally be speaking as loudly as Cruz himself, because he was unable to talk his way around a number of decisions he’s made in the Senate.

    He also remains unable to outtalk the fact that he went to Cancun while Texans, plus his own dog, were left in freezing conditions back in 2021.

    Allred isn’t as fluid on a debate stage. He didn’t display Beto O’Rourke’s spiky charisma and was clearly nervous at the top of the hour-long debate. Over the course of the debate, he warmed up and managed to score a series of hits on his opponent, but Cruz had him on skill.

    The thing is, to beat Cruz last night, Allred didn’t have to defeat him. He just had to let Cruz himself remind Texans who the senator is and offer them a reasonable choice.

    And that’s exactly what Allred did.

    Dianna Wray

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  • Ted Cruz and Colin Allred meet in the only debate in the Texas Senate race

    Ted Cruz and Colin Allred meet in the only debate in the Texas Senate race

    DALLAS (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred met for their only debate Tuesday night, trading attacks over abortion and immigration in a closely watched race that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S. Senate.

    Nationally, Democrats view Texas as one of their few potential pickup chances in the Senate this year, while Cruz has urged Republicans to take Texas seriously amid signs that the former 2016 presidential contender is in another competitive race to keep his seat.

    From start to finish in the hourlong debate, Cruz sought to link Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris at nearly every opportunity and painted the three-term Dallas congressman as out of step in a state where voters have not elected a Democrat to a statewide office in 30 years.

    Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator if elected, hammered Cruz over the state’s abortion ban that is one of the most restrictive in the nation and does not allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The issue is central to Allred’s underdog campaign and his supporters include Texas women who had serious pregnancy complications after the state’s ban took effect.

    Pressed on whether he supports Texas’ law, Cruz said the specifics of abortion law have been and should be decided by the Texas Legislature.

    Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a U.S. Senate debate with Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Dallas. (Shelby Tauber/Texas Tribune via AP, Pool)

    “I don’t serve in the state Legislature. I’m not the governor,” he said.

    Cruz later blasted Allred over his support of transgender rights and immigration polices of President Joe Biden and Harris, accusing him of shifting his views on border security from the positions he took when he was first elected to Congress in 2018.

    “What I always said is that we have to make sure that as we’re talking about border security, that we don’t fall into demonizing,” Allred said.

    Allred accused the two-term U.S. senator of mischaracterizing his record and repeatedly jabbed Cruz for his family vacation to Mexico during a deadly winter storm in 2021 that crippled the state’s power grid.

    The two candidates closed the debate by attacking each other, with Cruz painting an Allred victory as a threat to Republicans’ grip on Texas.

    “Congressman Allred and Kamala Harris are both running on the same radical agenda,” Cruz said.

    Image

    Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, left, speaks during a U.S. Senate debate with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Dallas. (Shelby Tauber/Texas Tribune via AP, Pool)

    Allred, meanwhile, cast himself as a moderate and accused Cruz of engaging in what he described as “anger-tainment, where you just leave people upset and you podcast about it and you write a book about it and you make some money on it, but you’re not actually there when people need you.”

    The last time Cruz was on the ballot in 2018, he only narrowly won reelection over challenger Beto O’Rourke.

    The debate offered Allred, a former NFL linebacker, a chance to boost his name identification to a broad Texas audience. Allred has made protecting abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign and has been sharply critical of the state’s abortion ban. The issue has been a winning one for Democrats, even in red states like Kentucky and Kansas, ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to strip away constitutional protections for abortion.

    Cruz, who fast made a name for himself in the Senate as an uncompromising conservative, has refashioned his campaign to focus on his legislative record.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Allred has meanwhile sought to flash moderate credentials and has the endorsement of former Republican U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.

    The two candidates alone have raised close to $100 million, according to the most recent reports from the Federal Election Commission. Tens of millions more dollars have been spent by outside groups, making it one of the most expensive races in the country.

    Despite Texas’ reputation as a deep-red state and the Democrats’ 30-year statewide drought, the party has grown increasingly optimistic in recent years that they can win here.

    Since former President Barack Obama lost Texas by more than 15 percentage points in 2012, the margins have steadily declined. Former President Donald Trump won by 9 percentage points in 2016, and four years later, won by less than 6. That was the narrowest victory for a Republican presidential candidate in Texas since 1996.

    “Texas is a red state,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. “But it’s not a ruby-red state.”

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  • Texas Tribune Fest Welcomes Ideas of All Kinds, Speakers From Both Parties

    Texas Tribune Fest Welcomes Ideas of All Kinds, Speakers From Both Parties

    Before the start of many of the sessions at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival, a short video starring the impossibly handsome, and oh, so very Texan actor Glen Powell warmly warned attendees that they would likely hear ideas they didn’t agree with. After all, the annual fall festival has for years made it a point to present speakers from both major parties, and from a variety of racial, ethnic, religious and social backgrounds…

    Kelly Dearmore

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  • FACT FOCUS: A look at ominous claims around illegal immigration made at the Republican convention

    FACT FOCUS: A look at ominous claims around illegal immigration made at the Republican convention

    After Donald Trump triumphantly entered the hall on the second night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the program turned to one of his signature issues: illegal immigration. An ominous video of chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border led into to a speech by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who declared, “We are facing an invasion on our southern border.”

    Here’s a look at some of the claims made Tuesday:

    VIDEO NARRATOR: “Biden made one of the worst mistakes of any president in history when he told illegals to come here and surge our border.”

    THE FACTS: After the claim, the video cuts to President Joe Biden saying, “I would, in fact, make sure that there is — we immediately surge to the border,” and the narrator says, “And surge they did.”

    But important context is missing. The clip was taken from the Sept. 12, 2019, Democratic presidential debate. A moderator, Jorge Ramos of Univision, discussing immigration issues, notes that Biden served as vice president in the administration of President Barack Obama, which deported 3 million people. He then asks if Biden is “prepared to say tonight that you and President Obama made a mistake?”

    Biden answers by noting immigration accomplishments by Obama and discussing the policies of then-President Trump. He then adds, “What I would do as president is several more things, because things have changed. I would, in fact, make sure that there is — we immediately surge to the border. All those people who are seeking asylum, they deserve to be heard. That’s who we are.”

    Since then Biden has spoken repeatedly of sending agents and other law enforcement resources to the border to deal with the migrant influx.

    ___

    VIDEO NARRATOR: “Biden’s incompetence has led to a horrific 300,000 Americans now dead, not from a nuclear bomb but from lethal fentanyl brought in through Biden’s wide-open border.”

    THE FACTS: While it is correct that much of America’s fentanyl is smuggled from Mexico, 86.4% of fentanyl trafficking crimes were committed by U.S. citizens in the 12-month period through September 2023, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

    The fentanyl scourge began well before Biden took office. Border seizures, which tell only part of the story, have jumped sharply under Biden, which may partly reflect improved detection. About 27,000 pounds (12,247 kilograms) of fentanyl was seized by U.S. authorities in the 2023 government budget year, compared with 2,545 pounds (1,154 kilograms) in 2019, when Trump was president.

    ___

    CRUZ: “Every day Americans are dying — murdered, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released.”

    THE FACTS: A number of heinous and high-profile crimes involving people in the U.S. illegally have been in the news in recent months. But there is nothing to support the claim that it happens every day.

    The foreign-born population, immigrants in the country both legally and illegally, was estimated to be 46.2 million, or almost 14% of the U.S. total, in 2022, according to the Census Bureau, including about 11 million in the country illegally. Hardly a month passes without at least one person in the country illegally getting charged with a high-profile, horrific crime, such as the February slaying of a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student or the June strangling death of a 12-year-old Houston girl.

    Texas is the only state that tracks crime by immigration status. A study published by the National Academy of Sciences, based on Texas Department of Public Safety data from 2012 to 2016, found people in the U.S. illegally had “substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants across a range of felony offenses.”

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    While FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, there is no evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities seeing the greatest influx of migrants, like New York. Studies have found that people living in the U.S. illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes.

    ___

    Find AP Fact Checks at https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • Hawley Torches New Secret Service Director After He Whines That His Agency Is Being ‘Unfairly Persecuted’ Over Trump Assassination Attempt

    Hawley Torches New Secret Service Director After He Whines That His Agency Is Being ‘Unfairly Persecuted’ Over Trump Assassination Attempt

    Screenshot: Senator Josh Hawley YouTube

    Senator Josh Hawley tore into Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe after his complaint that individuals within the agency are being “unfairly persecuted” over their handling of the assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald Trump.

    The tense exchange began with Hawley (R-MO) demanding accountability for the myriad failures that led to the attempt on Trump’s life, and the death and wounding of three other rallygoers in Butler, Pennsylvania.

    The senator focused on an individual at the Secret Service who chose to leave the AGR building, upon which the shooter set up camp and fired off eight rounds before being killed, outside the security perimeter.

    “Senator, you’re zeroing in on one particular agent, I want to find out exactly what was the decision process,” Rowe said.

    A determined Hawley suggested he was zeroing on one person in order to see somebody – anybody – held accountable for the agency allowing the shots to get off, but openly wondered why Rowe did not just “relieve everybody of duty who made bad judgment.”

    That’s when the heat got turned up a little bit.

    RELATED: Bodycam Footage Adds More Questions About Secret Service’s Awareness of Trump Assassination Threat: ‘This Is Him’

    Secret Service Director Under Fire

    Senator Hawley proceeded to run down various individuals who had made catastrophic decisions on the day the former President was almost murdered.

    He questioned if they had been fired. To nobody’s surprise, they have not, at this point, even been disciplined.

    “What more do you need to investigate to know that there were critical enough failures that some individuals ought to be held accountable?” an alarmed Hawley asked.

    Rowe replied that he didn’t want to make a “rush to judgment” – as we sit here nearly three weeks after the tragic incident.

    “Sir, this could have been our Texas Schoolbook Depository. I have lost sleep over that for the last 17 days, just like you have,” he continued, effectively shouting.

    “And I will tell you, senator, that I will not rush to judgment, that people will be held accountable with integrity, and not rush to judgment and [have] people unfairly persecuted.”

    Hawley slammed the remarks.

    “Unfairly persecuted?” he exclaimed. “We’ve got people who are dead!”

    RELATED: Secret Service Had Eyes On Suspicious Trump Shooter Hours Before He Took First Shot, Then Lost Him When He Went To Get His Rifle: Report

    Ted Cruz Takes A Turn At Bat

    Acting Director Ronald Rowe also insisted to Hawley that the Secret Service has been “very transparent and forthcoming.”

    “Your agency has NOT been transparent and forthcoming so please, let’s not go there,” the senator replied.

    Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) also took Rowe to task over the agency’s failures in stopping the assassination attempt and subsequent response. He insinuated politics had infected the Secret Service.

    “Secret Service agents are not political,” Rowe insisted.

    Cruz cited reports that the Secret Service denied requests for greater security from Trump’s team, and demanded to know the difference in team size compared to the sitting President.

    “What’s the difference? 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x?” the Texas Republican asked repeatedly, at one point shouting at Rowe to “stop interrupting me!”

    Rowe has only been on the job a few days, but things are not off to a good start.

    CNN Mocked For Touting ‘White Dudes For Harris’ Zoom Call Featuring Pete Buttigieg, David Hogg

    Rusty Weiss

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  • So Much for Unity: Mayor Eric Johnson Speaks at Republican Convention

    So Much for Unity: Mayor Eric Johnson Speaks at Republican Convention

    Near the beginning of the second night of the Republican National Convention, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice spoke on stage with his bulldog next to him while imploring viewers to vote for Donald Trump because, allegedly, the governor says, Trump taught his son Eric how to change a tire. It didn’t get much more entertaining from there, although Texans and Dallasites in particular had plenty of reason to keep watching. For the night’s theme of “Make America Safe Again” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz were welcomed to the main stage during the primetime keynote speeches for the biggest Lone Star flourish of the convention so far…

    Kelly Dearmore

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  • Ted Cruz Proposes Legislation That Would Make It Harder to Photograph Lawmakers Jetting Off to Cancún While Their Constituents Freeze to Death

    Ted Cruz Proposes Legislation That Would Make It Harder to Photograph Lawmakers Jetting Off to Cancún While Their Constituents Freeze to Death


    Remember, back in 2021, when Ted Cruz’s response to a Texas state of emergency—wherein millions of people had no heat or power and hundreds died—was to hop a plane to Cancún? Obviously, Cruz hadn’t issued a press release about his trip, which he’d clearly hoped would fly under the radar, and the only reason it came out was thanks to the work of the citizen journalists who spotted him in the airport and on the Mexico-bound plane and thought to whip out their cameras. Anyway, the whole thing made the Texas senator look really, really bad—and in the future, he’d like Congress to help make sure it never happens again.

    Politico reports that three years after Cancúngate, Cruz has proposed a legislation that “would offer lawmakers a dedicated security escort at airports, along with expedited screening outside of public view.” As the outlet notes, such measure “could make it much less likely that the politicians’ comings and goings would become fodder for embarrassing news reports and late-night comedy mockery.” The special treatment would also extend to Cabinet members, federal judges, and a small number of family and staff. Cruz is trying to include the legislation as an amendment to S. 1939, an aviation policy bill.

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    Asked about why such an amendment is necessary, Cruz told Politico that there are “serious security threats facing public officials” and that “it’s important that we take reasonable measures to keep everyone safe.” Kevin Murphy, executive director of the Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network, a group that represents airport police, told the outlet Cruz’s proposed amendment would be “a burden to airport police agencies,” and divert law enforcement from “crime suppression and security functions at airports, which is our fundamental duty.”

    In 2021, after his little jaunt went public, Cruz or someone on his team decided it wouldn’t look great for him to remain in Mexico, and he caught one of the next flights home. As NBC News reported at the time, the senator’s office reached out to the Houston Police Department and asked it to “assist him in his arrival and movements through Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.” Also, he tried to blame the whole thing on his daughters.

    Jim Jordan seems confused about Congress’s job

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    Bess Levin

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  • Hey Dallas: Are You Registered To Vote in the Primary? Here’s What You Should Know.

    Hey Dallas: Are You Registered To Vote in the Primary? Here’s What You Should Know.

    Voting in the general election is important: That’s been well established. But do you know what else is crucial? Hitting the polling place in the primaries.

    Primary elections are coming up fast in Texas, when voters will pick their party’s nominees in races for the state Legislature, Congress and the White House. Early voting doesn’t start until later this month, and Election Day is on March 5, but there’s another majorly important date that you’ll want to mark down in your calendars.

    Monday — yes, this coming Monday — is the last day to register to vote if you want to cast a ballot in the upcoming primaries.

    It’s also the final day for those who are already registered to update their name or address online if either has changed.

    But if heading to the polling place is a challenge, don’t worry: There’s an organization that can help get you there. Rideshare2Vote will deploy someone to pick you up, take you to the polling place and then drop you off back home. For free.

    Founder Sarah Kovich explained that there are three ways that folks can schedule their rides: They can download the app, fill out a web form or call 888-977-2250.

    “Once they are registered, our job is to schedule and get them a roundtrip ride to vote,” Kovich said.

    Here’s the skinny on registering to vote in the upcoming primary.

    How Do I Register to Vote?

    To register to vote in Dallas County, you can download and print an application in English, Spanish or Vietnamese before mailing it in. You can also do it in person by visiting the Dallas County Elections Department at 1520 Round Table Drive in Big D.

    If neither of those options work, call 469-627-8683 (VOTE) to request an application by phone or send an email to [email protected]. Another choice: Pick up an application from your local library, tax or other government office.

    If you mail in your application, by the way, it will need to have been postmarked by the Monday deadline.

    “It is a very powerful experience to go and vote, even if your vote loses.” – Sarah Kovich, Rideshare2Vote

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    Check to see if you’re already registered to vote by visiting the Texas Secretary of State’s website. Sadly, unlike 42 other states, you can’t sign up from the comfort of your computer.

    “What we would really like is for there to be online voter registration in Texas so that we can make it as easy as possible for every eligible citizen to be able to register and be able to vote,” Kovich said.

    Folks who are renewing their driver’s licenses online may register to vote at the same time; it’s Texas’ only exception to online registration. Kovich pointed out that those signing up for a license at the DMV can check a voter registration box during the process.

    Why Should I Vote in the Primaries?

    Primary elections allow voters to choose who they want to see represent their party in the general election. For instance, liberals can cast a ballot picking a Democratic challenger to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, such as U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio or state Rep. Carl Sherman of DeSoto.

    The way Kovich sees it, voting in the primaries demonstrates the strength of one’s conviction. It also gets people used to casting a ballot, just like they’ve (ostensibly) built the habit of going to the barber or dentist.

    “Research shows that once you show up, you kind of keep showing up,” Kovich said. “And I believe that that’s because it is a very powerful experience to go and vote, even if your vote loses.”

    Unfortunately, few would use the adjective “sexy” to describe voting, Kovich said, but it is the way that you can make your voice heard. And that’s empowering in and of itself. Those who want to experience the gratification of helping others participate in democracy can volunteer with Rideshare2Vote.

    Not every seat will have challengers in the primary, but there are plenty such races this time around. For example, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett will be tasked with defeating two other Democrats, and state Rep. Angie Chen Button, a Richardson Republican, will need to beat a conservative opponent.

    Oh, yeah, and then there’s the GOP primary for president. NBD.

    Kovich urges Texans to get out the vote this election: “People need to make sure that the person that they want on the ballot in November, that they vote for them in the primary.”





    Simone Carter

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