Texas Democrats, having fled their state in order to prevent the legislature from assembling a quorum and thus considering election reforms, broke into song as they spoke to reporters on Tuesday, singing (if one could legitimately call it that), “We will overcome. We will overcome. We will overcome. Someday. Deep in our hearts, I do believe, we shall overcome someday.”
Texas House Democrats just broke into song during a press conference on Capitol Hill. pic.twitter.com/h9lMfa4tHN
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 13, 2021
Apparently the Democrats wanted to liken their fleeing from Texas and their defiance of the Texas legislature as something in the manner of the civil rights movement, as the song “We Shall Overcome” has been regarded as an anthem of that movement.
Texas Democrat Rep. Lloyd Doggett effused, “These courageous colleagues chose not to be accomplices by sitting at their desks and being steamrollered in Austin. It took courage to do what they’re doing.” He snapped, “No matter what they do, Greg Abbott and his group of extremists will never change.”
As The Daily Wire reported on Monday, “At least 51 of 67 House lawmakers boarded chartered flights to Washington, D.C., to protest in support of the For The People Act, which would shift much authority over election processes from the states to the federal government. The walkout comes after Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a special session of Congress to focus on legislative priorities such as election reforms that were blocked when Democrats broke quorum earlier this year.”
Abbott first reacted by stating, “Texas Democrats’ decision to break a quorum of the Texas Legislature and abandon the Texas State Capitol inflicts harm on the very Texans who elected them to serve. As they fly across the country on cushy private planes, they leave undone issues that can help their districts and our state. The Democrats must put aside partisan political games and get back to the job they were elected to do. Their constituents must not be denied these important resources simply because their elected representative refused to show up to work.”
Later Monday night, Abbott stated on Fox News, “Isn’t that the most un-Texan thing you’ve ever heard? Texans running from a fight? They’re quitters. It’s like during a football game or baseball game, taking their equipment when they’re way behind and just leaving the field. That is not the way that Texas, Texans do things.”
“What the law is, it’s in the Constitution, and that is the house, the State House of Representatives who were here in the Capitol in Austin right now, they do have the ability to issue a call to have their fellow members who are not showing up to be arrested, but only so long as that arrest is made in the state of Texas,” Abbott added. “That’s why they have fled the state. Once they step back into the state of Texas, they will be arrested and brought to the Texas Capitol, and we will be conducting business.”