Texas governor threatens Democrats who left state to prevent congressional map vote – US politics live | Republicans
Texas governor threatens to remove Democrats who left state over Trump-backed redistricting
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott has said he will begin trying to remove Democratic lawmakers from office on Monday if they don’t return after dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn US House maps that president Donald Trump wants before the 2026 midterm elections.
The revolt by the state House Democrats, many of whom went to Illinois or New York on Sunday, and Abbott giving them less than 24 hours to come home ratcheted up a widening fight over congressional maps, Associated Press reported.
The planned vote on Monday could see five new Republican-leaning seats created in the House of Representatives. The move by the Democrats threatens to thwart Republican efforts by denying them a quorum, or the minimum number of members to validate the vote’s proceedings.
In a statement, Texas Democrats accused their counterparts, the Texas Republicans, of a “cowardly” surrender to Trump’s call for a redrawing of the congressional map to “continue pushing his disastrous policies”.
“Texas Democratic lawmakers are halting Trump’s plan by denying his bootlickers a quorum,” the statement read.
The scheme to flee the state is reported to have been put together by the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, who met with the Texas Democratic caucus late last month and has directed staff to provide logistical support for their stay.
The Texas group has accused governor Abbott of withholding aid to victims of Guadalupe River flooding last month in a bid to force the redistricting vote through.
“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic caucus chair, said in a statement. “We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander.”
“We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent,” Wu added. “As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
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US trade representative Jamieson Greer has defended the firing of labor statistics chief Erika McEntarfer. “The president is the president. He can choose who works in the executive branch,” he said on Face the Nation. Greer was among a host of Trump administration officials who were deployed to defend Trump after a week of bruising economic numbers.
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The US Senate left Washington DC on Saturday night for its month-long August recess without a deal to advance dozens of Donald Trump’s nominees, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and the president taking to social media to tell Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!”
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In a new court filing, attorneys for the Trump administration denied the existence of a daily quota for immigration arrests, despite reports and prior statements from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day. Lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that “neither Ice leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that Ice or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law.”
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The US Senate has confirmed Jeanine Pirro – a former Fox News host and staunch Donald Trump ally who boosted lies that he lost the 2020 presidential race because of electoral fraudsters – as the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital. Pirro – a former New York state district attorney and county judge who joined Fox News in 2011 – was confirmed on Saturday in a 50-45 vote along party lines.
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The Smithsonian says it will restore Trump impeachment exhibits in “coming weeks”.
Key events
California congressman to introduce redistricting legislation
Republican representative Kevin Kiley plans to introduction a bill that would prevent mid-decade redistricting across the country.
It’s in response to the push from California governor Gavin Newsom to redraw the state map to counter the ensuing redistricting battle in Texas.
California currently has a special commission that oversees the congressional map, so Newsom would need California voters to reinstate the legislature with those powers.
In a statement announcing his proposed legislation, Kiley called Newson’s plans “a brazen scheme” that will “undo the will of voters, and return line-drawing power to himself and other partisan politicians”.
Given the president’s pressure for Texas lawmakers to pass the newly proposed congressional map early, it’s unlikely that the bill will get much, if any, support in the House.
Some tourists and business travelers may face up to $15,000 bond to enter US
Michael Sainato
The US state department has prepared plans to impose bonds as high as $15,000 for some tourism and business visas, according to a draft of a temporary final rule.
The bonds would be issued to visitors from countries with significant overstay rates, under a 12-month pilot program.
It renews an initiative issued by the first Trump administration in November 2020, the month that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the presidential election. That rule would have required a $15,000 bond for tourist and business travelers from two dozen countries with 10% or higher overstay rates, mostly in Africa.
The new federal registry notice of the visa bond pilot program is scheduled to be published on 5 August.
“The Pilot Program will enable the Department to assess the operational feasibility of posting, processing, and discharging visa bonds, in coordination with the Department of the Treasury (‘Treasury’) and the Department of Homeland Security (‘DHS’), and to inform any future decision concerning the possible use of visa bonds to ensure nonimmigrants using these visa categories comply with the terms and conditions of their visas and timely depart the United States,” it states.
It said it would announce the countries in question at the “Travel.State.Gov” website no fewer than 15 days before the pilot program takes effect. It also said the list might change, again with 15 days’ notice.
Tourists and business travelers would receive their bonds back when they depart the US, are naturalized as a citizen or die, according to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement regulations.
The original six-month pilot program was never implemented.
The Trump administration has cracked down on immigration to the US, including terminating temporary protected status for many people living in the US, and banning immigration visas outright for 12 countries.
The state department last month also unveiled new guidance directing US diplomats to review the online activity of foreign students before issuing educational and exchange visas. Students who refuse to unlock their social media profiles will be suspected of hiding the activity from US officials.
The Pentagon said that the under secretary for research and engineering has directed a reduction in personnel within the defense technology information center, Reuters reports.
The move will save taxpayers more than $25m and 40 “mission-essential personnel” will be retained, the Pentagon said in a statement. It did not elaborate on the reduction.
Illinois governor says Texas Democrats who left will be protected amid arrest threats
Anna Betts
The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, has vowed to protect the Democratic members of the Texas house of representatives who left the state in an attempt to block Republican efforts to redraw Texas’s congressional maps.
“We’re going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that – ’cause we know they’re doing the right thing, we know that they’re following the law,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Sunday in Illinois alongside some of the the Texas Democratic lawmakers.
The Texas Democrats fled the state on Sunday in an effort to prevent the Texas house from reaching the quorum on Monday needed to vote on a newly proposed congressional map.
In response to the Democrats’ actions, Greg Abbott, the Republican Texas governor, threatened to expel the Texas Democrats from the state house if they do not return by Monday at 3pm CT – when the legislature is set to resume. Ken Paxton, Texas’s Republican attorney general, also condemned their actions on Sunday and threatened their arrest.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he said in a statement. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”
But Pritzker, who said he will support the Texas Democrats, described their actions as “a righteous act of courage”, saying that they “were left no choice but to leave their home state, block a vote from taking place, and protect their constituents”.
Hundreds of ex-Israeli security officials urge Trump to help end war in Gaza
William Christou
Some 600 former Israeli security officials, including previous heads of the Mossad and the military, have urged Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza as the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, considers expanding his assault.
In an open letter, the former officials said an end to the war was the only way to save hostages still held by Hamas.
“Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer prime minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: end the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering,” they wrote.
They added that they thought Hamas no longer posed a strategic threat to Israel.
An expansion of the war would be contrary to what Trump’s Middle East envoy told the families of hostages over the weekend was the US position. Steve Witkoff said Washington was backing a comprehensive end to the Gaza war that would bring hostages home and assured the families that would not mean more fighting.
Any expansion of the conflict would risk worsening the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. A UN-affiliated humanitarian body said the territory was experiencing famine, as the approximate 2.1 million people who live there experience mass starvation.
Marjorie Taylor Greene suggests she may abandon the Republican party
Joseph Gedeon
Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most prominent voices in Donald Trump’s Maga movement, has declared in an interview that she feels that the Republican party has lost touch with its base, and suggested she may abandon the party entirely.
The Georgia congresswoman told the Daily Mail this week she was questioning whether she still belongs in the Republican fold and expressed resounding frustration with GOP leadership. She said:
I don’t know if the Republican party is leaving me, or if I’m kind of not relating to Republican party as much any more. I don’t know which one it is.
Greene, who boasts 7.5 million followers on X and commands one of the largest social media audiences of any Republican woman, accused party leaders of betraying core conservative principles.
She did not criticize Trump himself, instead preferring to express her ire for what she attempted to paint as political elites.
“I think the Republican party has turned its back on America First and the workers and just regular Americans,” she said, warning that GOP leadership was reverting to its “neocon” past under the influence of what she termed the “good ole boys” network.
In the roughly six-month mark following Trump’s return to the White House, Greene said she was particularly frustrated with the House speaker, Mike Johnson, saying: “I’m not afraid of Mike Johnson at all.”
On Monday, Greene, 51, used social media to criticize the lack of accountability over what she deems key issues to the base, sharing a table showing no arrests for the “Russian Collusion Hoax”, “Jan 6th”, and “2020 Election”.
“Like what happened all those issues? You know that I don’t know what the hell happened with the Republican Party. I really don’t,” she said in the interview. “But I’ll tell you one thing, the course that it’s on, I don’t want to have anything to do with it, and I just don’t care any more.”
Her recent bills have targeted unconventional Republican territory: preventing cloud-seeding, making English the official US language, and cutting capital gains taxes on homes. She is also the first Republican in Congress to label the crisis in Gaza a genocide, and has called for ending foreign aid and using the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to cut down fraud and waste in the government.
Greene acknowledged her isolation within the party, saying: “I’m going alone right now on the issues that I’m speaking about.”
Richard Luscombe
A Doge-style audit launched by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis into Democratic-run cities and counties he accuses of wasteful spending could soon be known by an offensive new name: FAFO, universally known as a meme for the phrase “fuck around and find out”.
In a post to X on Monday, DeSantis said the acronym – which he claims actually stands for a Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight he has yet to formally commission, had “a nice ring to it” and that he “might need to work up an executive order and make it official”.
Under the guise of ensuring “transparency and accountability” in local government, DeSantis sent audit teams last week into the city of Gainesville, and Broward county, two pockets of Democratic strength in a largely Republican state.
It is part of a wider initiative the governor trumpeted earlier this year to replicate Elon Musk’s Doge (the so-called “department of government efficiency”) efforts at state level in support of his ambitious longer-term goal of eliminating property taxes.
Taking credit for the FAFO handle is Florida’s new chief financial officer Blaise Ingoglia, a staunch DeSantis ally whose X profile includes the words “If you’re looking for snark, you’ve found it.”
He posted on Monday an assertion that he got “a rave reception” when he rolled out the new nickname at a party event over the weekend.
Trump promises increased India tariffs over Russian oil purchases
The president has said that India will be subject to a tariff hike for not only “buying massive amounts of Russian oil” but “selling it on the open market for big profits”. He announced his decision on Truth Social, saying that India does not care “how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine”. It’s unclear what the levy increase will be.
Trump already hit India with a 25% tariff last week, citing the country’s substantial purchasing of Russian oil as part of the penalty.
Nancy Mace launches Governor bid
South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace has officially entered governor’s race for the Palmetto state.
In a video announcement posted on social media, Mace, 47, positions herself as a conservative “firebrand” and a “fighter”. She also cites her credentials as the first woman to graduate from South Carolina’s “The Citadel”– one of the country’s oldest military colleges.
In her first two terms in office, Mace was a vocal Trump adversary. In 2021, she was one of seven House Republicans who signed a letter that said Congress did not have the authority to overturn the 2020 election results. She also heavily criticised the president’s role in the Capitol attacks on 6 January 2021. Notably, Mace did not vote to impeach him for inciting an insurrection.
Throughout her third term in Congress, Mace has now become a key Trump ally. She’s waged some of the president’s key battles in the culture war – including a resolution prohibiting trans women using bathrooms that align with their gender identity at the US Capitol. Mace confirmed this was to target incoming freshman Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware.
Mace is entering an already crowded primary for gubernatorial race in South Carolina. While the incumbent, Henry McMaster, is unable to seek a third term, Mace will be facing off against Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general.
In a lengthy floor speech earlier this year, Mace called out Wilson for failing to prosecute four men, including her ex-fiancé, who she accuses of rape and sex-trafficking.
Governor Hochul confirms that she hasn’t and won’t spend any money housing the Texas lawmakers in New York City.
She added that the Democrats who did flee will probably face exorbitant legal fees, as well as highlighting the daily fine of $500 for not appearing during the legislative session without permission.
The delegation of Texas lawmakers present today did not confirm where they would be travelling to next, but did say they “won’t be going back to Texas”.
‘This doesn’t stop with Texas’ says Democratic state lawmaker
Representative Mihaela Plesa, vice-chair of the House Democratic caucus, says that the redistricting battle in Texas goes beyonds the state’s borders:
If Trump and Abbott succeed, it will give them five seats. But then where else do they go? Ohio, Missouri, any other Republican legislature with Democratic Congress people. They’re on the chopping block too.
Governor Hochul calls the Texas Democrats who left the state to trigger a quorum break “profiles in courage”.
She adds that they’re “on the right side of history” and this redistricting fight is a “war”.
Texas Democrats who fled the state are now holding a press conference with New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
Hochul kicks off her remarks:
Americans don’t want a system that’s stacked against them. They believe in fairness, it’s fundamental. I’ll tell you this. They’re done with the chaos, they’re done with the cruelty. And I would say they’re ready to vote Republicans out of power in Washington, certainly in the upcoming 2026 elections.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has made an unannounced visit to Israel, per the minister of defense’s post on X.
Johnson was joined by a delegation of House Republicans. Axios reports that this was a trip organised by a pro-Israel advocacy group, and that Johnson made a stop at a settlement on the occupied West Bank.
This comes after Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, travelled to Gaza on Friday to assess the food and aid situation after several reports of worsening starvation in the region.
On Sunday, the president addressed reporters’ questions about Witkoff’s visit. “We’re putting up money to get people fed,” he said. “We don’t want people to starve.”
Trump doubles down on ‘rigged’ jobs numbers claims
Just a short while ago, the president took to Truth Social to repeat his claim that last week’s jobs report was “rigged” and the overall conduct of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is “in favor of the Radical Left Democrats”.
He added that “the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!!”
The administration has provided no evidence that McEntarfer’s conduct was in any way political, or that the recent jobs numbers were manipulated.
In an interview with CNN’s Audie Cornish, the Texas Democratic party chair Kendall Scudder urged Democrats to “stop trying to be the only adults in the room”.
He added that the GOP’s new congressional map should be a “signal flare” for blue states to “start carving up their own seats”.
Scudder said that this weekend’s action by Texas Democrats is part of an effort to hold state Republicans “accountable for their actions”:
The reality is, no Democrat is sitting around itching and waiting for a quorum break. But this is what has to be done to make sure we’re preserving democracy.
‘Come and take it,’ say Texas Democrats
In response to Governor Greg Abbott threatening to arrest and expel any Texas legislators who refuse to return to the state capitol by 3pm local time on Monday, the Texas House Democratic Caucus issued a short and simple statement: “Come and take it.”
Governor Abbott however, has also said that Texas Democrats “may have committed felonies” by asking for donations to help pay for fines that they incur by fleeing the state. House rules in Texas state that lawmakers rack up a $500-a-day fine for each day they are absent without permission during a legislative session.
