by John Solomon
Two months after crushing a rushed effort to impeach him, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is plotting a dual tsunami designed to politically punish those in the Legislature who tried to remove him from office while putting Google, President Joe Biden and other liberal foes into his legal crosshairs.
During a wide-ranging interview Friday night on the Just the News, No Noise television show, Paxton outlined his ambitious plans and made clear the impeachment travails he survived have only increased his resolve to reshape politics and the law in Texas. And he thinks GOP voters in the state are motivated to join the fight.
“We are fortunate that we have so many people that have been motivated by what happened this last (legislative) session, where they didn’t pass border security, where they didn’t pass school choice, where they didn’t do as much on property tax to get the reductions that it should have. And then they impeach me in the last couple of days of the session without any notice, without any involvement, without any transparency. And I think the voters are upset about this,” Paxton said.
Paxton (pictured above) hopes to ride the wave of discontent to unseat state House Republicans he believes side too often with Democrats, starting with Speaker Dade Phelan, who authorized his impeachment. The attorney general is backing a slate of GOP challengers in the next primaries.
“It’s been too long in Texas, where the Texas House actually answered to the voters,” he said. “…People are running all over Texas to defeat some of these House members that have supported Dade. And by the way, he’s got several opponents. And I think there’s a very good chance that we’re going to win these elections, a lot of them.”
Paxton is extending his political movement beyond the Legislature, hoping also to unseat three state appellate judges on a court that ruled he no longer has the power as attorney general to prosecute election integrity crimes.
“I can’t represent the state prosecuting voter fraud, and therefore, the local DAs, who have been elected in the big cities, have been elected by George Soros, are not going to prosecute voter fraud, which leaves us exposed for every election going forward,” he said. “So we are running three people against the current court of appeals, trying to unseat them so that we can retain power over our elections.”
Paxton also is itching to proceed in a landmark Big Tech antitrust case after winning a judgment in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to keep his lawsuit against Google in Texas rather than New York, where the search giant has tried to move it. He views the case as an opportunity to create competition and choices for consumers who he believes have been hurt by Google’s domination of the digital ad and app markets.
“The case is going to move a lot faster,” the attorney general said. “We hope to hold Google accountable for basically controlling the advertising market on the internet. They control about 97% of it. They crush their competition in all kinds of ways, either by buying them up or doing things that we would consider illegal. … So we’re trying to free the American public so that they have a choice when it comes to the internet, on how they advertise.”
Paxton also signaled he expects to fight in the courts again soon on the issue of whether states have the right to arrest illegal border crossers when the federal government doesn’t. The Supreme Court a few years ago in a case called Arizona v. United States ruled against the states having such powers.
But the Texas Legislature just passed legislation making illegal border crossing a state crime. Paxton praised the Legislature, and said he expects the new law could soon land him in the courts again.
“Arizona tried to protect themselves. And the court came down, the Supreme Court came down and said they couldn’t do it. That law, that case cannot be right. And so we need the ability to prosecute these people as they come across the border,” he explained.
Paxton has continued to align himself with former President Donald Trump, recently helping the 45th president secure his nomination papers in Texas for the 2024 election.
He also has sued President Joe Biden more than four dozen times, scoring many wins. He predicts the insecure border will be a winning issue in the courts and next year’s election for conservatives.
“Before Biden came into office, we were in the best shape we’ve been in my lifetime,” he said. “And I can remember President Trump pushing to build the border wall, with him putting the Remain in Mexico policy in place, him using Title 42, and using all the resources of federal law to prevent illegal immigration. And as soon as Biden came in, Day One, he announced that we would not be deporting anybody.
“And we’ve been in the middle of litigation with him ever since, as he’s dismantled every good thing that President Trump did when he was in office.”
– – –
John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist, author and digital media entrepreneur who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Just the News. Before founding Just the News, Solomon played key reporting and executive roles at some of America’s most important journalism institutions, such as The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Newsweek, The Daily Beast and The Hill.
