{"id":159434,"date":"2025-08-04T12:11:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/texas-governor-threatens-democrats-who-left-state-to-prevent-congressional-map-vote-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T12:11:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:11:57","slug":"texas-governor-threatens-democrats-who-left-state-to-prevent-congressional-map-vote-us-politics-live-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/texas-governor-threatens-democrats-who-left-state-to-prevent-congressional-map-vote-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas governor threatens Democrats who left state to prevent congressional map vote \u2013 US politics live – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Abbott says he will try to remove Democrats unless they return to allow vote to take place on redrawing the US House map to favour Republicans
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\u2019t return after dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn US House maps that president Donald Trump<\/a> wants before the 2026 midterm elections<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>-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\u2019s proceedings.
In a statement, Texas Democrats accused their counterparts, the Texas Republicans<\/a>, of a \u201ccowardly\u201d surrender to Trump\u2019s call for a redrawing of the congressional map to \u201ccontinue pushing his disastrous policies\u201d.
\u201cTexas Democratic lawmakers are halting Trump\u2019s plan by denying his bootlickers a quorum,\u201d the statement read.
The scheme to flee the state is reported to have been put together by the Illinois<\/a> 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<\/a> governor Abbott of withholding aid to victims of Guadalupe River flooding<\/a> last month in a bid to force the redistricting vote through.
\u201cWe\u2019re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,\u201d Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic caucus chair, said in a statement. \u201cWe will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander.\u201d
\u201cWe\u2019re not walking out on our responsibilities; we\u2019re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent,\u201d Wu added. \u201cAs of today, this corrupt special session is over.\u201d
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
US trade representative Jamieson Greer has defended the firing of labor statistics chief Erika McEntarfer. \u201cThe president is the president. He can choose who works in the executive branch,\u201d he said on Face the Nation.<\/strong> Greer was among a host of Trump administration officials who were deployed to defend Trump after a week of bruising economic numbers.
The US Senate<\/a> left Washington DC on Saturday night for its month-long August recess without a deal to advance dozens of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s nominees<\/strong>, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and the president taking to social media to tell Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> to \u201cGO TO HELL!\u201d
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<\/a> from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day.<\/strong> Lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that \u201cneither 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.\u201d
The US Senate<\/a> has confirmed Jeanine Pirro<\/a> \u2013 a former Fox News host and staunch Donald Trump ally who boosted lies that he lost the 2020 presidential race because of electoral fraudsters \u2013 as the top federal prosecutor for the nation\u2019s capital.<\/strong> Pirro \u2013 a former New York state district attorney and county judge who joined Fox News in 2011 \u2013 was confirmed on Saturday in a 50-45<\/a> vote along party lines.
The Smithsonian says it will restore Trump impeachment exhibits<\/a><\/strong> <\/a>in \u201ccoming weeks\u201d.
Donald Trump<\/strong> is at the White House today, per his schedule.
But it\u2019s a quiet day for the president. The only listed item on his agenda is lunch with the vice-president JD <\/strong>Vance, at 12:30pm EDT.
As Donald Trump\u2019s Department of Justice expands investigations of his foes and ousts dozens of lawyers and staff who worked on cases targeting himself and his allies, scholars and ex-prosecutors say the rule of law is under siege in the US as the department morphs into Trump\u2019s \u201cpersonal weapon\u201d.<\/strong>
The justice department\u2019s politicization to please Trump was underscored by an announcement on 23 July of a new \u201c strike force\u201d to investigate unsubstantiated charges that ex-president Barack Obama and top officials conspired to hurt Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign and his presidency with inquiries into Russian influence operations to help Trump win, say critics.
The announcement came the day after Trump dodged queries from reporters about the justice department\u2019s failure to produce long-promised files about the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and pivoted to blast Obama without evidence for \u201ctreason\u201d. Trump\u2019s conspiratorial charge echoed dubious claims by his national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, who days before called for a justice department inquiry into a purported \u201ctreasonous conspiracy\u201d.
Likewise, the FBI earlier in July announced investigations into the ex-FBI director James Comey and ex-CIA director John Brennan, which critics see as political efforts to placate Trump who has often voiced anger at them for their roles in the Russia investigations before and during his first term.
Legal scholars and ex-prosecutors say Trump and his loyal attorney general, Pam Bondi, have turned the justice department into his personal law firm to pursue his political and legal agendas.
\u201cIt\u2019s not unprecedented for presidents to deploy their powers for personal ends, but no one including Nixon has done this with the intensity of Trump,\u201d Peter Shane, who teaches constitutional law at New York University, told the Guardian.
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<\/a> from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day.<\/strong>
In May, reports from both the Guardian <\/a>and Axios<\/a> revealed that during a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) leaders on 21 May, the White House adviser Stephen Miller and the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, demanded that immigration agents seek to arrest 3,000 people per day.
Following that report, Miller appeared on Fox News <\/a>in late May and stated that \u201cunder President Trump\u2019s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for Ice every day.\u201d
He added that Trump \u201cis going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day\u201d.
However, in a court filing<\/a> on Friday, lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that \u201cneither 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.\u201d
The filing is part of an ongoing lawsuit in southern California, where immigrant advocacy groups have sued<\/a> the Trump administration, accusing it of conducting unconstitutional immigration sweeps in the Los Angeles area.
Donald Trump<\/a> administration officials fanned out on Sunday\u2019s US political shows to defend the president\u2019s policies after a bruising week of poor economic, trade and employment numbers that culminated with the firing<\/a> of labor statistics chief Erika McEntarfer.<\/strong>
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said Trump had \u201creal concerns\u201d about the jobs numbers that extend beyond Friday\u2019s report that showed the national economy added 73,000 jobs<\/a> in July, far below expectations. Job growth numbers were revised down by 285,000 for the two previous months as well.
On CBS News\u2019s Face the Nation, Greer defended<\/a> Trump\u2019s decision to fire McEntarfer, a respected statistician, saying: \u201cYou want to be able to have somewhat reliable numbers. There are always revisions, but sometimes you see these revisions go in really extreme ways.\u201d
He added: \u201cThe president is the president. He can choose who works in the executive branch.\u201d
But William Beach, who served as Trump\u2019s commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in his first presidency, warned that McEntarfer\u2019s dismissal would undermine confidence in the quality of US economic data.
The BLS gave no reason for the revised data but noted that \u201cmonthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors\u201d.
More than a dozen House Democrats have signed a letter pressing the Trump administration<\/a> to recognise a Palestinian state, with at least one lawmaker planning to introduce a pro-statehood resolution, Axios reported on Monday.<\/strong>
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Donald Trump has said he will dispatch his special envoy to Moscow this week before his Friday deadline for progress to be made on ending the war in Ukraine.<\/strong>
Trump said Steve Witkoff would visit Moscow on Wednesday or Thursday. When asked on Sunday what message Witkoff would take to Russia and what Vladimir Putin<\/a> could do to avoid new sanctions, the US president answered: \u201cYeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.\u201d
In Kyiv, there is little expectation that Witkoff will make a breakthrough with Putin, but a hope that Trump\u2019s changed rhetoric and tougher stance on Moscow may lead to a real change in US support for Ukraine<\/a>.
Trump came into office convinced he could do a deal with Putin, but in recent weeks appears to have become increasingly frustrated with Russian actions. On Thursday he described Russia\u2019s continued attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine as \u201cdisgusting\u201d and on Sunday said that two nuclear submarines that he ordered to be deployed after online threats from the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev<\/a> were now \u201cin the region\u201d, without giving further details.
Trump had initially announced in July a 50-day deadline for Russia<\/a> and Ukraine to end the war, but said last week he said he no longer believed Russia was serious about ending the war and shortened it to \u201c10 or 12\u201d days, later clarified as this Friday, 8 August.
Trump has previously said the new measures he has in mind if the deadline is not met could involve \u201csecondary tariffs\u201d targeting Russia\u2019s remaining trade partners, such as China and India.
President Donald Trump<\/a> on Sunday said some Americans could get some kind of dividend or distribution of money as a result of tariffs being imposed on US trading partners.<\/strong>
\u201cThere could be a distribution or a dividend to the people of our country, I would say for people that would be middle income people and lower income people, we could do a dividend,\u201d Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One after leaving his golf club in New Jersey.
President Donald Trump<\/a> on Sunday lashed out at radio host Charlamagne Tha God, saying in a social media post that the popular broadcaster \u201cknows nothing about me or what I have done.\u201d<\/strong>
Trump\u2019s comments came a day after Charlamagne, whose real name is Lenard McKelvey, criticized Trump on the Fox News show \u201cMy View with Lara Trump.\u201d The show is hosted by the president\u2019s daughter-in-law, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Asked how he would rate Trump\u2019s presidency, the radio host said, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t give it a good rating simply because the least of us are still being impacted the worst.\u201d
Trump said on Truth Social that Charlamagne was a \u201cdope\u201d who voted for Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris.
Charlamagne said he personally will benefit from tax breaks approved in Trump\u2019s tax-and-spending law, but said, \u201cThere\u2019s going to be so many people that\u2019s hurt by that bill.\u201d
\u201cAnything that takes away Medicaid from people and will put people in a worse financial situation than they were previously in, I\u2019m not for,\u201d he added.
Charlamagne also predicted that \u201ctraditional conservatives\u201d are going to take back the Republican Party from Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again movement, citing controversy over Trump\u2019s refusal to release files related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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\u2019t return after dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn US House maps that president Donald Trump<\/a> wants before the 2026 midterm elections<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>-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\u2019s proceedings.
In a statement, Texas Democrats accused their counterparts, the Texas Republicans<\/a>, of a \u201ccowardly\u201d surrender to Trump\u2019s call for a redrawing of the congressional map to \u201ccontinue pushing his disastrous policies\u201d.
\u201cTexas Democratic lawmakers are halting Trump\u2019s plan by denying his bootlickers a quorum,\u201d the statement read.
The scheme to flee the state is reported to have been put together by the Illinois<\/a> 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<\/a> governor Abbott of withholding aid to victims of Guadalupe River flooding<\/a> last month in a bid to force the redistricting vote through.
\u201cWe\u2019re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,\u201d Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic caucus chair, said in a statement. \u201cWe will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander.\u201d
\u201cWe\u2019re not walking out on our responsibilities; we\u2019re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent,\u201d Wu added. \u201cAs of today, this corrupt special session is over.\u201d
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
US trade representative Jamieson Greer has defended the firing of labor statistics chief Erika McEntarfer. \u201cThe president is the president. He can choose who works in the executive branch,\u201d he said on Face the Nation.<\/strong> Greer was among a host of Trump administration officials who were deployed to defend Trump after a week of bruising economic numbers.
The US Senate<\/a> left Washington DC on Saturday night for its month-long August recess without a deal to advance dozens of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s nominees<\/strong>, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and the president taking to social media to tell Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> to \u201cGO TO HELL!\u201d
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<\/a> from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day.<\/strong> Lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that \u201cneither 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.\u201d
The US Senate<\/a> has confirmed Jeanine Pirro<\/a> \u2013 a former Fox News host and staunch Donald Trump ally who boosted lies that he lost the 2020 presidential race because of electoral fraudsters \u2013 as the top federal prosecutor for the nation\u2019s capital.<\/strong> Pirro \u2013 a former New York state district attorney and county judge who joined Fox News in 2011 \u2013 was confirmed on Saturday in a 50-45<\/a> vote along party lines.
The Smithsonian says it will restore Trump impeachment exhibits<\/a><\/strong> <\/a>in \u201ccoming weeks\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Greg Abbott says he will try to remove Democrats unless they return to allow vote to take place on redrawing the US House map to favour RepublicansHello 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}