AUSTIN, TEXAS — Today, Texas House Republicans, led by Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park), cowardly hid behind a procedural motion to prevent a vote on an amendment that would have blocked Trump's discriminatory redistricting scheme until the complete release of the Epstein files. Rather than allowing Texans to see which representatives stand with victims of child sex abuse and which stand with human traffickers, Texas Republicans engineered a point of order — predictably upheld by the Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) — to kill the amendment without having to publicly vote on it.
Minority Leader Gene Wu will address Republicans’ failure for Texans during his closing statements which can be watched live and will be happening shortly.
“It’s genuinely shocking — for years, these same Republicans have claimed to support releasing the Epstein files, but when given the chance to do what 80% of Americans want, they chickened out,” said Texas House of Representatives Minority Leader Gene Wu. “They couldn’t even face the people of Texas and have a debate. Today they showed everyone: they stopped caring about protecting children from sexual violence the minute they found out Donald Trump’s name is all over those files.”
The amendment would have created a simple choice for Republicans: pass the racist maps Trump desperately wants, but force him to release the Epstein files that include evidence of his own involvement with a notorious child sex trafficker; or continue helping Trump silence Epstein's victims by sending more of his allies to Congress and hide the truth from the American people. By using a procedural trick to avoid this vote, Texas Republicans mirrored the tactics of their Washington counterparts, who recently shut down Congress solely to prevent a vote on the same issue.
Recent reporting has confirmed Trump's extensive ties to Epstein, including numerous social events, flights on Epstein's private jet, and Trump's own admission that Epstein liked women "on the younger side." Trump has repeatedly lied about the extent of his relationship with Epstein, hung up on reporters who question him about it, and pressured his allies in Congress to block the release of documents.
“Texas House Republicans used a procedural trick today to protect Trump and his rich friends rather than expose the truth about his connections to a child sex trafficking ring,” added Minority Leader Wu. “When Republicans talk about ‘family values,’ remember that their only value is protecting Donald Trump. We all know Trump is desperately afraid of what’s in the Epstein files, and now we see Texas Republicans are willing to be complicit in the coverup.”