Texas Republicans Accused Of KIDNAPPING After Locking Democrat In Chambers

👉Grab your free seat to the 2Day AI Mastermind

🔐 100% Discount for the first 1000 people

The Republican-controlled Texas state legislature is effectively holding Democratic Representative Nicole Collier hostage by locking her in the building and refusing to let her leave unless she signs a form consenting to a police escort at all times. This being done to prevent Democrats from leaving the state to avoid letting Republicans hold a quorum and then forcing a vote on the new, gerrymandered district maps that Trump ordered the state to create. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.

Subscribe to stay connected to our stories

Support us by becoming a member on YouTube

Or Support us on Patreon

Buy Ring of Fire merch

Find us on social media!

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

The Republican controlled Texas state legislature has effectively engaged in what some are calling kidnapping by refusing to allow Democrats to even leave the chambers unless they sign a permission slip, saying that they agree to have a police escort with them at all times. This, of course, came after Democrats recently broke quorum to leave the state so that Republicans would not be able to pass their gerrymandered new mid, uh, decade districts. So Democrats did the smart thing and left, but now they've called another special session. Democrats are back and they refuse to give these Democrats the opportunity to not have to vote on whether or not to gerrymander themselves out of existence. One Democratic representative by the name of Nicole Collier refused to sign these permission slips, and so she has been basically captive in the chamber since Monday.

They literally locked her in the building so she couldn't leave. She is being held captive by these Republicans so that they can pass these grotesquely gerrymandered new districts at a time when they're not even supposed to be doing new districts. This is how insane everything in this godforsaken country has become at this point. This is where we're at Democrats being held hostage by Republicans so that the Republicans can continue their, you know, unconstitutional takeover of this entire country, utter insanity. But here is what Collier had to say about it. I refuse to sign, I will not agree to be in DPS custody. I'm not a criminal. I am exercising my right to resist and oppose the decisions of our government. So this is my form of protest. Then on Monday night, she filmed a video of herself in the Capitol, and she said this, my constituents sent me to Austin to protect their voices and rights. I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative, just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts. My community is majority minority, and they expect me to stand up for their representation. When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents, and I won't just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.

A powerful message from a powerful leader that is, of course, at risk of being gerrymandered out of her seat intentionally by these Texas Republicans. Now, something that needs to be discussed here. We of course, have seen Democratic governors led by Gavin Newsom threaten to do the same thing in response to what Republicans are doing in Texas. We have heard Donald Trump say that he has contacted at least five other states encouraging them to do the same kind of redistricting in their Republican controlled states so that Republicans can rule forever. And now we're in this sort of tick, ticky tack back and forth, whatever you wanna call it, situation, where everybody's just gonna start gerrymandering their states to hell and back so that the party that's currently in control can always be in control, a, a, a and this is not sustainable. Look, I I, I do fully wholeheartedly agree that Democrats need to retaliate, but I am also fully aware of what this will mean.