Gene Wu, Texas Democratic House Minority Leader, defends fleeing Texas to stop gerrymandering at a press briefing with Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) in Chicago, Illinois.
00:00...leader in Texas, and the leader of the Democrats in the Texas House.
00:07We're not here to have fun.
00:13We're not here because this is easy, and we did not make a decision to come here today.
00:22We did not make a decision lightly.
00:24But we come here today with absolute moral clarity.
00:30That this is absolutely the right thing to do to protect the people of the state of Texas.
00:36For the last few weeks, Texas families have been burying their loved ones who were killed in the very preventable tragedy that occurred in Central Texas.
00:54Over 100 Texans died, many of them very young souls.
01:00And all Texans across the state have asked for is that the legislature focus and spend its time taking care of the families who are grieving
01:12and helping the communities who are recovering to accomplish their goals.
01:18Instead, Governor Abbott has used this tragedy, taken these families who are grieving, taken these communities who are struggling to recover,
01:31and used them as hostages in a political game.
01:38It's been two weeks.
01:40They don't even have a bill filed to deal with what they promised to deal with.
01:45And instead, they have spent their entire time playing dirty political games that only help themselves.
01:55And what is even worse, their attempts to do this, their attempts to disenfranchise Texans is being, the tool they're using is a racist gerrymandered map.
02:15A map that seeks to use racial lines to divide hardworking communities who have spent decades building up their power and strengthening their voices.
02:30And Governor Abbott is doing this in submission to Donald Trump so that Donald Trump could steal these communities' power and voice.
02:45We will not be complicit in the destruction of any communities in Texas.
03:02We will hold people accountable and we will defend our state to the absolute best of our abilities.
03:10We're not here to play political games.
03:18We're here to demand, to demand an end to this corrupt process.
03:27We ask them to stop hiding things from the public.
03:32We ask them to stop doing things behind closed doors.
03:37We ask them to stop attacking Texas communities.
03:40They refuse because their loyalty and fealty to Donald Trump overrides all other interests.
03:55We have been a part of this corruption for too long.
03:59And we have seen it too many times where Republican leaders promise our communities that they will protect our families and do what is necessary.
04:11But time and time again, they say pretty words and then take care of themselves.
04:17Well, today, today, today, today, this corruption ends.
04:25Today, today, the people of the state of Texas have said enough.
04:36Enough of your games, enough of your lies.
04:42Today, the corruption of Donald Trump and Greg Abbott.
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