Texas: The Issue Is - Rep. Frederick Fraizer discusses latest happenings in Texas Legislature
It was a drama filled week in Austin, and it appears things aren’t done yet.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was impeached and a trial in the Senate will be in the next couple of months.
Meanwhile, the feud between House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is already impacting the special session.
FOX 4’s Steven Dial went one-on-one with McKinney Republican Rep. Frederick Fraizer.
Dial: How would you describe the last two weeks in Austin.
Rep. Frazier: The last two weeks is like waking up every day asking yourself, what did I get myself into? And then trying to figure out what could happen next…I will tell you, [voting to impeach AG Paxton] was the hardest vote I've had to make of all session. Not only was the hardest vote, it was the most heartfelt vote because you're making a vote that is moving something into a direction, that you have a feeling where it's going to go, but you need to do it in the right manners and you have to make sure that the consequences of what you're doing are making those decisions, of making that decision, is what the district or what somebody in your position should do.
Dial: Sixty Republicans and 61 Democrats voted for this. That was a supermajority. It wasn't like a handful of Republicans joined Democrats and saying there's enough there. What do you make of when you come back and hear your county GOP chair and others say that now they want you and your colleagues voted out. I mean, the entire Collin County delegation, in Ken Paxton’s home county, voted for this.
Rep. Frazier: There will be a trial and there will be the facts come out, and you yourself should judge from what you read or hear from these facts. No different than what you heard from the articles of why we were getting to this position, of what was happening in that office. I can't stand for that, my moral compass will not let me do that. And I'm sorry, but that's where I draw the line. When I was listening to those reading those facts and going through the entire transcript of everything that we got to view, I said, there's enough here, in my mind, that there's enough here to move this to the next step. So, I think that they need to do the same thing. They need to understand this is a position no one else put us in but the AG. No one else put us in this position but that office, and those whistleblowers who came forward who tried to tell what was going on and who have been smeared and smeared and smeared and not been able to get heard, at some point, aren’t we the people supposed to give them the right to for their due process. Aren't we the people supposed to make sure that those folks who were actually right, if they were, get their day in court? So that's where this comes out for me. Because what if they all victims? What if everything is right on this? And what if what if half of it is? I mean, what if a little bit. I mean, you can go with what ifs all they want, but there was enough evidence here to push this to the next step. And that's where we come in as a house to push this to the next step.
Dial: What do you make of this speaker/lieutenant governor feud, or is it more of a just the House not agreeing with the Senate and the two front guys are the ones that's basically stealing the show on this?
Rep. Frazier: When you come back to the speaker and lieutenant governor, there's a lot of personalities there, and then it becomes a lot of what goes on with the party. The party makes a lot of those decisions when they want to pick on the speaker, and they use the speaker as a kind of a punching bag. And whether it's the, you know, the crazy tweets or the, you know, the mimicking him, I will say this. I as much as I know about the speaker and the other speakers that have been there, he's been absolutely fair to let everything ride and let everything work it out. Whether it's the way we do our point orders and all of our rules. He's been completely separate from that. I've never seen him meddling with any of the stuff that folks always say he's meddling with. And I get to see that firsthand. And I know how strong Dan Patrick is on the other side. He rules that with his own way. And so they both have two different personalities. Dade kind of lets his guys run his stuff over there. And Patrick kind of runs his stuff solely by his own throne over there. So they've got two personalities and those two personalities of conflict.
Dial: There are things that Republicans agree on, but you guys aren't agreeing. So how will anything pass? I mean, property tax. Dan Patrick has tweeting of the storm saying, you know, we're doing things the right way. You guys are saying y'all are doing things the right way. So how does it pass?
Rep. Frazier: I think, you know, the governor is going to have to put them back in a room like he did first and get them to make that agreement. There's always a middle ground, right. You know what they say in this business? In every business, if both parties think they got screwed, there's probably the best bill they have out there. And I think the best bill is a combination of both things that the House wants and what the what the Senate wants. That combination. There's enough money there. I know the compression has to be there.