Donald Trump won Texas handily in the 2020 election. Nonetheless, the ex-president made an out-of-the-blue request Last week for four of the largest counties in the state to have the results recounted like the Arizona ‘audit,’ which showed Trump losing by more votes than the initial result, but whatever.
“Despite my big win in Texas, I hear Texans want an election audit!” Trump wrote in a public letter addressed to Abbott on Thursday. “Texas needs you to act now. Your Third Special Session is the perfect, and maybe last, opportunity to pass this audit bill. Time is running out.”
According to reports from Politico, a mad dash ensued. Whatever Trump wanted, Trump got. A bill was introduced, HB16.
Governor Greg Abbott said on Fox News that an actually an audit had begun months ago. This was news to the four counties in question. Politico writes:
But in reports from both the Texas Tribune and CNN, local officials in counties targeted by the “audit” said they had not learned of the review until Thursday’s statement from the secretary of state’s office.
And behind the scenes, the Texas governor’s office was caught off guard by Trump, whose letter made no mention of “audits” already underway. There had not been contact between Trump and Abbott ahead of the release, and Abbott’s office was uncertain if they could meet Trump’s demands to pass HB16 without complicating the legislative agenda. One Texas political aide familiar with how the process played out said, “The secretary of state‘s decision to call for audits in the four largest counties in Texas was predicated on Trump’s statement mentioning Gov. Abbott.”
In a blistering editorial, the Houston Chronicle (paywall) writes:
Working to transform Texas into a laboratory of authoritarianism in service to his political future, the governor has attacked voting rights (particularly in the state’s big counties); he’s pushed to make it possible for every Texan to pack heat, with no licensing or training; he’s defended the most stringent anti-abortion legislation in the country, relying on a slick scheme that defies the Constitution; he’s worked assiduously to thwart sincere efforts to protect Texans against a dangerous disease. And he’s no doubt prepared to sign redistricting legislation that will be crafted, not to provide fair representation to his fellow Texans, but to keep Republicans in total control of state government for at least another decade.
Ah, but none of that has been enough. With lawmakers still in Austin for yet another special session — this one ostensibly for redistricting but also for checking off even more items on the far-right menu — Abbott is leaning in to his master’s voice. “Stay! Audit!” Donald Trump commands. Abbott obeys.
Rachel Maddow digs deeper to find out exactly who ordered the ‘audits’ in Texas. Watch below.
Trump’s push for a Texas audit came one day before the Arizona results were released last week.