Former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke claimed Wednesday that President Donald Trump could get a third term if Texas Republicans pushed through a new congressional map.
Democrats in the Texas state Legislature fled to Illinois and New York in order to thwart a special session of the body to consider redistricting that could net Republicans up to five seats in the United States House of Representatives. O’Rourke claimed that if the Democrats failed to prevail, Trump would “be nearly unstoppable.”
“If we fail, the consolidation of authoritarian power in America will be nearly unstoppable. That means more masked plainclothes federal agents without badges or warrants sweeping our fellow Americans up off the streets,” O’Rourke told “Situation Room” co-host Pamela Brown. “It means more retribution and persecution and even violence for Trump’s political opponents and it also means that a Republican majority Congress with these five stolen seats, if we allow them to succeed, will roll out the red carpet for a Trump third term.”
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“So, this is literally for all the marbles and it comes down to what is happening in Texas right now,” O’Rourke continued. “So, wherever you live around the country, you have a vested interest in these 56 Texas Democrats succeeding right now.”
O’Rourke’s political action committee, Powered by People, is helping to fund the Texas Democrats who fled to Illinois and New York, according to The Texas Tribune. The Texas Majority PAC, backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros, also is supporting the “quorum break.”
New York redrew its congressional districts after the 2022 midterm elections, creating a map that endangered as many as six out of the 11 Republicans elected to the House of Representatives. Illinois Democrats redrew their congressional districts to take out two Republicans, including then-Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a prominent outspoken critic of Trump, prior to the 2022 midterm elections.
Under the 22nd Amendment, Trump is ineligible to run for a third term. The 22nd Amendment can only be repealed through the process detailed in Article V of the Constitution, which includes a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and Senate, plus ratification by three-fourths of the states.
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