Texas law 'explicitly' gives House speaker authority to arrest fleeing Dems: Ted Cruz

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Sen. Cruz: Democrats who fled could be arrested under Texas law

Texas Senator Ted Cruz discusses the Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to prevent a vote on voting bills.

A number of Texas Democrats may face arrest after fleeing the state in an attempt to block a vote on the proposed election legislation. Senator Ted Cruz, in an interview on "America's Newsroom," explained that state law provides the House speaker authority to arrest fleeing House members. Cruz is confident the Democratic lawmakers will return and the voting bill will be passed.

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SENATOR TED CRUZ: I think it's going to end with the Texas legislature taking up and passing election integrity legislation. What you're seeing the Democrats do here is a political stunt. And I will say it's ironic as they were getting on their private jet to fly to Washington, D.C., they almost surely had to show identification to get on that jet. And yet they're doing this in a fit because they don't want mail-in ballots to be verified. They don't want the signatures to be verified. They don't want basic integrity steps to be strengthened in the state of Texas. This is at the end of the day, politics. And they need to get back to doing their jobs. And one way or the other, they will. 

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Under the Texas Constitution, there's a provision that explicitly gives the speaker the authority to arrest fleeing House members. That provision is copied word for word from the U.S. Constitution. And so this stunt is going to fail. They're going to come back. There's going to be a quorum. And I believe the legislature is going to do its job and protect the integrity of elections. Ensure people can vote, but also ensure that we don't have fraud, that we don't have people casting illegal votes. 

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW

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