Image Credit: screenshot/Newsmax 
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) argued establishment Republicans are moving forward with an “illegal impeachment” against him for exposing their corruption.
Paxton joined Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Newsmax Friday to break down how the Texas RINOs (Republican in Name Only) have been investigating him in secret for months before introducing 20 articles of impeachment against him.
The showdown boiled over after Paxton called on Texas Speaker Dade Phelan to resign for alleged drunkenness during a House session last week.
“When you expose what these liberal Republicans do, which is basically cut deals with liberal Democrats, they get really angry that the last thing they want is somebody around like me who exposes what they do. And I’ve done that with Phelan,” Paxton said, adding him and other Republicans have kowtowed to the liberal agenda.
“They tried to sneak through legislation two years ago where they were reducing the penalty for illegal voting, where I would now have to prove that they knew the law when they did it, which meant no prosecutions. We caught him, we exposed it. Those are the types of things that Phelan finds infuriating. And unfortunately for him, we caught him and we exposed it, despite the fact that he’s a Republican.”
When asked if he’s confident he can get the votes to block this impeachment, Paxton replied, “No.”
“I think they decided they thought I was going to lose my election to Bush, and they became very disturbed when I won,” he said. “And they concocted this plan, I think months and months ago, maybe right after my reelection, thinking that the voters just were not smart enough to figure this out. They’re going to fix it.”
Paxton went on to explain how the RINOs had been planning to impeach him for months in secret.
They started working on this about four months ago in secret. I literally first heard about this on Tuesday, where they announced they subpoenaed us. On Wednesday, they announced an investigation. On Thursday, they announced impeachment. And now on Saturday, the impeachment is going forward. The members haven’t seen all the information. They haven’t allowed us to participate. We have lots of information that would change the results of their investigation. They have refused to let us testify. They have refused to let us give them information. They have refused to allow us to correct things that even they know are wrong. And that’s the process we’re in. They want this done because the voters, in their opinion, weren’t smart enough to get it right, and they’re going to fix it.
But Paxton stressed that his chances of exposing the “illegal impeachment” are much better in the Senate.
“There’s always issues when you’re in politics, because not every Republican is conservative, and some of the more moderate senators may not be supportive as well. But that’s okay. I think we at least feel like we’ll have a fair shot to present evidence and expose the lies of the House,” he said.
“There’s a statute in Texas which they are not following. This is illegal impeachment. The statute says that if there were complaints prior to the election, there were issues prior to the election. You can’t bring an impeachment on issues that occurred, whether true or false, before the election.”
“19 of the 20 in this complaint were from issues related to the election. The second was related to my settlement authority. And they’re saying that I deserve to be impeached because I settled a case which required that the legislature approve the money they have to actually fund,” he added.
Paxton had issued a statement Friday following the announcement the GOP-led House General Investigating Committee unanimously voted to impeach him on Thursday.
“Every politician who supports this deceitful impeachment attempt will inflict lasting damage on the credibility of the Texas House,” Paxton told reporters.
Listen to Attorney General Paxton's full remarks from today's press conference: pic.twitter.com/pWnj0Ijc6G
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) May 26, 2023
Paxton also encouraged protesters to peacefully demonstrate in front of the Capitol building in Austin Saturday to let their voices be heard.