John Yang:
Good evening, I'm John Yang. This afternoon the Republican controlled Texas State Senate voted largely along party lines not to remove embattled State Attorney General Ken Paxton from office. The Texas House had overwhelmingly voted to impeach him earlier this year.
The Senate sat as a jury in the trial on charges the House had brought and had been deliberating since Friday. The Senate acquitted Paxton on 16 separate articles of impeachment, including bribery, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and abuse of the public trust. The charges set on Paxton's relationship with a wealthy donor. Afterward, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said it was all just politics.
Gov. Dan Patrick (R) Texas: Because vote will be the vote you're remembered for most. Our members already knew that. I'd have known that for the last three months. If only the House members who voted for impeachment would have followed that instruction in the House, we may not have been here.
In the House to vote to send the articles of impeachment against the Attorney General to the Senate happened in only a few days, with virtually no time for 150 members to even study the articles.
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