Texas State Rep. Brian Harrison said Wednesday on Newsmax that House Democrats are guilty of "hypocrisy" in their protests over redistricting and called their sleep-in at the Capitol "some of the dumbest, most low-IQ, cynical, dishonest, deceptive political theater" he has ever seen.
"They're trying to distract Texans and all Americans from the reality, their dirty little secret," the Texas Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "Democrats in Texas and across the country have no problem with states redrawing their congressional maps to maximize partisan political advantage. They're just mad that a Republican state is finally doing it."
Texas Republicans on Wednesday will take up a new state congressional map, which is intended to flip five Democrat-held U.S. House seats in next year's midterm elections.
Democrat lawmakers this week ended their two-week walkout staged to temporarily block the legislation, presented at the behest of President Donald Trump, who is seeking to improve his party's odds of preserving its narrow U.S. House of Representatives majority.
Harrison, meanwhile, argued that Democrat-led states have also been gerrymandering their districts, noting that Texas Democrats who left the state in protest sought support from governors in those states.
"Gov. J.B. Pritzker in Illinois arguably has the most gerrymandered state in the country," Harrison said. "They only give 17% of their congressional seats to Republicans, but Republicans make up 45% of the vote."
He pointed to California as another example.
"Forty or 42% of the votes are Republican, but [Gov. Gavin Newsom] only gives them 17% of the vote," Harrison said.
He added that Texas should have moved on redistricting years ago, so the state would "have a map that reflects the desires and the wills of the Republican voters here in the state of Texas."
Meanwhile, Harrison said the House Democrats who are protesting at the Capitol are being "ridiculous."
"Nobody's forcing them to stay there," he said. "The only thing they're a prisoner of right now is their own imagination. I mean, good grief, they're free to leave the Capitol. They're free to walk off the floor, every single one of them."
Harrison also criticized comments made by Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who has called the redistricting effort "racist."
"This is the same woman, by the way, who I called on to resign last year because she pushed a bill to take away President Donald Trump's Secret Service protection just a week or two before he was shot," Harrison said. "This woman is an embarrassment to the state of Texas. She's an embarrassment to the U.S. Congress. She has no business holding any office in this country."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.