President Trump has threatened to involve the FBI in the Texas redistricting battle after Democratic legislators left the state in an attempt to stop the vote.

Washington

President Trump has stated that the FBI may need to intervene in the ongoing conflict over redistricting in Texas, where Democratic lawmakers have left the state to prevent a vote on new congressional maps. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has filed a lawsuit to remove the House Democratic Caucus Chair, Gene Wu, who is leading the absent delegation. 

Texas Senator John Cornyn has also requested the FBI look into the situation, but federal involvement in such disputes is unprecedented and would likely require a formal request and compelling justification. Legal and political maneuvering continues, with Texas Republicans seeking to compel Democrats' return through potential court action, while Democrats aim to run out the clock on the legislative session.

Trump threatens to involve FBI in Texas redistricting battle

Latest on the redistricting fight in Texas, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has filed a lawsuit to remove the state's House Democratic Caucus Chair, Gene Wu. Wu is the leading delegation, is leading the delegation, I should say, of Democratic lawmakers who left the state to block the vote on new congressional maps. And now President Trump says the FBI may have to get involved. I think they've abandoned the state. Nobody's seen anything like it, even though they've done it twice before. And in a certain way, it almost looks like they've abandoned the state. It looks very bad. All right, CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe is at the White House. Ed, good to have you on. So, can the FBI really get involved here? Well, in essence, it's Texas Senator John Cornyn who's asked the FBI to look into being able to bring them back. There'd probably have to be a more formal request from the state to do so and some other compelling reason. We've never seen federal involvement in this kind of dispute before. Remember, four years ago, Texas Democrats did this. They came here to the D.C. area to protest and avoid voting on some other elections-related legislation. Eventually, went home as they faced fines and whatnot, and were never arrested when similar arrest warrants were issued at the state level that time. Whether the FBI would get involved this time remains to be seen because, of course, we're just kind of in this era where, frankly, President Trump could conceivably ask the FBI director or agents and officials based there in the Chicago area to go check them out and see whether or not they would consider going home. The other thing that Texas officials could conceivably do is try to send Texas state police up to Illinois to get them, but Illinois law enforcement likely would stop them from doing anything like that without their permission or at least their involvement. Gold grade territory. I want to ask you about Governor Abbott. He's threatening to remove the Democratic caucus chair. The Texas Solicitor General is also threatening the absent House Democrats if they're not back by Friday. Are they allowed to do that? And under what grounds can they do that? Well, they're using some legal interpretation in state law to suggest that they can seek expulsion of at least some, if not all, of those that are absent. It would require court cases that could take several weeks, if not months, to ultimately settle. But it's sort of the next step in this that Texas Republicans at least believe they can try to use to compel the Democrats to come back. And were Abbott able to remove them through a court order, he would then be able to appoint successors and have this legislation continue. Basically, you have the Texas Democrats who've left the state and the governor in a staring contest. They've got about maybe 12 more days or so in this special session that he had called. Special sessions in Texas last 30 days. If they can run out the clock on this special session, the Democrats believe, then the governor's got to either decide to hold another one. And if he brings up the same exact issues, including redistricting, they might try to leave the state again. Or if he focuses just on other issues, like relief for the flood-ravaged areas of the state from last month's deadly floods, they would come home and consider that legislation. So we'll see. This is a staring contest that's going to continue with legal maneuvering on both sides. Important to remember, though, at the state level, they can only enforce those things up to and until the borders of Texas. Beyond that, they would get no cooperation from Democratic-controlled Illinois. Yeah. We'll just have to see who blinks first. Ed O'Keefe, we appreciate your insight reporting for us from the White House. We appreciate it.

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