Most Texas House Republicans are staying quiet while House Speaker faces a growing scandal
Last edited Sat Aug 3, 2019, 01:11 AM - Edit history (1)
By Wednesday night, hours after a hardline conservative activist announced he had secretly recorded a meeting with Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, three Republicans had listened to the audio — and they went public with details that further questioned Bonnen’s denial about politically targeting members from his own party.
Those three Republicans have raised alarms that the recording — which has not been released to the public — means bad news for Bonnen and, more broadly, the Texas GOP heading into a competitive election cycle. But a vast majority of House Republicans have not listened to it, and as calls continue to grow for Michael Quinn Sullivan to release the full recording of the June 12 meeting, a number of members in the lower chamber appear to be withholding judgment publicly until more details surface.
Sullivan, CEO of Empower Texans, alleged last week that Bonnen and state Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican who chairs the House GOP Caucus, offered Sullivan’s organization media access to the lower chamber if the group targeted 10 GOP members in the 2020 primaries. Bonnen left the room, Sullivan said, before Burrows listed off the 10 members. Bonnen has given a different account of the meeting. And Burrows has not publicly responded to requests for comment.
On Wednesday, Bonnen called on Sullivan to release his recording “in its entirety” after Sullivan said he would play the audio for Republicans involved with the matter. Sullivan said he would hold off on releasing the recording — “in whole or in part, I haven’t decided yet,” he wrote Wednesday — to give Bonnen and Burrows a chance to “recant their false claims.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/01/Texas-House-Republicans-quietly-watch-Dennis-Bonnen-ET-scandal/
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