Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a TV interview that he would be “happy to debate anybody on the issues” as he seeks re-election this fall, but he is now backing off that offer by refusing to debate Democrat Justin Nelson as voters decide who to hire as the state’s top lawyer.
Paxton instead “will communicate directly with the voters,” his campaign spokesman, Matt Welch, wrote in an emailed statement Thursday in rejecting Nelson’s invitation to debate.
Welch did not respond when asked if Paxton’s previous offer to debate was sincere.
“I’m happy to debate anybody on the issues and I look forward to it,” Paxton said on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program in November.
See here and here for the background. No one should be surprised by this. All bark no bite, all hat no cattle, all hawk no spit – pick your cliche to to describe these yellow bellies. I doubt Paxton, along with Dan Patrick and Sid Miller and George P. Bush, can feel shame, but they can probably feel ridicule, and they deserve all the Bronx cheers they get. If they refuse to debate because they don’t want to give publicity to their opponents, then let’s make their refusal to debate a story. They should not be allowed to run away and hide.
Paxton is absolutely correct not to debate. He’s under a criminal cloud, and he doesn’t need that out there, in public. If I was his opponent, I’d invite some of the people he helped swindle to sit in the audience during the debate, and mention them, “look, some of your alleged victims are here in the crowd with us tonight…..would you like to apologize to them right now?”
I’d probably go even further and mention how much each one lost in the scam.
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