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Democrats Declare 'War' Over Texas Congressional Seats; Districts Now Enforcing Phone-Free School Zones. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired August 05, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are wanted by police in Texas. How they're vowing to fight fire with fire after fleeing their home state.
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CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
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GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: We are at war, and that's why the gloves are off.
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CORNISH: The battle brewing and the blue states now vowing to redraw their district lines.
Full conquest of Gaza. Israel's prime minister wants to go all in on the strip, but wouldn't that put the hostages at risk?
What's going on with Marjorie Taylor Greene? The MAGA firebrand could be going rogue on the Republican Party.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are you covering up the Epstein files?
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CORNISH: And fed-up constituents face lawmakers in a town hall, and they want answers on everything from the Epstein files to the Big, Beautiful Bill.
A massive California wildfire scorches thousands of acres. The battle underway to bring that blaze under control.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter is turning 7, so I got her a mini iPhone. Look how cute this is, you guys.
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CORNISH: Kids are back in class, and so is the battle over phone-free school zones.
Six a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at the pink skies in New York. Good morning, everybody. It's Tuesday, August 5. I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish, and this is CNN THIS MORNING.
So, we're going to start with this idea of fighting fire with fire. Democrats across the country backing Texas lawmakers under the threat of arrest this morning.
Today, the state House will try again on a vote over new congressional maps that could sway the control of U.S. Congress next year.
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DUSTIN BURROWS (R), TEXAS STATE HOUSE: Members, a quorum is not present. The roll has been called, and a quorum has not been established.
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CORNISH: So, the Texas House was forced to adjourn Monday, with most Democratic lawmakers bolting for places like New York and Illinois. They wanted to block a vote on those new maps.
Now, the Texas House speaker and Governor Greg Abbott are issuing civil arrest warrants.
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GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS To run to states like New York and Illinois to protest redistricting is kind of like running to Wisconsin to protest cheese. It's just kind of outrageous. Those are -- New York and Illinois are two hallmark states that have already done redistricting to eliminate Republicans.
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CORNISH: The protest move from lawmakers is emboldening governors in some deep-blue states to redraw their own districts to make up for the five seats Democrats might lose.
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HOCHUL: All's fair in love and war. That's why I'm exploring with our leaders every option to redraw our state congressional lines as soon as possible.
This is a war. We are at war. And that's why the gloves are off. And I say, bring it on.
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CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Jerusalem Demsas, contributing writer at "The Atlantic"; and Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns; and Ashley Davis, former White House official under George W. Bush.
So, Chuck, I almost wore a hat.
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Come on now. Here we go.
CORNISH: Just because I knew how jazzed you would be --
ROCHA: I can hardly stand it.
CORNISH: -- about this story. The Venn diagram between you and this story is a circle.
ROCHA: Yes.
CORNISH: So, let's start with you. You care about congressional races.
ROCHA: Yes, I do.
CORNISH: Because that's what you do for your work.
ROCHA: That's right.
CORNISH: And you care about Texas. What do you see in this moment?
ROCHA: I think it's important to level-set. And we talked about this so much over the last 48 hours, that we redistrict. And everybody gerrymanders. I take all of that with a grain of salt, because that's true.
But we do it every ten years after we do a census. And whoever's in charge of the state government gets to draw their lines. You can fight about the system, but that's the system.
The thing that's wrong here is that this is in the middle of the system. This is unprecedented. We've done this once or twice, way back. The reason we're doing it -- and nobody's talking about the reason they're doing it -- is that Republicans are worried about the midterm elections, and they want more seats to play with.
CORNISH: So, the timing is the thing --
ROCHA: Yes.
CORNISH: -- that when Hochul said, "This is war," it's the timing, because it's ahead of midterms.
ROCHA: And please step away from me if you're going to talk about, oh, now the Democrats are doing it because the Republicans are doing it.
Texas was minding its own business, walking down the street, and somebody come up and cold-cocked them, and now they got up in the other states, and they're fighting back. You can't get mad when you sucker-punched.
CORNISH: You're saying Texas is just walking down the street? That is not sort of how I think about this. ROCHA: I'm just telling you how I felt about it.
CORNISH: Because Texas Republicans introduced this, right? So, Ashley, I want to give you a word, since Chuck had such a launch.
[06:05:04]
Governor Abbott is threatening to try and have the lawmakers removed from their offices, because they're gone; say it's vacant. Here's what he had to say about that.
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ABBOTT: They're leaving, and they've left. Because they're very un- Texan. Texans don't run from a fight.
I believe they have forfeited their seats in the state legislature, because they are not doing the job they were elected to do.
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CORNISH: Just to translate here: potential implications for saying, oh, special elections. All these people have left their seats or whatever. The immediate threat is potential arrest. What are you thinking about his threats?
ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, I think No. 1, the most important part of this is this has happened two other times in regards to Democrats have left Texas.
CORNISH: Yes. Most recently, 2021.
DAVIS: 2021. And it took them 35 days to come back.
What I think is different this time, that I -- that's the most important part, is they're missing this vote on the funding for the flood victims.
And I think at some point politically, that's going to be a major issue for the Democrats.
CORNISH: In Texas.
DAVIS: In Texas. So, they're missing not only the redistricting vote but also the vote for funding. And that's the problem, politically, for them.
CORNISH: Here's how the Democrats are at least talking about the threat itself of potential arrests. Let's keep in mind, I think they're facing fines of is it $500 a day --
DAVIS: Yes.
CORNISH: -- for being out? Here's Yolanda Jones. She's with the Texas statehouse. She's a Democrat.
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YOLANDA JONES (D), TEXAS STATE HOUSE: There is no felony in the Texas penal code for what he says. So, respectfully, he's making up some (EXPLETIVE DELETED). OK?
He's trying to get soundbites, and he has no legal mechanism. And if he did, subpoenas from Texas don't work in New York. So, he going to come get us how?
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JERUSALEM DEMSAS, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": Wow.
CORNISH: Yes. Come at me. That's a very "come at me" situation.
DEMSAS: I mean, I feel like so much of this conversation is -- is in the tit-for-tat about who's to blame for this or who's actually acting inappropriately.
But I think if you take a step back, I mean, this is the kind of thing that political scientists warn about integrating democracies. When the rules of the game are -- are politicized to the point where, you know, partisan back and forth turns into language like this is a war.
And I don't think it's all, you know, to blame on Kathy Hochul for saying that. I mean, this is something that's been said by many politicians of both parties for years now.
But as this continues to escalate, if every single redistricting is just a battle of how to disenfranchise the other party, because you're afraid of your party being disenfranchised in another state, that's how you get to real democratic decline.
And I think we've seen a lot of -- of concerning signs already that, you know, we, the United States of America's democracy is in serious trouble. And that's what I'm really thinking about.
CORNISH: All right. We're going to talk about this more this hour. You've got people like Gavin Newsom of California weighing in as this conversation spreads beyond Texas.
But coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, the Minnesota state lawmaker who was shot in an ambush attack at his home, speaking out. His vow to his constituents after the attempt on his life.
And the new lead for investigators in the search for a quadruple murder suspect.
And the DOJ ordering prosecutors to start a grand jury probe into the Obama administration.
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PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: People will be held accountable. Who weaponized our government?
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CORNISH: It's 12 minutes past the hour. And here is your morning roundup.
The man at the center of a manhunt, accused of killing four people, now caught on camera.
Police released this surveillance footage showing him in Jackson, Tennessee, carrying a rifle. He's been wanted since last week, accused of killing the parents and two relatives of a seven-month-old baby who was found alive but abandoned in a car one county away, hours before the bodies were found.
Now, while he's on the run, three people have been arrested on suspicion of helping him.
And the Minnesota lawmaker who was shot multiple times at his home in June speaking out at a national conference for lawmakers.
State senator John Hoffman is still recovering, but he told his fellow legislators that they cannot let the evil of the night win.
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REP. JOHN HOFFMAN (D), MINNESOTA STATE HOUSE: Terror in the night isn't legislative reform, and it's repulsive. Showing up at somebody's door in the dark, pounding, screaming, with a gun. Impersonating law enforcement is not a strategy for positive change.
It's intimidation. It's violence. And it has no place in a healthy democracy.
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CORNISH: He also took a moment out to remember the Minnesota state speaker, Melissa Hortman, who was killed in those attacks.
President Trump and Rupert Murdoch have agreed to delay his deposition in the president's billion-dollar libel suit against "The Wall Street Journal."
Now, this comes after the paper requested to have the case thrown out. If the judge denies that dismissal request, then Murdoch will be deposed in person.
Now, this lawsuit was filed by Trump last month over a report alleging that Trump's name was on a birthday card for Jeffrey Epstein.
And pretty gross video from the world's busiest airport. That's brown sewage water seen gushing from the ceiling at the Atlanta airport over the weekend.
Passengers said it smelled really bad, and airport officials are working to sanitize the space.
Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, how much it costs for fascism? That's what one voter said to his congressman at a tense town hall. We're going to have more from that angry face-off.
[06:15:08]
And breaking big tech's grip on kids. Inside the phone-free school movement.
And good morning to Detroit. That's where polls open in the next hour for today's mayoral primary election. Nine candidates hoping to succeed Detroit's mayor, who is leaving office after three terms.
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ABBOTT: Teachers report that phones are a persistent source of distraction in the classroom. They hinder instruction time, and they undermine academic performance.
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CORNISH: Kids are heading back to school over the next few weeks. The question many parents are asking: should their phones go with them?
Some of the country's largest school districts are telling students that they can't use them. That includes New York and Texas, which just passed a ban restricting -- redistrict [SIC] -- restricting cell phone use during the school day.
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The Texas law even bars students from using smart watches.
More than 20 states have already moved to -- to restrict cell phone access in public schools. And there's also a growing movement of parents who say the phones are more trouble than they're worth.
Joining me now to discuss is Charlotte Alter, a senior correspondent at "TIME" magazine. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING.
And Charlotte, for a long time, schools have said, Hey, no phones in class. This has been something they've talked about. What's different about what the movement of -- states are putting in place now?
CHARLOTTE ALTER, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, "TIME" MAGAZINE: So, I think the difference here is that now, these sort of school rules against, you know, being on your phone during math class have the force of state law.
So, one thing that I learned in reporting this piece is that lots of not only, you know, a massive movement of parents, but also school administrators and superintendents basically asked these states to pass these laws in order to justify what were already sort of the rules in these schools.
I mean, it's been now many years of -- of teachers sort of wrestling with students, trying to get them off their phones for long enough to learn in class.
Now, according to my reporting, 37 states have laws on the books requiring schools to prohibit phones during class time, and many of those states -- 18 plus D.C. at my last count -- have bell-to-bell school bans, which means no phones during the entire school day.
CORNISH: You were talking with a public health reporter in this story who says, in malaria, the mosquito is the vector of disease. Here the phone is the vector that's carrying the disease of toxic content.
When it came to malaria, I think people used netting to try and solve that problem. What are they trying to use in this case?
ALTER: So, the -- the quote you're -- you're referring to is one of the sort of lead activists in this movement, is a mom who used to be a public health nurse.
And the way she thinks about this, which I thought was pretty interesting, is that -- is that the way to address some of these public health crises is by what she calls upstream interventions.
So -- So, in the malaria example, it's not enough to just have medicine to treat malaria. You also have to reduce standing water. You have to use mosquito nets. You have to find a way to keep mosquitoes away from people.
And one of the things that I found to be so interesting about this movement is that, as we've seen over the last many years now, almost all efforts to regulate tech and social media companies in a way that would make their products safer for children have failed for various reasons, including massive industry lobbying.
So, what these parents are doing is saying, OK, well, if we can't make these -- these products safer for our kids, we're just going to keep them from having them for at least 7 or 8 hours a day.
CORNISH: We live in the age of school shootings. Aren't there parents who say, Look, my kid needs to have a phone. I need to be able to contact them. Is that the kind of counter movement to this?
ALTER: That is certainly part of the counter movement to this. And there are parents and kids, for -- for sure, who are against this and have serious concerns about how they would reach their families in the event of a crisis.
One thing that has come up in this discussion, though, is you have several sort of emergency experts and people who are, you know, trained in emergency response, saying, Listen, if you have a school shooting, the last thing you want is a kid with their phone up during the school shooting.
And remember, teachers are still allowed to have their phones. Other adults in school are still allowed to have their phones.
So, you know, these -- these laws are written in such a way so that if there were an emergency, certainly, you know, people would be able to call for help. There would be 911 calls.
You know, it's -- it's not as if the phones are banned for anybody on school premises. It's just that the students, in many of these cases, can't use their phones during the school day.
CORNISH: All right. If you want to read more about this movement, you can look at Charlotte Alter's work in "TIME" magazine. Thanks so much.
ALTER: Thanks for having me.
CORNISH: Still coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, full conquest. That's Israel's -- Israel's prime minister's new plan in Gaza as ceasefire talks reach an impasse.
And is it a Republican rift? One of President Trump's allies, Marjorie Taylor Greene, feels like she doesn't relate to the GOP anymore.
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CORNISH: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING. It is 29 minutes past the hour. Here's what's happening right now.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is in Israel today after a surprise visit Monday. He visited a settlement in the occupied.
