Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (R) threatened to "take action" against journalists if he found they incited a riot in the Texas Capitol last Tuesday when the Republican Party was unable to pass SB 5, a bill that would have banned all abortions after twenty weeks.The bill was actually stopped by Texas State Senator Wendy Davis (D) who performed a filibuster that lasted almost 11 hours. Davis was followed by pro-choice supporters cheering for her until the special session to pass the bill expired.
Last Friday, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst told HotAir.com radio host Ed Morrissey that his staff was reviewing security video tapes to analyze the press and possibly "take action' against them (audio below).
"We have reports and I have my staff taking a look at the video, the internet video that we keep, we store, on the proceedings that evening and if I find as I've been told examples of the media waving and trying to inflame the crowd, incite them in the direction of a riot, I'm going to take action against them," claimed Lt. Gov. Dewhurst.
"That is wrong. That's inciting a riot. That is wrong. And we have a provision in our rules that if people do not deport themselves with decorum, they're not respectful of the legislative process, one of our rules says we can imprison them up to 48 hours. Of course that was out of the question with that many people, but it is, we take a democratic policy seriously."
While Lt. Gov. Dewhurst eventually backpedaled his threat, several Texas newspapers were shocked that an elected official was threatening to "take action" against the press, noted MediaMatters.org.
Sources: HotAir.com and MediaMatters.org Reported by Opposing Views 18 hours ago.