A few minutes ago, I spoke with Catherine Frazier, spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Noting that Perry hadn’t spoken of imminent secession, I asked her what sort of scenario the governor envisioned when he spoke at the Austin Tea Party, and what the legal ramifications of such a move would be. She sought to assure me that Perry does not want Texas to secede, and directed me to this blog post.
This is interesting that this has really kind of bubbled up, to uh… I refer people back to my statement, and I gotta a charge out of it. I was kinda thinking that, maybe the same people who hadn’t been reading the constitution right were reading that article and they got the wrong impression about what I said.
Clearly, I stated that we have a great union. And Texas is part of a great union. I see no reason for that to change. I think that may not be the exact quote, but that is, in essence what I said.
Below you’ll find the audio of Perry’s remarks, followed by some commentary from MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer:
In other words, Perry’s remembering about half the quote. “There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it,” Perry said.
And then he followed that up with: “But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.”
So that’s the statement he’s standing by. As for the portion in bold, Perry seems to be trying to conflate his affirmation of Texas’s 10th amendment rights with his statement on Texas’ right to secede from the union. But those are two very separate issues. More on this soon.
