Ken Paxton Ran From Questions Faster Than My Toddler Runs From Vegetables

Ken Paxton Ran From Questions Faster Than My Toddler Runs From Vegetables

Let me tell you something. I have four kids. I have been lied to by the best of them. My eight-year-old can look me dead in the eye and swear he brushed his teeth when his toothbrush is bone dry. So when I see a grown man who wants to be a United States Senator take three pre-approved questions and then bolt off a stage like someone yelled “fire,” I know exactly what I’m looking at. I’m looking at a kid who didn’t brush his teeth.

Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Ken Paxton showed up at the Angry Elephant bar in San Antonio on Saturday. It was packed. Standing room only. His “Protecting the Texas Promise” tour rolled into town for the first time since May, and the crowd was ready. But so were some folks who had questions. Real ones. The kind you don’t get to pre-screen.

One man stood up and shouted, “You cheated on your wife.” Security hauled him out. The crowd chanted “USA! USA!” like that was an answer. Now, I’m no detective, but I did my own research. Paxton’s wife, State Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year citing “biblical grounds.” They’re still legally married. And last month? He was photographed vacationing in Europe with a woman news outlets have identified as his alleged mistress. Europe! I took my kids to a state park last summer and we ate sandwiches from a cooler. This man is gallivanting around the Riviera while his wife sits in the Texas Senate, and he wants me to believe he’s protecting the Texas promise? Which part of it, Ken?

Then another group stood up. “Paxton protects pedophiles,” they yelled. Out they went. One of them shouted on his way out the door about “the Epstein class” and “pedophile protectors.” Now here is where my mom ears perked up, because you start throwing around words about kids and I am paying attention. Paxton’s opponent, Democrat James Talarico, has been all over this. He says Paxton’s office cut a generous plea deal with a Waco attorney named Adam Dean Hoffman, who was accused of sexually abusing a child. Hoffman served 30 days. Thirty days. He admitted to the abuse. He surrendered his law license. But he did not have to register as a sex offender. Let me say that again for the people in the back. He did not have to register as a sex offender.

Rodomir Chapygin / Pexels

I have to fill out more paperwork to volunteer at my kids’ school than this man had to fill out after admitting he abused a child. And Talarico is asking for the “Hoffman files” to be released so we can all see what happened behind closed doors. Paxton’s response? Silence. Crickets. “Just wait and see.”

That’s what he told reporters about his data center policy too. Trump called Governor Abbott’s moratorium on data centers a “mistake,” and Paxton, who wants to be your senator, said he’s “working on” a policy but doesn’t “want to talk about the details.” Just wait and see. That’s his whole pitch. Trust me. Don’t ask questions. I’ll tell you later.

I have heard “just wait and see” from every politician who didn’t want to answer a question, and I have heard it from my teenager when he hasn’t done his homework. It means the same thing both times. They don’t have an answer and they’re hoping you’ll forget you asked.

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Three pre-approved questions. That’s all he took. Three. I get more questions from my kids before 7 a.m. This man wants a six-year term in the Senate and he can’t handle four unscripted minutes at a bar named after an elephant.

You want to represent my family in Washington? Then stand there and answer the questions, Ken. All of them. Not the ones your campaign team picked out for you.