The State of Texas: Is George H.W. Bush voting for Hillary Clinton?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I don’t know who Shawn Oakman is.”

—Baylor head football coach Jim Grobe to KCEN, when asked at a press conference about a video that showed Shawn Oakman walking into Baylor’s locker room after Friday’s game at Rice. Oakman, a former defensive end for the Bears, is currently facing charges of sexual assault stemming from an incident while he was still at Baylor. Still, Grobe claimed he wouldn’t have been able to recognize Baylor’s former star, who is six-foot-nine-inches, weighs 290 pounds, and is arguably one of college football’s most recognizable players of the past few years. Remember, Oakman’s size literally became a meme.

BIG NEWS

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 15: Former President George H. W. Bush sits in a wheelchair during an event in the East Room at the White House, July 15, 2013 in Washington, DC. — Former President George H. W. Bush sits in a wheelchair during an event in the East Room at the White House, July 15, 2013 in Washington, D.C.Mark Wilson/Getty

Bush Family Matters
In one of the more shocking developments of this presidential election, the patriarch of Texas’s most famous Republican dynasty is reportedly voting for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton come November. According to Politico, George H.W. Bush will cast his ballot for Clinton. Now, it should be noted, the elder Bush has not publicly endorsed Clinton, and in May the former president’s spokesman said H.W. had no plans to endorse any candidate this election cycle (presumably he would’ve voted for Jeb! if he had secured the Republican nomination). The source of H.W.’s bombshell decision is Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend, the former Maryland lieutenant governor and daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy. Despite H.W.’s ongoing public silence regarding the election, the Kennedy family member posted a photo of herself with Bush on Facebook along with a caption claiming that “The President told me he’s voting for Hillary!!” Townsend didn’t back down from that statement in a phone interview later with Politico, explaining that they had met in Maine and that’s when Bush spilled the beans. “That’s what he said,” Townsend told Politico. A spokesman for H.W. continued to play the cards close to the presidential chest. “The vote President Bush will cast as a private citizen in some 50 days will be just that: a private vote cast in some 50 days,” Jim McGrath wrote in an email to Politico. “He is not commenting on the presidential race in the interim.” Like his father, George W. has refrained from publicly endorsing either candidate, but he has at times been critical of Republican candidate Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Jeb! has said that he won’t vote for either Trump or Clinton, but his son and Texas Land Commissioner, George P., endorsed Trump in August after holding out for a long time. The next family dinner could be pretty awkward.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Texas Beef
The 2016 election is also driving a wedge between Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Senator Ted Cruz. According to the Texas Tribune, Patrick said during an appearance on a radio show that Cruz will be left “in the rearview mirror of the Republican Party” if he doesn’t come out and endorse Trump. “You know, I stay loyal to my friends, and Ted’s a friend, but obviously I’m disappointed,” Patrick told host Laura Ingraham. “I’m hoping there’s still time for him to come forward, or I think he and all the other people you named will be left in the rearview mirror of the Republican Party moving forward. So I’m hoping Ted comes forward. I’m visiting with him on that issue, of course.” The Patrick-Cruz relationship has always been fraught—the lows were low, but the highs were oh so high, like in February, when Patrick fully endorsed Cruz, writing in the Dallas Morning News that “I can think of no person better suited than Ted Cruz” to be president, with Cruz responding to Patrick’s warm rhetorical embrace by saying Patrick “is a man who when he stands up and says he’s with you, he’s with you with every breath in his body.” That seems so long ago.

Bomb Squad
The FBI arrested a guy in Houston who was allegedly trying to buy explosives to blow up a house. According to the Houston Chronicle, Cary Lee Ogborn appeared in court in Houston on Monday after he was arrested on Friday, when the feds busted him picking up a package he allegedly thought contained a grenade, dynamite, and a remote detonator that he tried to purchase on the dark web. Turns out the dealer he was communicating with was actually an undercover FBI agent. This is a pretty strange case: according to the feds, Ogborn wanted to explode a small wooden shed being used as a living space to “just send a message.” What, exactly, that message was intended to be is unclear. Ogborn reportedly worked as a boat repairman, and his handle on the dark web was “boatsmanstv,” which is dangerously close to “Boaty McBoatface.” There’s no connection to the recent bombings in New York and New Jersey.

Blue Suit
A Dallas police sergeant has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the Black Lives Matter movement and a laundry list of other people are inciting violence against police officers. According to the Dallas Morning News, Sergeant Demetrick Pennie claims in the lawsuit that the defendants “have repeatedly incited their supporters and others to engage in threats of and attacks to cause serious bodily injury or death upon police officers and other law enforcement persons of all races and ethnicities,” and he is seeking damages of more than $500 million. Who does Pennie claim is responsible for this perceived stream of attacks? Pretty much everyone. The complaint alone is 66 pages long, listing as defendants (take a deep breath) former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Reverend Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panthers, Black Lives Matter and nearly all of its leaders, George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and President Barack Obama.