Former MLB All-Star Mark Teixeira running for Congress in Texas
Sam Hodde/MLB Photos via Getty Images
(SAN ANTONIO) — Former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixeira has announced a run for Congress in Texas in a red district that includes areas around San Antonio and Austin.
“As a lifelong conservative who loves this country, I’m ready to fight for the principles that make Texas strong and America exceptional. It takes teamwork to win, and I’m ready to help defend President Trump’s America First agenda, Texas families, and individual liberty,” he says in a statement on his new campaign website.
The former first baseman is running to fill the seat of Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who is running for Texas attorney general and has clashed with the Trump administration at times.
This will be Teixeira’s first run for political office after his 14 seasons in the MLB — during which he earned three All-Star selections, five Gold Gloves and three Silver Sluggers. He retired in 2016, having played for several teams, including for the Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels and New York Yankees.
Teixeira was on the World Series-winning Yankees team in 2009.
“Playing for the Texas Rangers and raising my family in the Lone Star State has been one of the greatest blessings of my life,” Teixeira said in a statement. “Now I’m ready to answer the call to serve my country, my state, and the conservative principles that made Texas the envy of the nation.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump toured the devastation left by flash flooding in central Texas amid growing questions about how local officials responded to the crisis as well as questions about the federal response — including the fate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Trump’s visit on Friday came a week after heavy rainfall caused the Guadalupe River in Kerr County to rise 26 feet in less than an hour, killing at least 121, including dozens of children at the nearby Christian summer camp, Camp Mystic.
“The first lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation in the aftermath of this really horrific and deadly flood,” Trump said as he spoke at a roundtable event with first responders and local officials.
“We mourn for every single life that was swept away in the flood, and we pray for the families that are left behind,” the president added. “It’s amazing, the incredible spirit from those families.”
The search for more than 170 people still missing continues with more than 2,100 responders on the ground in Texas from local, state and federal agencies.
Meanwhile, local officials are under scrutiny about what steps were taken to adequately warn people and how long it took for authorities to take action based on escalating weather and other alerts.
Trump, notably, hasn’t engaged in similar criticism about how the crisis was handled — as he has done in the case of other disasters.
“Nobody has any idea how and why a thing like this could happen,” Trump said on Friday.
Trump was asked for his response to those who say the warning alerts didn’t go out in time and that more people could have been saved.
“Well, I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances,” Trump said. “I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. There’s just admiration.”
Trump went on to criticize the reporter for asking the question: “Only an evil person would ask a question like that,” he pushed back.
“I think this has been heroism. This has been incredible. Really, the job you’ve all done,” Trump added. “It’s easy to sit back and say, ‘Oh, what could have happened here or there, maybe we could have done something differently.’ This was a thing … that’s happened before.”
Trump later added, “Two words: Unity and competence. If you were to ask me two words that I’ve seen here.”
It’s a marked contrast to how Trump has reacted in the past, including to the California wildfires earlier this year, where he blasted California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other local Democratic officials.
Some of the hardest-hit areas of central Texas, including Kerr County, are areas of strong Republican support that voted for Trump in the 2024 election.
Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Texas earlier this week. On Friday, it was expanded to include more areas affected by the floods.
Trump, instead, has largely focused on his relationship with Gov. Gregg Abbott — a Republican and strong ally of the president.
Trump and Abbott met with first responders on the scene on Friday. Abbott earlier Friday said the federal government updated Trump’s disaster declaration for the state to include more counties.
“There has been extraordinary collaboration with the state and the federal government to make sure that we address Texans’ needs as quickly as possible through disaster assistance programs,” Abbott said in a press release. “The State of Texas will continue to work with our federal and local partners to provide impacted Texans with the support they need to heal and recover.”
The White House has pushed back heavily on criticism of the administration’s cuts to the National Weather Service, which led to some to question if staffing levels or forecasting abilities were impacted.
“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said from the briefing room podium on Monday.
Trump’s also avoided answering questions on whether he is still aiming to phase out FEMA.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, discussed the federal response to the floods during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“We as a federal government don’t manage these disasters, the state does,” Noem contended. “We come in and support them. And that’s exactly what we did here in this situation. FEMA went to an enhanced level immediately. But as soon as you signed the major disaster declaration, we were able to get them resources and dollars right away, just like you envisioned through state lot grants to help them with cleanup. And we’re still there in presence.”
Later in the week, though, Noem went after FEMA during the Biden and other previous administrations — alleging the agency has suffered from “gross mismanagement and negligence.”
“The list of famous failures is staggering,” Noem claimed in comments to the FEMA Advisory Council, a task force designed to recommend reforms to the agency, including possible dismantlement of the agency as it exists today. Trump appointed Abbott as a new member to the group back in April.
Acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson had yet to visit the affected areas in Texas as of Thursday afternoon.
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Office of Special Counsel confirmed Saturday that it has opened an investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith and whether he violated the Hatch Act through his criminal investigations into President Donald Trump.
The investigation follows a referral from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas earlier this week that asked the OSC to investigate Smith for his investigative and prosecutorial activities prior to the 2024 election which Cotton argued were intended to harm Trump’s political prospects.
Both Smith and former Attorney General Merrick Garland repeatedly maintained prior to departing office that none of the actions taken in either the classified documents investigation or the probe of Trump’s efforts to subvert his 2020 election loss were driven by politics. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing in both cases.
A spokesperson for Smith’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday on the OSC probe. Smith’s cases against Trump were dismissed following the 2024 election due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.
The OSC is an independent agency that is not empowered to investigate criminal matters – it is separate from the Special Counsel post that Smith formerly served in under the Justice Department.
OSC primarily operates as an agency to assist government whistleblowers in reporting allegations of waste or wrongdoing, and also enforces the Hatch Act which places restrictions of government employees from engaging in partisan political activities.
It’s unclear what course of action the OSC would even have to take against Smith if its investigation did determine he violated the Hatch Act, given Smith is no longer a government employee.
While it could refer its findings to DOJ, the department has already publicly said that it is investigating Smith and other prosecutors who pursued Trump through its so-called “Weaponization Working Group” that is being led by former interim DC U.S. attorney Ed Martin.
The announcement of the investigation also comes as the administration has found itself under increased scrutiny over its handling of the release of filings relating to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — with top officials from across the administration appearing eager to change the subject.
WASHINGTON — It was the first White House Faith Office summit with business leaders, but that didn’t stop President Donald Trump from using expletives and charged language against his foes in a room full of business leaders who contribute to faith-based charitable work.
For nearly an hour, Trump rambled about multiple topics his administration has tackled so far, ranging from tariffs to transgender people in sports while veering into tangents about his previous legal battles and first administration.
He spent little time, however, getting into the specifics of his newly established Faith Office.
Trump touted recent actions he made limiting the participation of transgender women in women’s sports, arguing how only two genders are recognized in America.
“We’ve restored the fundamental principle that God created two genders, male and female, that was a tough one. And we’re defending parents’ rights where the parents’ rights have been taken away from them in schools. You look at some of these school boards, it’s like they’re brutal dictatorships. And we brought it all back.”
The crowd cheered at Trump’s rhetoric; however, transgender advocates have argued how notions like that hurt the transgender community.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines sex as “an individual’s biological status as male, female, or something else. Sex is assigned at birth and associated with physical attributes, such as anatomy and chromosomes.”
In his freewheeling speech, Trump argued he was centering American culture around faith in his freewheeling speech, heavily criticizing Democrats as unfaithful.
“I’ll tell you religion took a big hit because of the way they treated all of us,” Trump said of Democrats. “And, we now have a confident nation, an optimistic nation, and we have one nation under God. And we’ll always keep that term.”
Trump also directly attacked former President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, arguing without evidence that Biden wasn’t faithful enough and sought to persecute religious leaders.
“I think one of the reasons we won so bad is they really wanted to take God and religion out of your lives, and there was nobody to, you know, look up to. There was just nobody. It was – we were freewheeling and we can’t free wheel. No, we have to bring religion back into the country. And we’re starting to do that, I think, at a very high level,” Trump said.
“As president, I’ve ended the radical left war on faith, and we’re once again protecting religious freedom instead of destroying it. And God is once again welcomed back into our public square. It’s very important,” he added.
Trump used profanity while talking about his indictments, calling them “bull—-” and other explicit language throughout his speech in front of the faith-based group.
His attacks also extended to Republicans, calling Federal Reserve Chair Jermone Powell “a knucklehead. Stupid guy,” and attacking the intelligence of politicians like former Sen. Mitt Romney and his former Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
Trump lightly talked about his faith when reflecting on the one-year anniversary of the attempted assassination on him in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump stated that he was saved by God to make the country great.
“It was only one year ago this week that my time on Earth nearly ended. And if you look at that, God was with me. Because that’s something in theory, I should not — I should not be with you,” he said. “I believe it that my life was saved by God to really make America great again.”
On the campaign trail, the president spent time courting faith leaders throughout the country, often refusing to soften his language in those venues as well.
Trump has previously even quipped about how Franklin Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and a Trump ally, would ask him to temper his cursing.
“‘Mr. President, it’s Franklin Graham, and I just want to tell you, I love what you do, I love what you say. I love your stories. I think they’re great, and keep telling them, but they’d be even better if you wouldn’t use foul language,’” Trump told a campaign rally in October.
“So I thought about it, and I said, ‘I’m going to try.’ And I did try, and I’m not sure, I’m not sure I’d make the emphasis quite as good.”
