Article of impeachment

The Texas U.S. Senate contest between Republican incumbent Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico has turned to recycled material from past campaigns, most notably a 2018 video showing Paxton pocketing a $1,000 Montblanc pen left behind at a Collin County courthouse security checkpoint. Paxton returned the pen once notified of the mix-up, and his campaign at the time called the episode a nonstory. The clip originally surfaced in an ad from Justin Nelson, Paxton's 2018 Democratic challenger, who narrowly lost that race.

Talarico's campaign has now revived the footage and its "won't steal your pen" tagline in a new ad, adding a fresh endorsement from Joe Joplin, the pen's original owner. The ad also follows renewed attention to Paxton's past securities fraud indictment, resolved without conviction, and his 2023 impeachment by the Texas House, which ended in acquittal by the state Senate. The race is considered one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the country this cycle.

U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, filed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump for the eighth time, accusing him of operating ICE and Customs and Border Protection as "vicious, quota-driven, unaccountable paramilitary police forces." Green also sent Trump a letter citing deaths of people killed by immigration agents during his second term, including Houstonian Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, calling the matter one of "life and death" rather than partisan politics.

A White House spokesperson dismissed the effort as "garbage" contributing to rising assaults on law enforcement, crediting Trump's immigration policies with reducing violent crime. Green's previous seven impeachment attempts have all failed, with his closest vote, in December over Trump's remarks about executing lawmakers, losing 237-140. Green acknowledged long odds but said the resolution registers formal disapproval. He lost his primary for Texas' redrawn 18th District and will leave Congress in January after 21 years representing the state's 9th District.