GOP infighting: Lt. Gov. Patrick slams Rep. Toth for comments on gender modification legislation, conservative activists say Toth was taken out of context
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Thursday slammed Rep. Steve Toth , R-The Woodlands, over Toth’s recent comments to some conservative activists about how “gender modification” legislation previously failed in the Texas Legislature . His comments were contained in secretly recorded audio that’s being promoted by Tim Dunn ’s Texas Scorecard . Sound familiar? But at least one GOP activist who was in the room when the comments were made told Quorum Report that Toth never attacked Patrick and the conservative House member is being taken out of context. See if you can follow this, okay?
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
on Thursday slammed Rep. Steve Toth , R-The Woodlands, over Toth’s recent comments to some conservative activists about how “gender modification” legislation previously failed in the Texas Legislature . His comments were contained in secretly recorded audio that’s being promoted by Tim Dunn ’s
Texas Scorecard . Sound familiar?
But at least one GOP activist who was in the room when the comments were made told Quorum Report that Toth never attacked Patrick and the conservative House member is being taken out of context. See if you can follow this, okay?
“Rep. Steve Toth’s irrational accusations against the Texas Senate and Lt. Governor Patrick for the failure to pass protections against child gender mutilation are blatantly false,” reads an angry written statement from Patrick’s campaign released Thursday afternoon. The same statement cited Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi , who said “Patrick passed the stronger child protection bill early in the session.” “When the House made it clear it would only pass the weaker bill, he sent that one over too. Dan Patrick did everything we asked for in this priority. It died in the House,” Rinaldi said.
Patrick and Rinaldi were talking about what Toth said to some Convention of States supporters in Toth’s office during the opening days of the session. Toth was recorded by one of the activists in attendance.
In that recording, Toth tells roughly 25 people that the Senate in 2021 acted late in the session on a "gender modification" bill even though there was sufficient support in the chamber to have passed it earlier. In contrast, Toth told them the House moved quickly on "constitutional carry" of handguns – another conservative priority – allowing the Senate to take its time in passing a version of the bill and send it back to the House. That legislation, as you know, was passed into state law after some concerns of prosecutors were addressed.
“You can’t just blame the House for this,” Toth says of the gender modification bill. “The reality is that if any of the Big Three would have wanted it, we would have gotten it.” In making that argument, Rep. Toth also pointed out to the group that Gov. Greg Abbott did not put the topic on the agenda of any of the multiple special sessions in 2021. “Three special sessions, it was not added to the call,” Toth said.
You can listen to the recording for yourself here .
The tone of the response from Patrick’s campaign was furious, calling it all “foolish lies.”
“To support his own twisted narrative, Rep. Toth blatantly ignores the fact the Senate passed SB 1646 by Sen. Charles Perry , which the House then received on April 29, 2021,” the statement reads. “This gave the House ample time to pass the bill. However, it never received a hearing.” Patrick’s campaign pointed to the legislative history of that bill and said a similar House bill filed by Rep. Cole Hefner , R-Mount Pleasant, never received a hearing. “Toth’s baseless allegations and misplaced blame have cost him any shred of credibility,” Patrick’s campaign said.
But Cyndie Philips , who was in the room when Toth made his comments and has been volunteering with the Convention of States group as a Regional Captain since 2021, said she was surprised today to see Toth accused of attacking Patrick.
In a phone conversation Thursday afternoon, Phillips said the Texas Scorecard article about the meeting was misleading – yes, you must be shocked as well – and said Toth was just laying out the facts of what happened two years ago. “He’s never said anything negative about Dan Patrick or the governor,” Phillips said. “I think that’s the same thing they (critics) did to President (Donald) Trump and made him sound like a racist when he wasn’t,” Phillips said.
“It’s very unfortunate,” she said.
Phillips went even further, saying that when local Tea Party activists in Montgomery County have tried to get Rep. Toth to badmouth Patrick or Abbott, he hasn’t taken the bait. “We are we fighting against each other?” Phillips asked, suggesting Republicans should spend their energy defeating Democrats instead.