Newsroom. Im jim acosta in washington. We begin with the breaking news and the surprise outcome of a republican versus republican political fight in the State Of Texas. Attorney general ken paxton is thanking his supporters and slamming what he calls the sham impeachment proceeding against him. Just a few hours ago the state senate voted to acquit paxton on 16 charges of abusing his office to help a donor. The Attorney General says now that the, quote, truth has prevailed he will get back to work defending the Constitutional Rights of texans, so he says. Ed lavandera joins me from the texas state house in austin. Ed, tell us more. Reporter hey, jim. The last few hours as reaction has been pouring in reacting to the acquittal of Attorney General ken paxton, it is exposing what can probably only be described as an allout civil war between various factions of the Republican Party here in texas. As weve mentioned just a short while ago, ken paxton was acquitted by the majority of republica
From it, it boosts his poll numbers. also he feels that he has to essentially because this is his main sense of protection when it comes to these trials. he s also fascinating when you look at this, and i m thinking not only of the developments out of the mar-a-lago case yesterday, but when we look at the inner circle and how many people who have been so close to the former president are now facing charges themselves. we re seeing them surrender in georgia. looking at rudy giuliani, that s got to weigh a little bit. reporter: look at their mugshots. the ones coming out, that is most stunning as someone who has covered this and was covering this from before the election and then in the aftermath of the election, after jianuary 6th, i seeing mugshots of people in the trump campaign who was inside the oval office, and they re negotiating bond agreements and showing up to surrender themselves. people like kenneth chesebro, in this sense, that is remarkable. the other part is there are