Former presidential candidate and Housing and Urban Development secretary Julián Castro has joined NBC News and MSNBC as a political analyst.
The announcement was made official Monday on Morning Joe.
In his inaugural appearance in his new role, Castro, who served as mayor of San Antonio before joining the Obama administration, discussed Rep. Jim Clyburn’s support for amending the Senate filibuster amid the push for voting rights. Additionally, Castro addressed Texas Republicans advancing voting restrictions.
Castro on amending the filibuster: “I think the Representative Clyburn is exactly right, I mean, and as you point out Republicans have put a carve out in effect for the filibuster for the two things that they always want, which is getting to appoint judges as quickly as possible and also tax cuts. Representative Clyburn now pleading with the president, whom of course, as everybody knows Clyburn made the biggest difference in President Biden’s campaign leading with him to at least push a carve out on voting rights and also with Joe Manchin. My hope is that in the least this is something that’s going to get done. We know that there’s significant pushback to actually doing away with the filibuster. I think that would actually be best because it’s not only a problem when you talk about voting rights but a number of other issues that I think would be good for the American people if Congress could actually get some things done, but a carve out or a push on the talking filibuster as the president has already said he supports. The problem is that we really haven’t seen any activity. We haven’t seen any push from the Oval Office on this issue, and you can see that, you know, that the impatience is growing among Democrats.”
Castro on Texas voting bill: “When you look at what Republicans are trying to do here in Texas, I mean, it’s all tied into hundreds of pieces of legislation across the country, whether we’re talking about Georgia, we’re talking about Arizona, other states and I see it as trying to push back on a changing Texas. The demographics of Texas have been changing for a while, everybody knows that. In 2018, Republicans lost 12 state House seats. They lost two congressional seats. They lost two state Senate seats. And this is an attempt to try and make sure that they stay in power longer. So, when places like Harris County, for instance, did some forward-looking things to increase voter participation, 24-hour voting, drive-thru voting, now the legislature is saying, no, you can’t do that.”