Road Trip Recap Episode 2

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton started chanting "U-S-A" on stage during a rally Wednesday night in a panicked attempt to drown out a person in the crowd trying to confront him over why he gave an Epstein-style sweetheart plea deal to an admitted child molester.

Paxton, President Donald Trump's scandal-plagued pick in the heated Texas Senate race, has been facing scrutiny in the fallout over a plea deal for Adam Dean Hoffman, a 49-year-old attorney accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy for years, according to The Texas Tribune. Hoffman surrendered his law license, and in the deal, he was let out of jail in just days without having to register as a sex offender.

At the event at White Oak Music Hall in north Houston, he faced public questions over the decision.

"Why did you let Adam Hoffman free?" A person in the crowd yelled out at Paxton.

Paxton tried to sway the crowd and divert them to chanting instead.

"I'm going to do a little something different tonight. It's kind of risky," Paxton said, breaking into the patriotic chant.

Just before taking the stage at the event, Paxton had an aide step in between himself and a citizen asking him a critical question: "How come on a government salary you own over 15 houses?" Journalist Aaron Rupar shared video from the encounter.

Social media users called Paxton out over Hoffman and the plea deal.

"In a brutal moment, Ken Paxton’s rally was just interrupted by an attendee mad about Paxton’s Epstein-style deal for a child predator. What a disaster for MAGA," wrote X account Democratic Wins Media, which tracks campaigns and candidates.

"Notice how Paxton had to start the USA chant. His 'supporters' didn’t. Very 'please clap' vibes," wrote X user Mike in Houston, who self-describes as a 35-year veteran of the energy industry.

"If you have to drown out people asking why you released a child rapist by chanting USA, you're the f----- devil," Will Kelly, software recruiter and progressive political commentator, wrote on X.

A lawyer who stood up to the Department of Justice and won in a high-profile case expressed shock when talking about it being revived.

During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday night, lawyer Norm Eisen spoke about the possibility of President Donald Trump's DOJ bringing back the case against Olympic canoer David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. The case was dismissed last week, as the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, said that the damage happened during installation.

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Eisen about the possibility of the Trump DOJ bringing the case back, despite Pirro saying that the evidence pointed to a botched installation by the Interior Department, not Hearn, who constantly denied allegations that he ripped up the pool's liner.

"If there are charges brought against him again, I mean, would you use Jeanine Pirro's filing to fight those charges?" Collins asked. "Wouldn't that be the word of the DOJ versus the DOJ?"

Eisen laughed, agreeing with the absurdity. "It's so unbelievable," Eisen said. "They said in that filing that there was no evidence beyond a reasonable doubt because the damage was caused by a botched and rushed installation."

If the DOJ follows through, "The very first thing that the judge, if charges are brought again, is the words of the U.S. attorney's office blaming the Department of the Interior," Eisen said.

Eisen brought up that he used to work as President Barack Obama's special counsel and recalled a memo that said, "The president could not interfere with or intervene in enforcement cases precisely to avoid this kind of thing."

He continued, "So the outrageousness of it, it won't stand in a court of law if it comes back, and I assume the reason we read about it today in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere is because people in the DOJ are as horrified as I am."