What he’s saying: Pressed by host Chris Wallace on if banning mandates is consistent with the view that companies should have authority over their own workers, Paxton argued that “states have more authority over these areas than the federal government.”
Wallace: You said that you think that Texas companies should take care of their own workers. Is that consistent with the governor’s executive order, and your enforcement of that order, which bans companies from taking care of their own workers as they see fit?
Paxton: What I was trying to say [to Newsmax] is that the president doesn’t have the authority to force companies … What I’m saying to these companies is you don’t have to listen to him because he’s out there saying now that you should do it anyway, despite the fact that we have a stay from a higher court.
Wallace: But you said that businesses should take care of their own workers, and the governor is saying they can’t take care of their workers as they see fit. They’re prohibited from deciding, if they so choose, to issue a vaccine mandate. That’s not consistent.