Simmering tensions erupt between top Texas state Republicans

Just days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the state House speaker of presiding over the chamber while drunk and called on him to resign, a GOP-led state House ethics panel heard explosive testimony from investigators detailing what they described as years of misconduct by the attorney general, later recommending his impeachment unanimously.

The five-person committee filed 20 articles of impeachment with the Texas House on Thursday. The chamber is scheduled to vote on the articles Saturday afternoon, according to a House memo obtained by CNN.

The week's events marked an eruption of simmering tensions between two of the top Republicans in the most populous red state.

The remarkable outburst of public acrimony has been years in the making. Paxton, a more conservative figure who aligned himself with former President Donald Trump and used his office to challenge the 2020 presidential election results, has long cast House leadership as too liberal.

His attacks on state House Speaker Dade Phelan are a vivid window into a political environment where Republicans control all levers of state government but are split into multiple factions battling for power and influence.

Paxton on Tuesday posted on Twitter a letter to the state House General Investigating Committee, the chamber's ethics panel, asking for an investigation into Phelan for performing his duties in what Paxton described as "an obviously intoxicated state."

Paxton's call for Phelan's resignation came after video circulated on social media over the weekend of Phelan appearing to slur his words as he presided over the House chamber at the end of Friday's late-night session.