Is Paxton Impeachment Already a Done Deal?

Ken Paxton attorney Tony Buzbee argues the impeachment trial against the attorney general is payback for calling out House Speaker Dade Phelan's alleged drunkenness.

"Ken Paxton issued a statement and called for Dade Phelan to resign. In response, the committee hurriedly met the very next day, conducted a four-hour hearing and recommended impeachment the day after that," said Buzbee.

But some political watchers say Paxton's goose is already cooked after just one day.

"If Paxton was going to avoid being impeached, it was going to be through the success of his motions to dismiss the articles of impeachment. There were several of them. They all failed pretty badly," says Mark Jones, fellow in political science at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

"Only six Republicans put themselves in the firm anti-impeachment camp, and that's simply not enough," he says. "That means you have 12 Republicans plus 12 Democrats equals 24. You only need 21 people to impeach."

So if it's a done deal, why go through the motions?

"What the Republican senators need over the course of the next two to three weeks is for the people who vote in the Republican primary to see all of the evidence and hear about all of the misdeeds, the illicit affair and all of the scandalous details."

The goal, says Jones, is to change the minds of hardcore Paxton supporters.