Tenorio tweets mayor ordered phone taps that almost derailed Texas annexation

City Council member Daphne Tenorio, an outspoken foe of forced annexations, tweeted today that Mayor Todd Webster authorized tapping the phones of her ancestors that resulted in the U.S. Senate’s ultimate acceptance of a treaty that annexed Texas into the United States after those ancestors had earlier defeated a similar attempt a couple of months earlier.

Webster countered that (1) contrary to widespread public belief, he wasn’t even alive in 1844 when these events allegedly took place and (2) a wiretap would have been impossible because the telephone was not invented until 32 years after the annexation.

Tenorio labeled Webster’s assertions as "alternative facts."

The entire affair raises questions over whether the Mexican government deliberately interfered in actions — specifically through the spreading of disinformation — that resulted in the Senate’s June rejection, by a significant margin, of the so-called Treaty of Annexation signed on April 12, 1844. There are also questions about whether anyone living in Texas cooperated with Mexican officials in this alleged interference into our government processes.

Tenorio claims that by tapping her ancestors’ phones, Webster discovered their strategy that led to the Senate defeat of then President John Tyler’s treaty in June 1844 and thus was able to engineer the election later that year of James K. Polk who, together with Tyler, managed to get the joint resolution through Congress on March 1, 1845. As any good Texas student can attest, Texas was ultimately annexed on Dec. 29.

Although there have been no claims involving whether the Mexican government used a similar pattern of spreading disinformation to affect the outcome of the 1844 presidential election, Kyle’s Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix has told Police Chief Jeff Barnett he has "a good story to tell" and he’s willing to tell it over a couple of adult beverages, but only if Barnett, as well as the City Council, grants him complete immunity.

When Barnett was asked about this he responded "Are you kidding me?"

Meanwhile, Assistant City Manager James Earp hastily called a news conference outside City Manager Scott Sellers’s home to announce he had come into possession of some highly classified information regarding these allegations, but refused to say what that information was.

"It’s highly classified," he would only say. "So my lips are sealed."

He then excused himself and went back inside the manager’s residence to brief Sellers about the information he had received earlier from inside the manager’s residence.

Earp's news conference led to a widespread outcry from many concerned Kyle residents.

"You mean to tell us the city manager has a residence?" they yelled. "Who does he think he is? What gives him the right to have a residence? We are demanding answers about this from our elected officials."