.

Texas Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier abruptly hung up on a private call with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders on Tuesday after claiming she had been told it was a felony for her to participate while inside the Texas Capitol.

The brief episode brought new attention to the intensifying fight over Texas’s controversial redistricting bill, which Democrats say violates federal voting protections.

Collier was on the call with Newsom, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, and other party leaders as she stood inside the Texas House of Representatives chambers while lawmakers there were also debating a redistricting bill that former President Donald Trump supported. Collier had joined the video call during the Texas debate and spoke during the meeting to say that she believed the map Republicans were advancing would violate the Voting Rights Act and make it more difficult for minority communities to elect their preferred candidates.

“This bill will prevent Black and brown individuals from selecting the candidates of their choice because they’re cracking and packing these districts,” Collier said during the call, which was shared with reporters.

About 30 minutes into the meeting, while Martin was speaking, Collier cut out and abruptly hung up on the group to say she needed to leave.

“I’m sorry, I have to leave. They said it’s a felony for me to do this,” Collier told the group, before saying, “Apparently, I can’t be on the floor or in the bathroom,” and speaking to someone who was off camera.

“You told me I was only allowed to be here in the bathroom,” Collier said off-camera to an unidentified individual. Turning back to the call, Collier added, “No, hang on. Bye everybody. I’ve got to go.” With that, she disconnected.

The unexpected departure drew gasps from the group. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was first to respond with an expression of anger at the situation, saying it was “outrageous” and that Collier “has more dignity” than former President Donald Trump.

“Let me tell you something, Rep. Collier in the bathroom has more dignity than Donald Trump in the Oval Office,” Booker said.

Newsom nodded in agreement, and Booker followed up, casting the moment as an attempt to silence an American leader, specifically a Black woman.

“What they’re trying to do right there is silence an American leader, silence a Black woman, and that is outrageous,” Booker said. “What we just witnessed, them trying to shut her down and saying it’s illegal for her to be in the bathroom and on this call, this is the lengths that they’re going to in Texas.”

TX Democrats Fly to DC to Stop Redistricting; GOP Threatens Arrests

The moment followed one of the most intense redistricting battles the country has seen in years. In a bid to stop Republicans in Texas from advancing their redistricting measure, a group of two dozen Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives had also fled the state for two weeks earlier this month, in a high-profile move meant to prevent the GOP from having a quorum and thus passing the legislation.

The move prompted Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas GOP leaders to order the lawmakers to be arrested and threatened to force them out of office if they refused to return to the Capitol.

When the Democrats returned to Austin, the mood inside the state Capitol was notably different than before they had left. Many members reported that Texas Department of Public Safety officers were assigned to monitor their movements and, in some cases, were posted outside lawmakers’ offices or even following them through hallways inside the Capitol. In one example, lawmakers described having to sign “permission slips” to leave the Capitol under the new rules, which were put in place in part to prevent the type of mass flight lawmakers used to block the bill.

At stake in the Texas bill is potentially up to five new Republican congressional seats, according to Democrats who say the GOP measure would solidify Republican control of the state for the next decade. To balance that, Newsom and other California Democrats unveiled a new redistricting plan of their own. The California governor, in a meeting organized by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, released a new congressional map in his state on Friday that would likely eliminate five Republican seats in the Golden State — effectively cancelling out GOP gains made in Texas.

The new map released Friday would redraw representation on the West Coast in a way that could potentially erase Republican gains in the Lone Star State.