In Context: Paxton’s comments about the Uvalde school shooting and God’s ‘plan’

Five days after 19 children and two teachers were fatally shot at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a podcaster asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton what he would say to comfort grieving families.

Paxton’s 2022 answer is under scrutiny now as he runs for U.S. Senate against Democratic candidate Texas Rep. James Talarico.

“NEWLY UNCOVERED AUDIO: Texas GOP US Senate candidate Ken Paxton calls the Uvalde shooting a ‘plan’ by ‘God’ and says ‘life is short’ about children murdered in an elementary school,” read a Sept. 23 X post by Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action. “This man is vile.”

In a six-second video attached to the post, Paxton is heard saying, “Look, there’s always a plan. I believe God always has a plan. Life is short no matter what it is.”

Talarico’s campaign framed Paxton’s comments the same way Aug. 2 and Sept. 1, posting on X that Paxton called the Uvalde shooting “part of a ‘plan’ by ‘God.’”

The audio isn’t “newly uncovered” — it received wide coverage in the weeks after the shooting, including being criticized as “tone deaf.”

During the May 2022 podcast interview with radio host and pastor Trey Graham, Paxton called the shooting “senseless” and said it “seemingly has no purpose.” He said, “We’re not gonna make sense of, you know, a young child being shot and killed way before their life expectancy.” He also encouraged people not to lose faith in God’s purpose.

Here’s the full 68-second exchange:

Graham: “We want to give you the chance to speak a word of, of comfort or something of encouragement to the families and those who have lost, tragically, children in this situation. As a follower of Jesus, as an elected official, what might you be able to say that might give a little comfort?”

Paxton: “Look, I, I think it’s, it’s difficult to give comfort. If I lost one of my children, I’d be pretty devastated. Especially in a, you know, way that is so senseless and, you know, seemingly has no purpose. I think I would say, I would just have to — if I had the opportunity to talk to people I’d have to say look, there’s always a plan. I believe God always has a plan. Life is short no matter what it is and certainly we’re not gonna make sense of, you know, a young child being shot and killed way before their life expectancy. And so even though we can’t make sense of it, I would just have to encourage them to hold on to their faith and to hold on to their belief that there really is purpose in, in what God does and we may not know it now, but someday we will.”

Also during the podcast, Paxton spoke in favor of hiring police officers at schools and training teachers and administrators to defend schools.

When asked about its claim that Paxton called the Uvalde shooting “part of a ‘plan’ by ‘God,” the Talarico campaign pointed to the same interview and referred to previous reporting and opinion pieces about Paxton’s comments. PolitiFact did not hear back from Paxton’s campaign.