Tucker Carlson took Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to task over the southern border crisis, pointing to him as an alleged example of a government official beholden to special interest money at the expense of popular will.
Carlson was speaking at an event in Michigan on Sunday, explaining his belief that the dominant system of government throughout the U.S. rejects the democratic notion of majority rule, and he turned to Texas to illustrate his theory.
“How many Texans do you think are all on board with letting 7 million people cross into their state illegally? What percentage?” he asked rhetorically. “Zero. Zero. I don’t care what your race or national origin. Nobody is for that. That’s insane.”
Carlson then claimed that even though Texans overwhelmingly want to stop the stream of unlawful immigration, Abbott is not willing to use the powers available to him to close the border.
“Has the governor of Texas done anything meaningful to stop that? No. The Republican governor. He’s got a national guard. He’s the commander-in-chief of the National Guard. And it’s Texas, so they’re all large. And they have double-stacked magazines in their side arms. You think they couldn’t stop that in a week[?] … Just assemble along the border. We’re not doing this. Yeah, he refuses to do that. He won’t do it,” Tucker said.
Tucker further asserted that Abbott chooses not to make good use of the National Guard because he is beholden to his donors rather than the will of the majority of citizens in his state.
Carlson recounted an exchange he apparently had with the governor last year at a cocktail party in Dallas, claiming he had asked Abbott, “What are you doing, man? Don’t you have a National Guard? Why don’t you seal the border?”
“Oh, it’s very complicated,” was Abbott’s answer, according to Carlson.
Carlson asserted that the solution to the border crisis is not complicated, likening it to a homeowner using a gun to “repel” someone breaking into their home.
“It’s not more complicated than that. It’s more dishonest than that. You’re lying to me. You don’t want to do it because your donors don’t want you to do it. It’s that simple, Greg Abbott,” he surmised, accusing the governor of being a liar, “And worse than liar, betrayer of your own people.”
Later on Sunday, Abbott took to social media to note that the Texas National Guard is in fact active on the border and to emphasize that the blame for the unlawful immigration crisis rests on the Biden administration.
“The Texas National Guard continues to turn back illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border between points of entry. Biden’s open border policies encourage these dangerous, illegal crossings,” posted the governor, along with two pictures of national guardsmen guarding the border.
Contrary to Carlson’s accusations, Abbott has tried various tactics to repel unlawful migrants, including forming Operation Lone Star and installing floating barriers on the Rio Grande, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. To deal with the influx of those unlawful migrants allowed entry, he began his busing initiative, relocating over 37,000 to sanctuary cities like New York City.
The Dallas Express reached out to Gov. Abbott’s office for a direct response to Carlson’s accusations but did not receive an answer by publication.
