New York City Mayor Eric Adams has filed a lawsuit for $700,000,000, claiming he spent that amount over the past two years to accommodate the migrants Texas Governor Greg Abbott bussed into New York City. The migrants who have traveled to NYC represent a small fraction of the illegal immigrants who entered Texas. If Mayor Adams believes $700 million in taxes is bad, he should be prepared to smell some salts after hearing that Texas taxpayers spend more than $13 Billion a year on the border crisis.
Adams’s rest of his speech is standard leftist dribble that we’re used to: politics over people; political pawns; blah, blah, blah virtue signal. Last week, Governor Abbott spoke with Texas-based radio host Dana Loesch about the lawsuit. He said that it was not a tired talking point.
Dana Loesch : What can we do, up until the point where they might come and say ‘Governor you are breaking the law, and we must arrest you?’Â What’s the maximum pressure you can apply as governor to protect the border?
Governor Greg Abbott: From building a wall on the border to building these floating barriers, we are using all tools available. I signed a bill making it illegal to enter Texas from a foreign country. They are subject to arrest or deportation. We are using every tool and strategy we can. We don’t shoot people at the border because we know that the Biden administration will charge us with murder.
I’ve been friends with Greg Abbott for a very long time. In 2014, Greg Abbott ran to replace Rick Perry as Texas Governor. I was the director of digital communications for Ken Paxton’s attorney general campaign. I spentÂ
more time in that election with Abbott’s campaign than with my family. (Hold your horses, I wasn’t married nor a mother at the time). Abbott seemed to have the secret sauce because he had charisma, was well-spoken, and appeared as authentic as a politician could. He was applauded for a long time when he described how he pushed himself up ramps of parking garages in his wheelchair, after becoming paralyzed.
The Biden administration would accuse us of murder if we shot people crossing the border.
Swifties who were reading Taylor’s mouth during the Chiefs’ game have now been robbed of their internet speed record. It is now given to anyone who can understand Abbott’s comment as “I’d do it if I could but I’m not able to so I won’t.” Is this what the governor intended?
Republicans in Austin are slipping backward. While Democrats tried to turn the entire state blue over and over again, Republicans who are devoted to the party have thrown Texas swagger around like confetti and taken credit for the state’s freedom, prosperity, and popularity. In the past decade, the party went from a country club soiree to an all-night Gamma Omega Pi fraternity binge. Republicans in Austin are so accustomed to drinking trash cans of groupthink that they have lost their sense of reality. They’ll black out if someone shoots another can of Conservative Consultant Lite.
Greg Abbott of 2014 would never have said “Ya’know, I’d kill women and children crossing the Rio Grande if it was legal.” In 2014, the border crisis that we face today was not as severe. In 2014, we also did not have the same desensitization of rhetoric as in the post-Trump years. The 45th President made the unfiltered remarks great again.
It’s hard to believe that Greg would intentionally say such a thing, given that his wife Cecilia was born in Mexico. She’s well-spoken, educated, and has a stately walk, but she carries a large stick. If she asked, I would gladly offer my chance. But she is too classy to do that.
It is more likely that Abbott wanted to convey the message that they were doing everything possible to stop the invasion without declaring war. A staffer overheard a conversation between Trump and Abbott where Trump said, “We’re not going to shoot them”, without giving it much thought. The staffer then ran with the line. In the world of comms, it’s always better to use the words of someone more powerful than yourself. During the Dana Show preparation, a staffer said something that probably brought a few laughs. “Remember Governor, you are doing everything you can to stop this invasion, short of shooting them.” Murder charges? “Ain’t no one got time for that!”
Republicans in Austin cannot begin the intervention they need until they have a spectacular hangover, in the form of a lost election. Democrats are not letting up although the majority of Texas is enjoying themselves. The dominoes will fall if the Democrats nominate someone who appears to be normal (not Beto, Wendy Davis, or anyone else) and the voters perceive Abbott as MAGA. Abbott, Ken Paxton, and Dan Patrick are all for Trump. Add Abbott, and you have a MAGA billboard along I-35. If Texas Republicans lose their top-of-the-ticket, they will also lose the land commissioner, railroadcommission, agriculture commissioner, and comptroller.
This would be the first chance Texas Democrats had to win since Ann Richards. It would be difficult to recover from a loss for the first three decades. “I’m still drunk”, would be the political pride.
Texas Republicans would be wise to evaluate their communications staff in the meantime, as I am not convinced that the next election cycle will move Texas closer to the purple color. Any official who is short-sighted enough to say things like “Hey, we’re not murdering them”, or to use the media to express such sentiments, should be demoted. I don’t work in cancel culture, so I won’t recommend anyone be fired. But the Texas higher-ups need to face the reality.
Let’s do this: For every pathetic comms employee who is demoted let’s replace him with custodial personnel. What a promotion that would be! You can be scrubbing the toilets, pulling weeds one day, and influencing a legislator’s statement the next. Are they experienced in their field? No. Do they have a college education? Most likely not. They don’t know what it is like to live in a country with laws. You bet. They do. Every day.
Hardworking, humble, and unimpressed with credentials? This is exactly what many Republicans in Texas, and elsewhere, are looking for.
