Texas governor blasts 'clueless' media after ABC reporter suggests GOP to blame for border crisis
Martha Raddatz says Biden is not the one using the term 'open border'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, ripped into the media after a veteran ABC journalist suggested Republicans' rhetoric is partially to blame for the crisis at the southern border.
Abbott responded Tuesday to a clip from his interview with Martha Raddatz after she said she had never heard President Biden use the term "open border" while instead recounting such rhetoric from Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former President Donald Trump.
Abbott told "Jesse Watters Primetime" that Raddatz's claim that such messaging "reverberates in Mexico and beyond" while being acted upon by cartel smugglers is simply untrue.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's just crazy to suggest anything like that," he said.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"It shows that the mainstream media — they're really clueless about what's going on in the border — as well as Joe Biden's spokesperson, who said that the border's not open."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Abbott compared the Biden administration and Trump-era leads to the conclusion the preceding administration oversaw the most secure border in decades.
Unlike Biden, he said, Trump enacted the Remain in Mexico endeavor, enforced the Title 42 pandemic-related deportation policy, ended "catch-and-release" of illegal immigrants and supported the construction of a border wall.
"That's what President Trump did, and we had the lowest border crossings since last century," he said.
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Jesse Watters (Fox News)
"Now, under Joe Biden, we have far more record-setting numbers of people coming across the border than ever before. It's all because of Joe Biden's policies."
Host Jesse Watters asked if Abbott offered Raddatz an aerial view of the border crisis, which the governor said he indeed did.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Right after that interview… we did fly her up in the helicopter and showed her exactly what was going on in the ground," he said. "And the fact of the matter is, there are people coming across the border and Joe Biden is doing nothing about it."
"And that's exactly why Texas is having to step up and take extraordinary efforts that have never been undertaken by any state in the history of the United States to try to secure our border."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Abbott pledged to continue busing migrants to sanctuary municipalities like Philadelphia, New York and Washington, adding that the Mexican cartels are leading migrants toward areas where federal agents are present because they know they will have a better chance of being set free than if they are instead apprehended by Texas state law enforcement.