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Chris Wallace corners Texas Governor Greg Abbott over ignoring refugee abuse under Trump

Chris Wallace corners Texas Governor Greg Abbott over ignoring refugee abuse under Trump

It’s truly amazing how Republicans can ignore a problem when they hold the reins of power, but suddenly that same issue becomes a source of tremendous outrage when Democrats take control of the federal government.

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace confronted GOP Texas Governor Greg Abbott this morning during an interview on Fox News Sunday, questioning whether the right-wing politician ignored the sexual abuse of migrant refugees when Donald Trump was still president while making it a centerpiece of his attacks on President Biden’s performance so far in tackling the immigration enforcement problems on our nation’s southern border.

“You made news this week reporting that there are cases of sexual abuse at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas that houses more than 1,600 children,” Wallace noted, saying that Abbott had been facing accusations of suddenly manifacturing concern for the affected children for “political reasons.”

Wallace also pointed out that this type of abuse did not suddenly start occurring once Biden was inaugurated.

“Governor, there were thousands of complaints of sexual abuse at migrant shelters during the Trump years,” the Fox News anchor continued. “Not to say what’s going on now is right but we couldn’t find one instance of you complaining and calling that out when President Trump was president.”

Suddenly finding himself in the hot seat, Abbott scrambled to come up with an answer, but could only blurt out a denial that claimed that things were completely different now.

“Sure,” Abbott replied. “There are multiple differences between what happened in the Trump administration and what is happening now,” he said.

Abbott couldn’t come up with any specifics about exactly what those differences may be, outside of the fact that he was in “constant communication” with Trump — an indictment in and of itself — and therefore didn’t feel like he needed to raise any public alarms.

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While it may seem like Abbott’s response is the perfect example of how Republicans lack any convictions beyond playing attack politics, it is also an example of how the GOP has sunk to perverse levels in its attempts to defend the indefensible legacy of Donald Trump.

Governor Abbott mouthed the appropriate words while forming his defense, claiming a deep concern about the welfare of the victimized refugees while ignoring the fact that his concern seems to have only blossomed once the GOP lost control of the White House.

“We have a duty to respond to any complaint about child sexual abuse in Texas as well as to investigate it,” Abbbot stated.

While Abbott is absolutely correct about his duty, he never really addressed the reason he failed to fulfill that duty while Trump was in office.

Chalk it up to yet another hypocritical Republican politician for whom partisan platitudes substitute for effective governance.

You can watch a clip of Chris Wallace’s interview with Texas Governor Greg Abbott in the video below.

Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter. 

Original reporting by David Edwards at RawStory.

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Vinnie Longobardo
Managing Editor
Vinnie Longobardo is the Managing Editor of Occupy Democrats. He's a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.

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