New York City Mayor Eric Adams is suing for $700 million, claiming that is how much he has spent over the last two years accommodating the migrants Texas Governor Greg Abbott has bussed to New York City. Of all the migrants who have crossed into Texas illegally, those traveling to NYC are but a drop in the bucket. If Mayor Adams thinks $700 million is painful, make sure he has some smelling salts when he hears Texas taxpayers pay more than $13 billion a year to confront the border crisis.
The rest of Adams's spiel is the standard left-wing dribble we're all used to by now: politics over people, political pawns, blah blah blah foot stomp virtue signal. Last week Governor Abbott joined Texas-based national radio host Dana Loesch to discuss the lawsuit and what he said was anything but a worn-out talking point:
Dana Loesch: What can be done, right up to the line, where maybe they would come and say, 'Governor, you're breaking the law and we have to arrest you'? Like, what's the maximum amount of pressure that you as governor can implement to protect the border?
Governor Greg Abbott: We are using every tool that can be used from building a border wall to building these floating barriers. I have signed a law making it illegal for somebody to enter Texas from another country; they're subject to arrest and subject to deportation. So, we are deploying every tool and strategy that we possibly can. The only thing that we're not doing is we're not shooting people who come across the border, because the Biden administration would charge us with murder.
I've known Greg Abbott a long time. In 2014, when Greg Abbott was running to fill Rick Perry's boots as Texas governor, I was the digital communications director for the Ken Paxton attorney general campaign. That election cycle, I spent more time with Abbott and his campaign staff than I did with my own family (hold your horses; I wasn't married or a mother then). It seemed like Abbott had the secret sauce recipe because he was charismatic, well-spoken, and came across as genuine as a politician can. People stood in lengthy applause when he told the story of pushing himself up parking garage ramps in his wheelchair after he became paralyzed, a beacon of persistence and grit.
"The only thing that we're not doing is we're not shooting people who come across the border, because the Biden administration would charge us with murder."
The internet speed record for translation was stolen from Swifties reading Taylor's lips during the last Chiefs game and is now awarded to any human who understood Abbott's comments to be "I would if I could, but I can't so I won't." Not exactly what the governor meant, or is it?
Republicans in Austin have been backsliding for years. As Democrats have tried and tried and tried again to turn the state blue, dyed-in-the-wool Republicans have been throwing Texas swagger like confetti, taking credit for all of the freedom, prosperity, and popularity. Over the last decade, the party has gone from a country club soirée to a 3-day Gamma Omega Pi fraternity bender. Republicans in Austin have been drinking the trash can punch of group think so long that they've lost sight of reality. If someone shotguns another beer can of Conservative Consultant Lite, they're going to black out in the yard.
The Greg Abbott from 2014 would not have said anything that could be construed as "ya know, I'd shoot women and children crossing the Rio Grande if I could get away with it." Then again, in 2014, we didn't have the border crisis we have today. We also didn't have a desensitization to rhetoric the way we do in the post-Trump years. Among other things, the 45th president made unfiltered comments great again.
Given that his wife Cecilia is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, I have a hard time believing Greg would say something like that with a malevolent intention. She is profoundly educated, well-mannered, and stately, walking softly but carrying a big stick. I'd gladly volunteer my chancla should she ever ask, but she's too classy for that.
What is more likely is Abbott wanted to say they are literally doing everything they can to stop the invasion short of declaring an unauthorized war. The messaging got mixed up when a staffer caught a quick conversation between Abbott and Trump wherein Trump lofted the "we're not shooting them" line without much thought and that staffer ran with it. After all, in the comms world, anytime you can funnel the words of someone bigger and more important than you into your mouth, the better. During The Dana Show prep, the staffer probably got a round of laughs when (s)he said, "Remember, Governor, you're doing everything you can short of shooting them to stop this invasion. Murder charges? Ain't nobody got time for that!"
The intervention Republicans in Austin need cannot start until they nurse a magnificent hangover in the form of a lost election. While the Texas majority has been living it up, Democrats have not let up on the grassroots organization. If the Democrats put up someone remotely normal (that is, not Beto or Wendy Davis) and voters see Abbott as MAGA, any registered voter who is or close to "anyone but Trump" would hesitate to vote straight ticket, and, y'all, that's how the dominoes fall. Dan Patrick, the lt. governor, and Ken Paxton, the AG, are all in for Trump; add Abbott and that is one yuge MAGA billboard on I-35. If Texas Republicans lose the top of the ticket, land commissioner, railroad commissioner, agriculture commissioner, and comptroller tumble down, too.
That would be the best chance Texas Democrats have had at victory since Ann Richards. Losing for the first time in three decades would be a sucker punch "I think I'm still be drunk" political pride would not easily recover from.
In the interim, because I'm not at all convinced that this next cycle is going to be the one that moves Texas closer to purple, Texas Republicans in Austin would do we to carefully evaluate their communication staff. Anyone shortsighted enough to put sentiments like "hey, at least we aren't murdering them" in the minds, mouths, or media of an official needs to be demoted. I'm not in the business of cancel culture so I won't advocate for anyone being fired, but the higher ups in Texas need a dose of reality.
In fact, let's do this: for every asinine comms staffer that is demoted, let's replace them with custodial staff. Talk about a promotion! One day you're scrubbing toilets and pulling weeds and the next you're influencing a statement that will be issued by a lawmaker. Are they experienced? No. Are they college-educated? Probably not. Do they have a clue what real life is like for the people who live under the laws? You bet. Do they hang out with people who talk smack about politicians? All the time.
Hard-working, humble, unimpressed by credentials? Sounds exactly like what a lot of Republicans, in Texas and elsewhere, need.
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