Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott appeared on the Andrea Tantaros Show today, and gave his national counterpart both barrels. Abbott accused Attorney General Eric Holder of engaging in “political theater” for taking Texas to court over its voter ID law, after the Supreme Court struck down the Voting Right Act’s Section 5 preclearance mandate. Under preclearance, 15 states including Texas have had to get approval from the Justice Department or a federal court for any changes made to any voting laws. Holder’s Justice Department has used preclearance as a pre-text for holding up Texas’ popular voter ID law, which was modeled on a law that has already been found constitutional by the Supreme Court.
“As you know, it was just last month the United States Supreme Court said that we no longer have to play ‘mother, may I’ with the United States Department of Justice whenever we try to have new voting type legislation,” Abbott said, noting that “the Obama administration is trying to deny Texas voter integrity” by fighting Texas’ 2011 law, “despite the fact that in a separate case, the United States Supreme Court has already said that voter ID laws are perfectly constitutional.” Abbott said that the Obama administration is “trying to sow racial divide as opposed to unity. And they’re using the legal system as sword to wage political attacks rather than as a shield to protect against wrongdoing.”
Abbott pinpointed the administration’s long-term goal in taking Texas to court: Turning Texas into a Democrat state. He said the Obama administration is “using legal tools to achieve political ends, and we’re just not going to tolerate it.” He cited the fact that despite Democrat claims that voter ID and the state’s districting maps hurt Hispanics, the state elected five Hispanic Republicans just from 2010 forward.
“This has electoral college math all over it,” Abbott said, “because they realize that if they can get Texas’ electoral college votes, then Democrats will win presidential elections forever more.”
Abbott also noted that the Obama administration’s court fight against Texas’ 2010 re-districting, using the Voting Rights Act, helped replace elected Hispanic Republican officeholders with Democrats. Obama’s lawfare, then, hurt minorities in Texas — all in the guise of the Voting Rights Act.
Abbott promises a fight for Texas’ voter ID law in court in San Antonio, noting that Texas has won three straight court victories against the Obama administration. Abbott is running for governor in 2014.
Listen to the entire interview here.
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The Andrea Tantaros Show is produced by the Fox and Rice Experience for Talk Radio Network.
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