Texas Gov. Abbott Dodges Hard When ABC’s Karl Tries to Get Him to Grade Trump on the Economy

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) dodged hard when ABC News’s Jon Karl repeatedly pressed him to grade President Donald Trump on the economy.

“I’m asking you about what Trump is doing,” Karl said. “Let me just ask you very specifically on the question of keeping prices down, which is obviously a central part of the campaign that we saw last time. What grade would you give him on keeping prices down?”

“Well, I’ll answer that,” Abbott said. “But in the context of your question, what I’m hearing on the campaign trail, people are not talking to me about Trump. We’re talking about the contrast that exists between Republicans and Democrats in Texas.”

Abbott continued:

One thing, of course, with regard to prices, everyone wants to see the price of oil go down. They want to see the price of what they pay at the pump go down. Uh, and that’s, uh, is one thing that we’re working to address. Candidly, one of the things I’ve been working on in my campaign is I have the most robust campaign platform to provide affordability to people in the state of Texas, lowering housing costs, lowering health care costs, lowering auto insurance costs, lowering the cost of living in a home by slashing property taxes in the state of Texas. And so we are providing answers and solutions to our fellow Texans that don’t have anything to do whatsoever with what’s going on in Washington, D.C.

“So what grade would you give him?” Karl asked again.

“It depends on on what category you’re talking about,” Abbott began, and Karl offered, “I said about keeping prices low.”

“Well, listen, we all need to have prices lowered, especially at the price at the pump. And I think the president is on a track to get us there,” Abbott said.

“So, you said recently that the price of gas in Texas would be below $2 by the end of the summer,” Karl pivoted. “Are voters going to punish you and other Republicans if it’s not? Because right now the average is $3.60 a gallon here in Texas. And we’re halfway through August, more than halfway through.”

“So, when voters go vote in November, they will vote on contrast and make a choice about, do they want the Republican or the Democrat candidate? And the answer, that’s far more complex than just one price point,” Abbott said.

Not to be deterred, Karl added, “Yeah, but you said it was going to be below $2.”

“I get it,” Abbott said before shifting to talk about wanting “safe communities, whereas our opponents, they vote to defund the police.”

Watch the clip above via ABC News.

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