Former Trump Admin Immigration Hardliner Blasts Fox News for Letting Gov. Abbott ‘Spew This Garbage Unchallenged’ About Border
Former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli blasted Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) for bragging about his effort to “repel illegal crossings,” calling the boast “garbage” on Monday — and he didn’t spare any punches for the network that aired Abbott’s comments either.
In an appearance on Fox News, Abbott explained that in order to mitigate the consequences of the expiration of Covid-era Title 42 protocol at the border, Texas will deploy its own “Tactical Border Force.”
According to Abbott, the Border Force is comprised of “elite National Guard, who are specifically trained for one thing. And that is to identify areas where illegal immigrants are trying to cross the border and to fill that gap and to repel them, to deny them access, to entry into the United States.”
Abbott continued:
They can do it one of several ways. They can physically turn back those who are trying to cross the border illegally. Also, they’re building immediate Concertina wire border barriers that prevent people from coming across the border.
You saw an early iteration of this back in December when you saw long lines of people trying to cross into El Paso. In a matter of 24 hours, the National Guard built a Concertina wire border barrier and it stopped that inflow immediately. We’re using strategies like that up and down the border to identify locations where the cartels are trying to smuggle people across the border, and put a stop to it.
Abbott promoted his appearance in a tweet on Monday in which he repeated the claim that the Tactical Border Force would repel illegal crossings:
We’re deploying the new Texas Tactical Border Force to border hotspots to repel illegal crossings.
These elite soldiers will fill in the gaps in preparation for Title 42 ending this week.
In Biden’s absence, Texas continues taking unprecedented action to respond to this crisis. pic.twitter.com/Mgam014GCM
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 8, 2023
Cuccinelli, a longtime immigration hawk who recently helped found Never Back Down, a political action committee supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s prospective presidential campaign, objected to the claim.
“I’m sorry to say, but my friend @GregAbbott_TX is not … ummm… ‘being accurate’ here…” asserted Cuccinelli.” He is NOT ‘repelling’ illegal crossings, despite having the constitutional authority to do so. C’mon @FoxNews, letting him spew this garbage unchallenged is an embarrassment.”
The Republican-on-Republican violence comes as much of the GOP pins the blame for the border crisis on President Joe Biden and his administration. The number of encounters at the southern border have skyrocketed since Biden moved into the White House, and his Homeland Security secretary and Border Patrol chief recently contradicted each other on whether the U.S. maintains operational control at the border.
“In Biden’s absence, Texas continues taking unprecedented action to respond to this crisis,” declared Abbott on Monday.
