Governor Plays Down Calls for Trump Ouster
and Claims He's Not to Blame for D.C. Violence

Patrick Runs Risk of Mob Revenge with Admission

Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside
January 11, 2021

Governor Greg Abbott suggested on Monday that Democrats and a growing number of Republicans in Congress were playing political games with attempts to remove President Donald Trump from office for his role in the deadly insurrection at the nation's Capitol last week.

The Republican governor sought to absolve Trump of any culpability in the aftermath of the mob attack that U.S. House Democrats are officially charging him with inciting in articles of impeachment this week.

“Violence always obviously is unacceptable,” Abbott said at a press conference in Arlington on the coronavirus vaccine. “But the people responsible for that violence are the people who did it. They’re the ones who should be punished for it.”

Responding to a question on whether Trump should resign before his term ends next week, Abbott set himself up for criticism on both sides of the aisle with a line of reasoning that flies in the face of reality. Abbott, who's served as Texas attorney general and Supreme Court judge, is well aware that people who encourage crimes and those who are active or silent accomplices are often prosecuted and sent to prison in some cases.

Abbott's comments seemed relatively dismissive compared to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's belated acknowledgment on Sunday that Trump supporters had been predominantly responsible for the attack in Washington. While Patrick called for unity and healing in the fallout from the attempted coup, Abbott used the historic event for a subtle broadside at political rivals.

“He’s in office, what, another week?” Abbott said of the president who has nine days left in his term if he doesn't get the boot from Congress before then. “Listen, all the political machinations in Washington, D.C. about the last few days of his presidency are nothing more than political machinations.”

While Abbott could have said the same thing about Congress on any given day, the governor indicated that he found the uproar on the failed Trump coup to be a distraction from the coronavirus pandemic.

“What Americans want to see out of the United States Congress, they want to see action,” Abbott said. he said. “They want to see the United States Congress stepping up and doing everything they can to provide more vaccines and make them available for people in Texas. We don’t need them to do political infighting. They should be working every minute of every day coming up with strategies that will create more vaccines for Texans and Americans.”

more to come ...