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 ...


New COVID-19 Cases Per 100,000
  Texas 77.7  
1 Parker 145.5  
2 Johnson 144.4  
3 Wichita 140.2  
4 Tarrant 139.1  
5 Ellis 133.2  
6 Grayson 121.1  
7 Tom Green 115.9  
8 Kaufman 100.2  
9 Dallas 93.3  
10 Webb 89.4  
11 Williamson 87.8  
12 McLennan 87.3  
13 Bexar 85.0  
14 Taylor 84.2  
15 Collin 83.3  
16 Rockwall 79.3  
17 Lubbock 79.2  
18 Brazoria 74.9  
19 Midland 73.9  
20 Bell 73.7  
21 Randall 71.3  
22 Galveston 70.6  
23 Guadalupe 69.7  
24 Jefferson 68.5  
25 Hays 68.5  
26 Brazos 65.3  
27 Smith 62.0  
28 Gregg 60.3  
29 El Paso 60.0  
30 Fort Bend 58.7  
31 Potter 56.1  
32 Montgomery 53.7  
33 Denton 53.4  
34 Harris 51.4  
35 Cameron 51.3  
36 Nueces 50.1  
37 Travis 48.8  
38 Comal 45.0  
39 Hidalgo 35.8  
40 Ector 0.0  
       
  Severe    
  Uncontrolled    
  Accelerated    
  Community    
  Containment    

 

Copyright 2003-2021 Capitol Inside