Schumer calls Texas governor an ‘absolute fraud’

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) an “absolute fraud” in remarks from the Senate floor regarding the governor’s response to this week’s mass shooting at a Texas elementary school.

“Yesterday, after Beto O’Rourke confronted Texas Gov. Abbott’s press conference, the MAGA governor gave some empty platitudes about healing and hope,” Schumer said Thursday, referencing former President Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

“He asked people to put their agendas aside and think about someone other than themselves. My God. How dare he. What an absolute fraud the governor of Texas is,” the majority leader said, noting that Abbott was scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) upcoming convention in Houston.

After the shooting, Abbott held a press conference during which O’Rourke, his Democratic gubernatorial opponent, interrupted him.

“You are doing nothing,” O’Rourke told Abbott. “You said this was not predictable, this was totally predictable, and you choose not to do anything.”

O’Rourke was later escorted out of the auditorium where the press conference was taking place. 

“Gov. Abbott, will you ask your MAGA buddies and your NRA pals to put aside their agendas and think of someone other than themselves, like you asked the families to do? … Of course not,” Schumer added on Thursday, saying Abbott was “more likely to outline some new plan to further loosen gun restrictions.” 

“No amount of bloodshed seems to be enough for MAGA Republicans. This nation is enraged as well as being exhausted,” he said.

Tuesday’s shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two adults dead, the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012.