Texas Governor Rebuffs CNN Anchor’s Effort to Find Fault With Trump
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott showed he is as nimble as they come this week by leaving a CNN reporter clutching air when she was seeking something to grab onto that she could use against President Donald Trump.
Abbott, whose state was slammed by Hurricane Harvey last weekend and has faced days of flooding in its aftermath, spoke with CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota on Wednesday’s edition of New Day. At that time, Trump had made one visit to Texas. His second visit would come Saturday.
Camerota first wanted to know what Trump actually accomplished Tuesday.
“Well, it was very important for the president to show up and to show how much he cared about the state of Texas, about our citizens, and about his commitment to helping Texas get through this emergency process and then rebuild,” Abbott said.
“But as far as the president himself is concerned,” he added, “I got to visit with him at length and see both his compassion and his commitment to helping Texas get through this process.”
Camerota then second-guessed how Trump spent his time.
have you seen any of allyson camerota? she had Gov Abbott and kept trying to lead him, almost begging him to find something Pres did wanting
— Cheese In The Trap (@MilitaryRosary) September 2, 2017
“Do you think that the president should have talked more about the victims? I mean, when you talk about his compassion, obviously there is some criticism today that he didn’t talk enough about the victims, he didn’t reach out to them enough,” she said.
Abbott said just because Trump wasn’t wading in floodwaters did not mean he was not thinking about the flood victims.
“Well I know that he talked to me at length about the victims. And about the devastation that he saw and about his deep concern about what people were going through. He and I together were watching on TV the flooding that was occurring in Houston. He didn’t want to go to that location because he didn’t want to interfere with it. But he expressed his sorrow and deep concern about how these people’s lives have been completely inundated, and his compassion and commitment to help them to respond,” Abbott said.
Camerota tried again, asking if Abbott wanted more help.
“We talked about where we’re going to go from here and what needs to be done from here to take care of the challenges that Texans are going to be facing for months and for years to come. And we began to talk in detail about how we will continue to work seamlessly to make sure that we address these ongoing challenges.”
Trump has since said he will seek billions in federal disaster assistance to help Texas and Louisiana recover from Harvey.
Camerota then mentioned that Mexico has troops ready to send if the U.S. can’t do the job.
Abbott made it clear that the relief effort is working fine without them.
“We already have on the ground National Guard from countless states, across the United States. And let me use this opportunity to thank all these states. I can’t even list them all because so many have been involved in this process,” he said. “But again, as we speak, we have these conversations from the president to his Cabinet to the Department of Defense — and have the right strategies in place to make sure that we have the right personnel in place.” (For more from the author of “Texas Governor Rebuffs CNN Anchor’s Effort to Find Fault With Trump” please click HERE)
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