Tucker Carlson viciously attacks Greg Abbott for refusing to have National Guard shoot migrants at the border

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

The former Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted Texas Gov Greg Abbott for not allowing the state’s National Guard shoot migrants at the US-Mexico border.

“How many Texans do you think are all on board with letting 7 million people cross into their state illegally?” Carlson asked the audience at an event on Sunday in Utica, Michigan, according to Newsweek.

“What percentage? Zero. I don’t care what your race or national origin — nobody is for that. Has the governor of Texas done anything meaningful to stop it? No,” Carlson added.

The fired Fox News host suggested that Mr Abbott could succeed in securing the border “in a week” if he lined up the National Guard along the southern border.

“He refuses to do that. He won’t do it,” Carlson said. “And it’s not like no one suggested it. I’ve suggested to him three times, including in private at a cocktail party in Dallas last year. ‘What are you doing, man? Don’t you have a National Guard? Why don’t you seal the border?’”

Carlson recalled that the Texas governor told him that idea was “complicated.”

“No, it’s not,” Carlson said on Sunday. “If someone’s trying to break into my house, it’s not complicated to repel the person. Do you have a firearm or don’t you? Are you willing to defend your house and your children or aren’t you?”

The former anchor then called Mr Abbott a “liar” and accused him of betraying his count

He said, “It’s not more complicated than that. It’s more dishonest than that. You’re lying to me. You don’t want to do it because your donors don’t want you to do it. It’s that simple. Greg Abbott. Liar. Liar. And worse than liar, betrayer of your own people. That’s what that is.”

He said he was “polite at the cocktail party” so he didn’t express those thoughts aloud at the time, but thought them. Carlson continued, “It’s not just frustrating. It’s a betrayal of the core promise of the country, which is the people rule. That’s a criminal act.”

It’s unclear if Mr Abbott was indirectly responding to Carlson’s criticism, but later on Sunday, the Texas governor posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, about the National Guard — and pointing fingers at another leader for the migrant influx at the border.

“The Texas National Guard continues to turn back illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border between points of entry,” he wrote. “Biden’s open border policies encourage these dangerous, illegal crossings.”

Greg Abbott has tried numerous tactics to deter migrants from crossing the southern border. This summer, he ordered the installation of floating barriers — made of razor-tipped buoys — across the Rio Grande river. But that seemed to do little, as the migrant encounters in the Del Rio sector only decreased by about 100.

Separately, in July, a trooper described in an email to his superior that border officers had been ordered to push small migrant children back into the Rio Grande as they attempted to cross into the US. This trooper also wrote about how officers were told not to provide water to asylum seekers — despite the extreme heat.

But at the time, spokespeople for both the Texas Military Department and the Department of Public Safety told The Independent that there was no directive against giving water to migrants or a directive to push migrants back into the water.

The White House condemned the alleged practices, as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called them “abhorrent.” She added, “It is despicable. It is dangerous. And we’re talking about the bedrock values of who we are as a country.”