Fox News "Fox News Sunday" - Transcript: Interview with Greg Abbott
Interview
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WALLACE (voice-over): Governor Greg Abbott calling the situation at one
location housing unaccompanied minors a nightmare.
ABBOTT: Children at this facility are being sexually assaulted.
WALLACE: We'll ask the governor about that and how his state has avoided a
COVID rebound after lifting mask mandates and lockdowns.
And --
JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Gun violence in this
country is an epidemic.
WALLACE: Get his reaction to Mr. Biden's executive action on guns, Texas
Governor Greg Abbott, only on "FOX News Sunday."
Then --
BIDEN: The idea of infrastructure has always evolved to meet the
aspirations of the American people and their needs.
WALLACE: The president's American Jobs Plan goes far beyond fixing bridges
and roads. We'll discuss his bid to win bipartisan support with Secretary
of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and get reaction from the number two
Republican in the Senate, John Thune.
Plus, President Biden creates a commission to study reforms to the Supreme
Court. We'll ask our Sunday panel about concern among conservatives about
altering one of the three branches of government.
And our "Power Player of the Week," the top law enforcement officer in the
Senate on being called to serve after the horror of the Capitol.
All, right now, on "FOX News Sunday".
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WALLACE (on camera): And hello again from FOX News in Washington.
If there's a ground zero in the battle between President Biden and his
conservative critics, it's the state of Texas. That's where the surge of
illegal immigration across our border is happening. It's where you'll find
the strongest pushback to White House calls for mask mandates and continued
lockdowns, and it's where you'll hear the loudest challenges to the
president's executive action on guns.
Today, our lead guest is the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. In a moment,
we'll have an exclusive interview.
But first, let's bring in Rich Edson from McAllen, Texas, on the border
with Mexico on the growing tensions between the nation's capital and the
Lone Star State.
RICH EDSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Chris, this border surge is at the
center of Texas Republicans' biggest fight with the Biden administration so
far.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EDSON (voice-over): Customs and Border Protection says agents picked up
nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children last month, a record, and stressing
government holding facilities.
REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): This is a self-inflicted wound, a manufactured
crisis brought on by President Biden. We're going to see more migrant surge
then I think I've ever seen.
EDSON: Texas officials say they're investigating reports of abuse of
children at a migrant facility. The federal Department of Health and Human
Services says it will continue investigating incidents.
Across the state in Arlington, baseball's opening day that looked normal.
That's unique. The Texas Rangers is the Major's only team to open a full
house after Governor Greg Abbott allowed businesses to operate at full
capacity.
Texas, also home to another American shooting. Authorities are charging the
accused gunman of murder and other charges after killing a man and wounding
others at a cabinet company where he worked -- as President Biden announced
a series of gun executive orders.
BIDEN: I'm going to use all the resources at my disposal as president to
keep the American people safe from gun violence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
EDSON (on camera): The president also called on Congress to approve a
series of gun measures. Here at the border, a third trip for the Homeland
Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Local reports say he'll visit two
Texas border town Thursday -- Chris.
WALLACE: Rich Edson reporting from the border in McAllen, Texas -- Rich,
thank you.
And joining us now, Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Governor, let's start with the surge of illegal immigration across the
border. In March, more than 172,000 border stops across the state, that's
the highest in 20 years, more than 20,000 unaccompanied minors now in
federal custody. And there is a report of "The New York Times," Governor,
that the government now projects more than 35,000 unaccompanied minors in
federal custody by June.
One, could it get that bad? And, two, what's the biggest single thing that
President Biden could do to stop the surge?
ABBOTT: First, Chris, I will tell you that, candidly, I expect that number
to be far higher.
I do want to go back to something you said initially. You talked about the
conservative critics of the Biden administration. This is a bipartisan
response to the Biden administration because you have Democrat members of
the United States Congress, you have Democrat members of the state
legislature, as well as Democrat local officials who are pushing back
against the Biden demonstration as much as conservatives in the state of
Texas.
But, Chris, this problem will continue to get worse because of the policies
that have been adopted by the Biden administration. What the president
could do is to immediately put back in place the "remain in Mexico"
protocols that were established in the prior administration. He could
continue to build the wall along the border in South Texas. He could send a
stronger message that these people should not be coming here.
Remember this, and that is one of the reasons why there are so my people
coming here is if you go back to the Democrat presidential debates, every
single one of the Democrat candidates said if they are elected, they will
have open borders and they will be giving things for free to anybody coming
across the board.
They were doing exactly what they promised during the course of the
campaign and this is exactly why we're seeing the flood and the Biden
administration was simply unprepared to deal with the massive in flood that
were coming in, which is why they have so haphazardly responded to it, and
that's why we've seen the dire consequences for these kids, for the adults,
and especially for the state of Texas, and it will only get worse, Chris.
WALLACE: Let's talk about those dire consequences. You made news this week
reporting that there are cases of sexual abuse at the Freeman Coliseum in
San Antonio, Texas, that houses right now more than 1,600 children.
But the head of a nonprofit that provides legal services to immigrants said
this: The only reason why Abbott is now acting like he cares about the
children in these facilities is for political reasons.
Governor, there were thousands of complaints of sexual abuse at migrant
shelters during the Trump years, not to say that what's going on now is
right, but we couldn't find one instance of you complaining and calling
that out when President Trump was president.
ABBOTT: Sure. There are multiple differences between what happened in the
Trump administration and what is happening now. First, the Trump
administration remained in constant communication with me and with my
office and let us know what was going on. Second, I saw reports about
exactly what you're talking about and saw that those reports were filed
with federal agencies.
The one that I talked about earlier this past week were reports that were
filed with state agencies, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission
and the Department of Protective and Child Services, which is basically
Child Protective Services.
And so, we had a duty to respond to any complaint about child sexual abuse
in Texas as well as to investigate it, and that's exactly what I did to
make sure it was addressed.
Chris, also, however, I must make clear that in addition to the complaints
that we received, also the Bexar County sheriff's office, Bexar County is
where San Antonio and the Freeman Coliseum is, they have already responded
to at least three complaints of sexual abuse taking place there in San
Antonio.
But don't fall prey to Democrats --
WALLACE: Right.
ABBOTT: -- and others saying, well, Abbott didn't complain up at this in
the past.
What they need to focus on is exactly what I called attention to last month
in Dallas, Texas, where I pointed out then that there were going to be
instances of child sexual abuse taking place. And today, the Biden
demonstration has done nothing to address these situations that would lead
only two more allegations of child sexual abuse.
WALLACE: Governor, I want to switch subjects on you. The president
announced regulations this week on ghost guns. He wants the Justice
Department to publish model red flag legislation for states to consider.
You tweeted this after the president's action: Biden is threatening our
Second Amendment rights. He just announced a new liberal power grab to take
away our guns.
The president anticipated that argument that you made there. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nothing I'm about to
recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment. They are phony
arguments.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Governor, is there any gun control, any limits on guns that you
would accept?
ABBOTT: Let me mention a couple things. One is I think that there is no
acceptable way that a president by executive order can infringe upon Second
Amendment rights or alter Second Amendment rights. Now, second, if the
president wanted to do something more than show -- if the president really
wanted to do something substantively, what he really could do by executive
order is to eliminate the backlog of complaints that have already been
filed about gun crimes that have taken place.
You probably know what NICS is, which is the background check organization.
Back in 2018, NICS received 122,000 complaints about people providing false
information when they tried to buy a gun. They sent those to the ATF. The
ATF sent 12,000 --
WALLACE: Governor --
ABBOTT: This is important. They sent 12,000 on two U.S. attorneys, U.S.
attorneys prosecuted 12.
Here's my point, by executive action --
WALLACE: But --
ABBOTT: -- the president could cut down on gun crimes if all he did was
tell his executive branch to start prosecuting the gun crimes that have
already been sent to the federal government.
WALLACE: But, Governor, the reason he has to go to executive action is
because Republicans in Congress will block any legislation.
I -- let's put up the numbers of what we're talking about here. There have
already been 10 mass killings by gun already this year and we're just in
April. In each of those cases, at least four victims died.
Just this week in your state, of Bryan, Texas, a gunman killed one person
and wounded at least five others.
Let's not talk about executive action. Whether it's expanding background
checks, whether it is passing red flag laws, is there anything that you
would accept?
ABBOTT: Well, first, let me tell you about Bryan, Texas. And I'm going to
tell you about something that happened in Bryan, Texas, that will answer
your question. The shooting in Bryan, Texas, I went to the hospital where
victims and their families were the night of the shooting, and we hugged
and we cried and we talked to them about it.
As I was talking to family members of one of the victims, they said,
Governor, please, do not allow this shooting to strip us of our Second
Amendment rights and they explained exactly why. They said the Second
Amendment is there for the purpose of self-defense and we need that self-
defense now more than ever because of the cartels coming into our state,
because of gangs that are operating in neighborhoods, because of the
defunding the police that made communities more vulnerable and because of
failed policies that were leased people who are very dangerous criminals
back out on the streets.
Texans and Americans know they need their Second Amendment rights to defend
themselves at a time when the United States government and other
governments are doing less to defend our fellow Americans, and that is
exactly why we should not have any further limitations of our Second
Amendment rights.
WALLACE: I want to get to a success story in Texas. Back on March 2nd, you
lifted the mask mandate. You lifted the limit on gatherings, 100 percent
capacity at restaurants and gyms and all other facilities.
There were a lot of doubters, I've got to say, including me, but let's put
up the numbers. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Texas are all down.
Now, having said that, Governor, we've seen these regional spikes and drops
over the last year plus, the Midwest is getting hit right now.
And I want to put up -- play a sound bite for you that President Biden made
this week on this subject. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: The virus is spreading because we have too many people who see the
end in sight think we're at the finish line already. Let me be deadly
earnest with you. We aren't at the finish line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: But the Texas Rangers, as we reported earlier, opened their
season to a full house of more than 38,000 fans, many of them not wearing
masks. I've got about a minute left here, Governor. One, how do you explain
the success in Texas despite the fact that you're going against the
conventional wisdom? And two, any concerns that you're moving too fast?
ABBOTT: We absolutely are not declaring victory at this time, we remain
very vigilant and guarded and proactive in our response. But there is
simple math behind the reason why we still continue to have success.
Yesterday, we had the second lowest number of hospitalizations in ten
months. We have the fourth lowest positivity rate in a year and the highest
number of vaccinations ever administered --
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Why is that, sir?
ABBOTT: It's because when you add all the number of vaccinations that have
taken place, as well as all of the acquired immunity from all of the Texans
who have been exposed and recovered from COVID-19, it means very simply
it's a whole lot more difficult for COVID-19 to be spreading to other
people in the state of Texas.
(CROSSTALK)
ABBOTT: And I've got to this real quick, Chris, and that is we did an
excellent job --
WALLACE: Go ahead.
ABBOTT: -- of vaccinating our senior population that is most vulnerable to
getting COVID-19.
WALLACE: Real quick, do you think that you have herd immunity in Texas
now?
ABBOTT: When you look at the senior population, for example, 70 -- more
than 70 percent of our seniors have received a vaccine shot, more than 50
percent of those who are 50 to 65 have received a vaccine shot. I don't
know what you herd immunity is but when you add that to the people who have
acquired immunity, it looks like it could be very close to herd immunity.
WALLACE: Good news is good news.
Governor Abbott, thank you. Thanks for your time this weekend. Please come
back, sir.
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