Fox News host Tucker Carlson debated Texas governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday, shortly after calling Abbott a liar in regard to unfulfilled campaign promises by the governor to secure the border with 10,000 National Guardsmen.
Abbott opened by taking issue with data cited by Carlson regarding the available strength of the Guard in Texas.
“First, let’s do the math based upon what you laid out,” Abbott told Carlson. “We actually don’t have 19,000 National Guard at our disposal.”
“The reason is because Texas leads all states in the country in having our National Guard deployed to regions across the entire world, and so thousands of our National Guard are actually in other countries at this time,” Abbott added.
Carlson responded by asking why Abbott was bragging about having Texas Guardsmen being deployed overseas instead of to the border, and asked why border deployments wouldn’t be a better use of the Texas National Guard’s manpower.
“You’re the governor. Why don’t you just say, any person with military and law enforcement experience can join up,” Carlson queried. “We’re starting our own force, it’s volunteer. Or just go to Midland, Dallas, and Houston and get donors to fund it, they would.”
“I’d send you money, everyone would send you money and we’re going to stop this on behalf of the state of Texas and the United States,” Carlson noted. “You could do that. The Biden people would back down in the face of that determination. Why not?”
Carlson added, “People would send you money. If you started up a voluntary fund – send Greg Abbott money – people would put you in their wills. I mean, you’d probably be president of the United States if you did that.”
“I’m serious, if you took control and closed the border, which you can do, you would be a folk hero sung about by future generations around the campfire. I just think it’s that simple,” the Fox News host told Abbott.
“Texas, once again, takes a stand against an invasion,” Carlson concluded. “It’s not the first time you’ve done it, I think you should do it again.”
This news and commentary by Gabriel Keane originally appeared on Valiant News.
