Texas Gov. Abbott Praises Trump: ‘He Stepped Up and He Secured Our Border and Kept Texans and Americans Safe’

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) held a roundtable discussion with former President Donald Trump yesterday as well as other various events throughout the day.

During the roundtable discussion, Abbott praised the former president for his work on the southern border while he was in office.

In a clip of Abbott speaking while seated next to Trump, the GOP governor said, “One of the things that he did better than anything else and definitely better than any other president, is he stepped up and he secured our border and kept Texans and Americans safe.”

Abbott began, “Let me start out by saying what a pleasure it is to have President Trump back in the great state of Texas. He’s a great friend to Texas, he’s a great friend of mine, when I was governor and he was president, any time I called upon the president he was there to step up and help our fellow Texans.”

After the praise that he gave Trump for his time as president, Abbott lamented that, “Things have changed so quickly and so dramatically under the Biden administration, it has been amazing and disastrous.”

“For one, if you just look at the year over year numbers, look at this May versus last May, the increase of people coming across the border that have been apprehended have gone up 800%,” Abbott explained.

Abbott then criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for her work as the border czar and that she has been “misleading” Americans, doubting that even if she can supposedly fix things in the three countries that she has been focusing on, there are still others that will have citizens attempting to cross the border.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott: "One of the things that [President Trump] did better than anything else and definitely better than any other president, is he stepped up and he secured our border and kept Texans and Americans safe." pic.twitter.com/482ntS9c6p

— The Hill (@thehill) July 1, 2021

Previously, we reported about CNN’s Jim Acosta complaining about press access to the roundtable discussion:

Acosta said, “TX Gov. Abbott and his staff are blocking press access to his event today with Trump. They’ve decided to turn their roundtable discussion into a ‘pool’ coverage event.”

“However, in addition to pool, Abbott’s team is selectively allowing certain non-pool outlets into the event,” Acosta explained, while sharing a picture of a table setup with what appear to be passes on it outside of closed doors.

During the conference itself, Trump said, “The border has never been this way. It went from the best border we ever had in the history of our country” and now “it’s a disgrace.”