Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott tells CNN's Jake Tapper that he plans to sue the Obama administration over the border crisis. So what else is new?
July 13, 2014

I'm not sure just how many more times the sue-happy wingnut Attorney General from Texas has to repeat this act before some of the hosts on these cable news start calling it what it is, which is pure political theater, but as of this weekend, it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon.

Texas AG Greg Abbott was back at it again, telling CNN's Jake Tapper that he's preparing yet another law suit against the Obama administration over the current crisis with the refugees from Central America pouring in.

I don't know what Abbott thinks he's accomplishing other than wasting more tax payer dollars with this stunt and of course there was no mention of what might actually be the root causes as to why these desperate people are flooding into the country. Just more calls to militarize the border, as though that's going to solve the problem.

Transcript via CNN:

TAPPER: So what does this all mean for the immigration crisis on the border? Let's bring in Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who is also a candidate for governor in the lone star state facing Democrat Wendy Davis.

So Mr. Abbott, what's your reaction to the speaker not bringing in any immigration issues, not mentioning the dreamers order of 2012 in his proposed lawsuit? I would imagine that would be a bit disappointing?

GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, what's disappointing is the fact that just yesterday, the president was here in Texas, here in Austin, just a few hundred miles away from the border and he turned his back on the border. He called this place a crisis. Just a week or two ago and he could not respond to a crisis by himself showing up and trying to address this issue.

This is a huge challenge for the state of Texas, Jake. We expect the president to live up to his responsibility and the federal government's responsibility to secure our border and to address this unprecedented influx of immigrants from Central America.

TAPPER: That's my point. Wouldn't you want that to be in the lawsuit that Speaker Boehner is bringing up then?

ABBOTT: Here's the deal, Jake. Yes, and that is I have no control over any litigation that the House leader may bring against the Obama administration. What I do have control over, however, is litigation that I may bring. As we speak, I am working on potential litigation against the Obama administration for not living up to its responsibilities to secure the border. I'm in the process of gathering all the costs the Texas taxpayers may have incurred so far because of the federal government's negligence.

TAPPER: It's about $50 million you're saying because of added boots on the ground at the border. How do you stop this influx? You want to be the governor of Texas. You're the attorney general of Texas. It's not like you don't have any role. How do you stop these tens of thousands of undocumented young men -- youngsters and men and women from coming in?

ABBOTT: I have a plan already outlined that's on my web site that deals specifically with securing our border. It requires more boots on the ground. I've been involved in these operations when the Texas Department of Public Safety goes to the border and every time that we have done this, it has staunched the flow of illegal operations across the border.

So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if we do this on an ongoing basis, it will staunch the flow on an ongoing basis. That's precisely why the state of Texas a couple of weeks ago re- entered our Department of Public Safety to the border region to help secure the border and we expect to have more boots on the ground on a permanent basis.

However, because this is a national and international border, this it is something that the federal government has the primary responsibility to deal with. So to the extent that states --

TAPPER: Wouldn't you have thousands more border patrol officers? Wouldn't you have tens of millions of dollars more already to deal with this if the House took up the Senate's immigration reform bill, which had a strong border control component to it that Republicans in border states supported?

ABBOTT: It should not take all the time that would be required for a law to pass. The president has said he has a pen that he can sign and he needs to sign a check to take care of this. He needs to -- we've already made a request for the National Guard. He should immediately send 1,000 National Guard down to the border.

I have personally made requests to Jeh Johnson's office for resources that we need. Jake, this is something that could happen overnight if the president did not turn his back on the U.S. border and took care of his responsibility.

TAPPER: But you know what President Obama told your Governor Rick Perry the other day when Rick Perry said take some executive action here. He said he's being sued by John Boehner and the House Republicans for exerting himself too much.

ABBOTT: He does that as a concerned things like which you were talking about previously about re-altering the Obamacare law. He doesn't have to come up with an act of Congress in order to appropriate funds or the National Guard to the state of Texas. This is something that he has unilateral authority to do. He can trigger on his own and he can get it done tomorrow if he really cared about addressing the problem.

TAPPER: But he said what he needs is people like you and people like Governor Perry to encourage House Republicans to come together at the table so they can solve the problem. Is that what you're doing?

ABBOTT: Well, I think it's embarrassing if the president is trying to enlist lobbyists to try to help him get action done when the president himself has made clear that he's the one who has responsibility for creating this crisis in the first place. And so what the president needs to do is double down on his international message that you cannot have people coming to this country illegally and expecting to stay here.

He needs to double down on his message if you come here illegally you will be returned and he needs to step up and secure the border by adding increased border patrol agents, the National Guard increased boots on the ground and assets in the air.

TAPPER: I just want to clarify something. I might have misheard you, did you say that President Obama has acknowledged causing the problem at the border? I might have misheard you.

ABBOTT: Yes, the president made a statement about a week ago where he made clear to people in Central America or really around the world don't come here, don't risk your lives coming here because you will be sent back. And it's commonly perceived that that was in response to what has been said by me and others.

And that is that this influx increased after the president stood in the Rose Garden in 2012 sending a message by his proclamation that young immigrants would be allowed to stay here. It's been commonly said by immigrants to border patrol agents in South Texas that they were coming here because they perceived the president was allowing them to stay here.

TAPPER: Well, I had also heard the 2008 law signed into law by President Bush, which allowed people from Central America, youngsters, kids to stay later and not be immediately deported to have years and years before their hearing, that that was also responsible. Neither of us knows why these rumors took hold. But in any case, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, I thank you for your time.

Yeah, let's get some more "boots on the ground" so we can point more guns at these desperate women and children's heads. That should fix everything. He pretends they aren't already surrendering themselves to authorities.

For a party that claims they hate lawyers and activist judges, they sure do like using them when it suits their purpose, don't they?

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