After Suing Obama Indicted Rick Perry Now Believes Political Disputes Don’t Belong in Court

Rick Perry supported and joined a lawsuit against the Obama administration in 2012, but now that he has been indicted, the Texas governor believes that political differences should not be settled in court.

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On Fox News Sunday, Perry was making excuses after being indicted for abuse of power. The Texas governor said, “This is way outside the norm. This is not the way that we settle differences, political differences in this country. You don’t do it with indictments. We settle our political differences at the ballot box.”

It is funny that Perry would say this because in 2012, he supported a lawsuit that sued the Obama administration over contraception being included in the ACA. Perry praised suing President Obama over a very political dispute, “As is becoming all too predictable, the Obama Administration is continuing its unprecedented and unconstitutional intrusion into every facet of American life, this time mandating that our religious institutions violate their own beliefs. It has to stop. I commend General Abbott for taking this much-needed action, part of an ongoing battle over our right to practice our faiths, and live our lives, without Washington interference.” The contraception lawsuit from the states was later thrown out of court due to a lack of standing.

The hypocrisy is unbelievable, because Gov. Perry was indicted for abusing the power of his office while trying to get another elected official to resign. Perry is correct this is something that should have been resolved at the ballot box. The Travis County DA had already announced that she would not be running for reelection.

The key to understanding this story is Perry’s motivation for wanting to get rid of the DA. This is not a political dispute. Rick Perry was anxious to replace the DA with a Republican because she was investigating the suspicious direction of charitable funds under the governor’s control to Perry donors. The scandal at Perry’s Cancer Prevention Research Institute has been bubbling for years, and the last thing the governor needed as he eyed a run for the Republican nomination in 2016 were these chickens coming home to roost.

According to Rick Perry, lawsuits and indictments should never be used to solve political disputes unless Republicans are suing Obama. Gov. Perry broke the law, and his cherry picking of facts doesn’t change the reality that his political career is over.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association