Abbott Blames Biden Administration, Undocumented Immigrants for Spreading Covid in Texas Days After He Rescinds Statewide Mask Mandate

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:34 pm

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) blamed the Biden administration for spreading Covid-19 in his state just days after he rescinded the statewide mask mandate and ordered all businesses to fully reopen against the advice of public health experts.

“The Biden administration was releasing illegal immigrants into our community who had Covid,” he told Fox News. “The Biden administration was spreading Covid in South Texas yesterday because of their lack of constraint of testing and quarantining people who come across the border illegally. The Biden administration was exposing Texans to Covid. That is a Neanderthal-type approach to dealing with the Covid situation.”

Abbott issued his remarks after President Joe Biden criticized the states of Texas and Mississippi for lifting their mask mandates, warning that easing health guidelines now would be catastrophic, undermining the nationwide vaccination effort.

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“I think it’s a big mistake. Look, I hope everybody realizes by now that masks make a big difference. We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because the way in which we are able to get vaccines,” Biden told reporters yesterday. “The last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking that, in the meantime, everything is fine, take off our mask, forget it.”

You can listen to Abbott’s remarks in the video below.

Abbott’s deflections come as Texans continue to deal with the fallout of a severe winter storm that crippled the state’s power grid, leaving millions without heat and water. At least 70 people have died since the crisis began. Abbott, without citing any evidence, initially blamed the outages on frozen wind turbines and solar panels.

“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott told Fox News personality Sean Hannity during an appearance on February 16. “Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis. … It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.”

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.