Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on President Biden to stop denouncing and spreading “misinformation” about a sweeping election reform bill backed by Lone Star State Republicans.
In a video posted Tuesday evening to Twitter, the governor began by remarking on the commander-in-chief previously accusing him of “neanderthal thinking” for reopening his state earlier this year.
“It turned out he was wrong,” Abbott said.
“Well, now President Biden is calling Texas names again,” he continued, “This time, he’s chastising us for making it easy to vote but hard to cheat. And once again, President Biden ignores the facts.”
“The fact is that Texas is passing a law that expands not reduces the hours of early voting,” the GOPer added, “That’s more than many states, including President Biden’s home state of Delaware, which has zero hours of early voting.”
He also noted that the law will help prevent mail-in ballot fraud and “uphold the integrity of our elections and ensure that Texas who do qualify to vote by mail will have the ability to do so.”
The Texas state Senate approved the sweeping bill Tuesday night, one day after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to prevent the chamber from taking up the legislation.
The state Senate approved the bill on an 18-4 party-line vote. Nine Senate Democrats had joined 51 of their House colleagues in hightailing it to Washington, DC, though this was not enough to deny the upper chamber a quorum.
However, the legislation is now stalled due to the absence of a quorum in the House.
Republicans say the measures in the bill — which include ending drive-thru and 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes, and empowering partisan poll watchers — are designed to ensure the integrity of the vote by preventing voter fraud.
Democrats, meanwhile, claim the measures make it harder for poor people and minorities to cast ballots.
In his speech Tuesday on voting rights, Biden condemned GOP state election reform efforts, taking aim at Texas.
“In Texas, for example, the Republican legislature wants to allow partisan poll watchers to intimidate voters and impartial poll workers. They want voters to dive further, and be able to be in a position where they wonder who’s watching them,” he said.
“To wait longer to vote…[T]hey want to make it so hard and inconvenient that they hope people don’t vote at all.”