(The Center Square) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said President Joe Biden should resign immediately after Biden announced via social media Sunday that he was not seeking reelection but would stay in office for the remainder of his term.
In a statement on X, Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race. “My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” he said. He also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him.
Harris has said she will seek the Democratic presidential nomination although the party will hold an open convention at which delegates will decide.
In response to the news, Abbott said in a series of social media posts, “If Biden is unfit to run FOR the presidency, he is unfit to run THE presidency.
”American security is at risk both at home and abroad.
“A change in the oval office is essential – immediately – to ensure the safety of Americans and the security of our country.”
In response to Biden endorsing Harris, whom he designated as “border czar,” Abbott said, “I think I will need to triple the border wall, razor wire barriers and National Guard on the border.”
He has also argued that Texas’ “border czar” Mike Banks has done more in one day than Harris did in her entire time as Biden’s border czar.
And while Texas is currently embroiled in legal battles with the Biden administration over border security efforts, the Texas legislature has allocated nearly $12 billion to secure Texas’ border, more than multiple state fiscal year budgets and more than what the Trump administration allocated to federal border security efforts in Texas.
Abbott also posted a clip of Harris’ response to criticism that she had not been to the border at the time in June 2021 as tens of thousands of illegal border crossers a day were overrunning border communities that historically voted Democrat. Her critics, both Democrats and Republicans, have argued she hasn’t overseen any aspect of border security and Texas and Arizona governors (former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey at the time) were doing more to secure the border than she was. She said, “this whole thing about the border, we’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.” NBC’s Lester Holt, pushed back saying, “You haven’t been to the border.” She replied, “I haven’t been to Europe.”
Harris, as vice president of the United States, has no authority over immigration or migration in any European country, critics argue. The interview occurred after she traveled to Guatemala and Mexico, not to any border town in the U.S., to meet with the presidents of the two countries to discuss “the root cause of migration.”
In response to the exchange with Holt, Abbott, who has endorsed Trump, said, “You will see a lot of this. The ‘border czar’ has been an utter failure. America’s future is bleak if the border czar becomes president.”
Under the Biden-Harris administration, more than 12 million foreign nationals from over 160 countries illegally entered the U.S., the greatest number in U.S. history, The Center Square reported. They total more than the individual populations of 44 U.S. states and 155 countries.
Numerous intelligence experts, including the director of the FBI, have warned that a terrorist attack is likely due to the border crisis. Dozens of illegal foreign nationals are currently in the U.S. with connections to the Islamic terrorist organization, ISIS, The Center Square has reported.
When comparing the Trump and Biden administrations, in the first full three fiscal years of the Trump (fiscal 2017-2019) and Biden (fiscal 2021-2023) administrations, the number of illegal entries and apprehensions under Biden dwarfed Trump, The Center Square reported.
Under Trump, there were nearly 527,000 apprehensions in fiscal 2017, 683,000 in fiscal 2018 and over 1.1 million in fiscal 2019, according to CBP data. Under Biden, there were over 1.95 million in fiscal 2021, over 2.7 million in fiscal 2022 and over 3.2 million in fiscal 2023, according to the data.
In response Biden policies, Abbott launched Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, in March 2021. Since then, Texas law enforcement officers have apprehended more than 516,000 illegal border crossers, made more than 45,300 criminal arrests (nearly 40,000 felony charges), and seized enough fentanyl to kill the combined populations of the United States and Mexico, The Center Square reported.
At the Republican National Convention last week, Abbott urged Americans to secure the border by returning Trump to the White House.
Trump has said he will stop the border crisis he says Biden created, having referred to it as a “Biden invasion.”
