Texas Governor Greg Abbott is facing criticism after a fundraising letter sent the day before the massacre in El Paso was found to contain much of the same rhetoric, such as the need to “defend” Texas from illegal immigration, used by President Donald Trump that some believe inspired the gunman to target Hispanics, reports CBS News Austin.
In addition, the Texas Signal and Texas Tribune reported that Gov. Abbott sent out the racist, anti-Latino and anti-immigrant fundraising letter one day before a White supremacist terror attack that left 22 people dead and 24 people injured in El Paso. In the letter, Abbott wrote, “If we’re going to defend Texas, we’ll need to take matters into our own hands.” He then cited statistic on undocumented immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into Texas. He also asked recipients of the letter to sign a statement of support to “Defend Texas now.”
Abbott’s actions are drawing the ire of Democrats especially.
“Despicable doesn’t even begin to describe Governor Abbott’s racist, anti-Latino, anti-immigrant letter sent one day before the El Paso shooting. There is no difference between Donald Trump and Governor Greg Abbott’s toxic rhetoric of racial grievance. This kind of rhetoric fueled the hatred of a terrorist who drove 10 hours to murder members of the Latino community, said Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia. “This is not a game. It’s long past time for Republicans to eradicate White supremacist language from their discourse – people are dying.”
