Abbott: It's "Bizarre" to Prosecute a Governor For Exercising Veto Authority

AUSTIN, Texas–Texas Attorney General and Republican candidate for Governor,Greg Abbott, appeared on the Fox News program Fox & Friends on Saturday to discuss the border crisis, and was also asked for his reaction to Friday’s indictment of current Texas Governor Rick Perry for his veto of funding for the Public Integrity Unit (the PIU) after Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg refused to resign after she pled guilt to DWI and was caught on videotape being belligerent to law enforcement officers.

Abbott has mostly refrained from publicly commenting on the charges against the man who he hopes to succeed in office, being one of the few Republican candidates in this state who did not post supportive messages on his social media accounts or issue press releases regarding the case over the weekend. Common political wisdom among the several political consultants who spoke to Breitbart Texas on background for this story was that limiting his remarks was appropriate, given Abbott’s current position as Attorney General.

At approximately the 3:15 minute mark, host Clayton Morris asks Abbott for his reaction to the indictments:

“What strikes me though is, the Governor was using his veto power, and I’m not familiar with a situation where a governor has been indicted for vetoing a law that he thought should not be signed into law. And so I just don’t know what to think of it.”

Breitbart Texas reached out to the Abbott campaign to follow up on this story, and Abbott sent the following statement:

“Governor Perry has the authority to veto legislation and I find it bizarre that the governor would be prosecuted for exercising that authority.”

Sarah Elizabeth Rumpf is a political and communications consultant living in Austin. You can follow her on Twitter at @rumpfshaker.

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