Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent statement urging ICE to “recalibrate” after its deadly actions in Minneapolis is the political equivalent of Richard Nixon’s now ruthlessly mocked acknowledgement that “mistakes were made.”
In other words, it’s a bloodless cop-out by the governor — a shrug dressed up as leadership. It’s meant to sound concerned while carefully avoiding responsibility for the brutality he himself has spent years cheering on.
First, let’s be clear about what prompted the statement. The Trump administration’s immigration-enforcement binge has left civilians dead, communities furious and the streets of Minneapolis boiling over.
In response — and no doubt with an eye on the polls — Abbott offered a mild scolding and some management-consultant nonsense about “getting back to the mission.” Then he laid the lion’s share of the blame on Minnesota’s Democratic elected officials for being outraged about Trump militarizing their streets.
No accountability. No reckoning. Just another slick politico trying to sidestep a festering pile of shit while insisting he had nothing to do with the stink.
Which is rich, because Abbott hasn’t just supported Trump’s immigration agenda — he’s been one of its most eager hype men. This is the same governor who described immigration as an “invasion” and openly flirted with the idea of using lethal force to turn back migrants. Remember when he said Texas can’t shoot migrants crossing the border because “the Biden administration would charge us with murder”?
To be sure, Abbott’s crafted his political brand around framing migrants as criminals, threats and twisted abstractions instead of actual human beings. When you spend years dumping gasoline on racist panic, you don’t get to act shocked when the whole house goes up like a fucking tinderbox.
So, when the governor now says ICE needs to “refocus” and blames Minnesota leaders for the unrest, it’s pure bullshit. It’s a cowardly attempt to launder his own record, likely under the direction of handlers such as longtime political consultant Dave Carney.
It’s a familiar move from the American right: cheer on the cruelty, deny the consequences and wash your hands if people die. Or, God forbid, polls show voters have had enough.
At a moment when actual leadership would mean demanding accountability from the White House and a serious rethinking of its brutal immigration-enforcement regime, Abbott offers the verbal equivalent of backing slowly toward the exit.
History remembers Tricky Dick’s “mistakes were made” line for the pathetic dodge it was. Abbott’s version deserves the same contempt. Texans don’t need more gutless rhetoric from the governor. We need fewer dead civilians, fewer terrified immigrant families — and fewer sanctimonious assclowns pretending they had no hand in the carnage.
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