Texas Governor Greg Abbott teamed up with country music superstar George Strait to give out $25,000 relief checks to flood victims in the Texas Hill Country. Speaking about aid efforts, Abbott stressed speed and direct help while criticizing California’s slower and less efficient wildfire relief. He drew attention to the widely publicized, $100 million benefit from FireAid, which took months to reach victims through nonprofits.
For context, despite facing opposition from Texas Democrats fleeing the state to block GOP-led redistricting efforts, Abbott prioritized flood relief and rightfully blamed Democrats for stalling critical legislation to help those affected by the disaster.
FireAid has noted that $75 million has already been given out to communities affected by the flood, with an additional $25 million pending. Reacting to Abbott’s remarks, Democratic State Rep Ann Johnson claimed to support flood relief efforts, but refused to return to the state to vote on vital legislation.
In any case, the generous governor of Texas said that this infusion of cash was “An initial ‘down payment’ on the relief still incoming.” He stressed the “Need for speed to help these people as quickly as possible,” and slammed Democrats for delaying.
Comparing his reaction to that of California, which was the victim of a smilarly destructive natural disaster, he explained, “We’ve seen in other states when there’s been travesties that occurred there, like the fires in California, and so much money was raised and never has gotten to the people who needed it, we want to make sure that did not happen in the state of Texas.”
Abbott also thanked the community for their outpouring of aid and sympathy. He noted, “There has been an outpouring of support to Texas organizations to help the people of this state. Now our job is to make sure it gets into the hands of the people who need it the most.”
Continuing to thank those who helped the victims of the flooding, he spoke to George Strait’s selflessness, saying, He was doing this for one reason, because he was sick and tired of the people who’ve been damaged and harmed the most by the storm are not getting the money they need.”
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Turning his attention to the cowardly Texas Democrats who fled the state, Abbott didn’t mince words. He said, “We’re able to give that to the victims, even though we have Democrats who’ve fled the state and been dishonorable to our state.” Building on this point, he added, “One thing about Texans is we stand and fight if we have principles we want to fight on. And what these Democrats have done, they fled the state, and that’s very un-Texan on their part.”
Reacting to Abbott’s epic diatribe, Rep. Ann Johnson made excuses for her refusal to return to Texas. She whined, “We have an arrest warrant for us to go back to Texas for one bill only. They don’t want us to come back for flooding.”
Paradoxically, she blamed Abbott for the bureaucratic issues. Johnson claimed. “The governor can write a check right now to try to start the process, and so it’s his decision what’s valuable to him. We will gladly show up to address flooding, school testing, human trafficking, or court infrastructure, but not for the redistricting vote.”