“We’re about to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way we’re able to get vaccines into people’s arms,” Biden said. “The last thing – the last thing we need is the Neanderthal who thinks everything is fine in the meantime, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters.”
Abbott’s spokeswoman Renae Eze said in a statement that Abbott was “clear to tell Texans that COVID has not ended yet, and that all Texans must follow medical advice and safe practices to contain COVID.”
“It is clear from the recovery, the vaccinations, the reduced hospitalizations and the safe practices that Texans are using, that the state mandates are no longer needed. We must do more now to restore the existence and normality of Texans,” he said. Eze said. “The governor’s focus has been, and always will be, on protecting the lives and livelihoods of Texans.”
And his Tuesday moves come too late to soften some of Abbott’s most outspoken conservative critics, who accused the governor of trying to divert guilt after the recent freeze left millions of Texans without power and water.
“All he’s trying to do is hide the guilt,” Luther said. “He’s trying to take away the focus on the power grid issue, which I think he should have blamed a lot more for.”
In the latter part of his second term, Abbott came under pressure from the groups of the GOP who were largely silent in the earlier stages of his governorship.
Abbott said he plans to seek a third term in 2022, and that he could potentially win a by-election – with Texas Republican Party chairman Allen West refusing to run for office. close.
Some conservative Abbott critics have said Tuesday’s moves did not go far enough because the governor gave the governors the power to enforce their own restrictions.
Democrats also said Abbott’s actions were clearly aimed at softening his Republican base.
“There is no doubt that he is concerned about a primary challenge,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Democratic Party in Texas.
And with 2024 on the horizon, Hinojosa said: ‘He wants to position himself to be competitive in the Republican primary, and the only way you can do that is if you take extreme measures in line with what Allen West and the far right of the Republican Party demanded that he do so in Texas. ‘
While Abbott was under siege, potential rivals were visible in 2022, including O’Rourke and former housing and urban development secretary Julián Castro. O’Rourke mobilized his network of supporters to reach out to Texans facing power and water outages after a historic freeze shut down much of the state’s power grid last month, and even crossed by the state has. Castro was also an outspoken critic of Abbott, and the former mayor of San Antonio directed mayors to ask how he could help, Hinojosa said.
“You’re going to have a much stronger field in this primary series than we’ve had in the past,” Hinojosa said, indicating O’Rourke, Castro and several mayors and provincial governors as potential candidates.
Although Abbott still faces heat from the right, he would remain a big favorite in next year’s gubernatorial race – a reality that was emphasized when other Republicans from Texas showed up for his defense on Wednesday.
Texas Senator John Cornyn responded to Biden’s criticism of Abbott, saying that Biden should not preach to my state about how to deal with this COVID-19 virus.
“People in Texas don’t really like governments telling them what to do. And I think they tolerate it as long as they feel they should,” he said.