CLAY: Right now joined by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. He is in the middle of an election battle down in the great state of Texas. Before we get to your race, Governor, what did you think of Joe Biden’s speech last night?

GOV. ABBOTT: Well, it was just stunning. I don’t recall the exact language from his remarks, but there was one sentence in there where he said it was the ultra-MAGA Republicans who were refusing to abide by the Constitution as well as the rule of law. Let me tell you something.

I don’t think there’s anybody in the United States of America who has abandoned the Constitution and refused to enforce the rule of law as much as Joe Biden. And you need to look no further than his abdication of his responsibility on enforcing the laws securing our border. So, if there’s anybody who is hypocritical in what he said last night, it’s Joe Biden.

And it’s just outrageous, the attitude they have certainly with regard to the border. Last night was nothing more than a political speech, and I don’t think it went over very well at all. You know, his numbers are plummeting in approval rating. He cannot escape the inflation that he caused. He cannot escape the disaster and chaos that he’s caused across this country. And last night did not help him out at all.

CLAY: No, I don’t think there’s any doubt. In fact, we’re gonna get to this. We’re gonna grab his clip. In the last 10 minutes he’s now said — and I can’t even believe — I mean, this is a sign that there’s scrambling to try to clean up what was a disastrous speech I think last night for Joe Biden. Fox News just put out an alert that Joe Biden is now saying, “Hey, you know, how I said that all the Trump supporters were a threat to the country?

Now he’s saying — again, this is a breaking news from Fox News — Biden says Trump supporters not a threat to the country after speech last night where he said the exact opposite. So, that’s a cleanup on aisle 3. That’s not going very well. Governor, I’ve gotta give you a lot of credit because no one was talking about the border, no one was talking about how many people are coming in to the country, in particular on the border with your state with Texas.

You started sending people to Washington, D.C., and to New York City, providing that transportation. I think you’re also doing it for Chicago now. What has the reaction been to that decision, and do you think you are finally putting pressure on the Biden administration and some of their allies in those, quote-unquote “sanctuary cities” to recognize what you are having to deal with all over Texas from an unsecured border?

GOV. ABBOTT: The support for it is overwhelming in the state of Texas but also outside the state of Texas. By the way, along those lines I get offers of help all the time from people. If people want to help out, they can donate to borderbus.Texas.gov. That’s borderbus.Texas.gov. People always want to sponsor a bus, whatever — that’s a way you can sponsor a bus.

But whether you’re in Texas or whether you’re in Illinois or even New York or wherever, people are supporting this initiative in part because they recognize what you did, and that is what was going on the border has been hidden and has been Texans who have been left to grapple with the consequences of the chaos created by the Biden administration.

After we began busing people to Washington, D.C., initially we achieved one of my goals, and that is if Joe Biden who has created is chaos is not gonna come visit the border, we were gonna take the border to him. And it took a few months for the numbers to build up. But they grew so large that mayor Bowser in Washington, D.C., finally begged Biden for help monetarily as well as sending out the National Guard, which he refused.

And then the same thing happened with Mayor Adams. You know, they get a mere trickle. They get one day’s worth of illegal immigration that we deal with here in Texas, and they say that they are completely incapable of handling. And then the other thing, Clay, and that is that all of these cities that we’re busing people to are self-identified as sanctuary cities.

You know, they talk the talk, all that kind of stuff, but when pressed into action and having to walk the walk, they cannot handle it. And so, they’re sanctuary cities in name only. If they truly are sanctuary cities, they need to step up and help out. And then the last thing I’ll tell you, and that is this. And that is until the last few months, this has been a Texas-based issue.

Great reporting from @VenturaReport in the Yuma, AZ sector, which has seen more than 275,000 illegal crossings since October 1st.
That’s up more than 200% over the same time last year. https://t.co/2wOJOwYaBo

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 1, 2022

The reality is illegal immigration and the open border is an American issue. And the entire United States of America must step up and deal with this and now other states and cities are having to grapple with it, and hopefully that will put pressure on the Biden administration to finally step up and do his job and enforce the Constitution and laws of the United States of America and secure our border.

CLAY: Governor Abbott, we’ve got a big audience all over your state. We’re number one in Austin, number one in Houston, number one in San Antonio. We appreciate everybody out there listening right now. How inexcusable is it that Joe Biden has spent more time worried about the safety of Ukraine’s border than he has our southern border?

I mean, the fact that he has not been in any way close effectively to the border so far in his presidency — and I know there’s a lot of things you can point to — but I think it may be the single most inexcusable thing that he has done in office so far.

GOV. ABBOTT: So, he has completely ignored the chaos that he’s caused on the Texas border. Remember this. It was just two years ago that we had the most secure border in literally decades and the most number of illegal border crossings since something like the 1980s and that was because of four policies that President Trump put in place.

And it was when Biden came in and eliminated those policies and told the world that the border was open, that’s when it led to the chaos that we’re dealing with right now. You would think that the person who created the chaos at a minimum would go down and see the carnage that he has created. But he’s never been to the border, not just during his presidency, but during his entire lifetime.

And so that is offensive. But equally offensive, Clay, is the fact that it seems like every week we see some news story about how they’re sending another billionaire or three billion or whatever to the Ukraine and they’re not sending a penny down to Texas to secure our border. Put aside the $4 billion that Texas is coming out of pocket.

Joe Biden is underfunding Border Patrol. He’s underfunding ICE. He’s underfunding building any type of border barrier in the state of Texas. He is underfunding his obligation to secure the border. One last thing I’ll mention in that regard, and that is under President Biden already there have been 81 people who have been apprehended who are on the terrorist watch list.

Those people typically pay extra to the cartels not to be identified. And so, you can only imagine that the real number of people in the terrorist watch list is far greater than the 81 who’ve already been apprehended. So, what President Biden is doing, he is literally threatening the national security of our country by his abdication of his responsibility to secure the border.

CLAY: The cartels are making money hand over fist smuggling people across the border. I think that is underdiscussed and maybe misunderstood by much of the population. I want you to explain to me what you know to be going on there. And then certainly this all ties in with fentanyl as well, which is coming across our southern border in record numbers and, sadly, killing record numbers of Americans. What is the cartel situation for both smuggling and drug smuggling as you know it?

GOV. ABBOTT: Every person who comes across the border illegally comes across with the aid and assistance of the cartels. They will not allow anybody to cross the border without their help and without them being paid. And it costs anywhere from a few thousand dollars to $25,000 or more for anybody to come across the border. This is a big-time, multi-billion dollar business operation for the cartels.

And then along with the people they’re struggling across the border, they are bringing those drugs across the border, one of which is fentanyl, which is made in China and then sent to Mexico and then brought across the border from Mexico. And just Texas law enforcement alone have seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in the entire United States of America.

And so, this truly is an existential threat to every human being in the United States of America. And you would think that a president who should know that his entire population is in danger to losing their life would step up and do something about it. Here are some — two important stats. Last year there were about 1,700 Texans who lost their lives.

If you look at the age-group between 18 and 45, the number one killer of that age-group is not cancer, it’s not car wrecks, it’s not guns. It is not covid. It is fentanyl. It’s the leading killer of people in the United States of America between 18 and 45. You would think the president of the United States would say, I’m gonna put a stop to that, because he can put a stop to it simply by enforcing the law on securing the border.

CLAY: It’s pretty unbelievable. You obviously are in the middle of a reelection battle. There’s a lot of significant congressional races also taking place, many of them down close to the border which has moved increasingly into the Republican camp.

What are you seeing on the campaign trail? What do you expect? What do you need over the next two months to make sure that Texas is sending the message that Joe Biden is the worst president in the modern history in America?

GOV. ABBOTT: Well, the border is the number one issue in the state of Texas. And people across the state are livid about it but probably nowhere as much as the people that live on the border. Their homes have been invaded, their ranches have been overrun, their communities have been destroyed, there are very dangerous bailouts that are taking place on almost a daily basis.

So, they’re completely fed up. The border counties have casually been Democrats for probably about a hundred years. This year, however, we will be winning border counties, one, two, three, four, five border counties, and we’re gonna win. And not only have they been Democrat, they’re about 90 to 95% Hispanic.

And so, the Hispanics on the border are fed up with Biden administration open border policies, and they’re gonna vote to secure the border. And that will apply to races like mine at the governor’s race as well as to those congressional races that you’re talking about.

CLAY: What is the significance of the Hispanic community overwhelmingly moving towards Republicans? What does that mean not only in the state of Texas but ona national level so far as you can tell?

GOV. ABBOTT: It’s a huge shift. Let’s go back 10 years ago where Democrats insisted, they had this phrase that ‘demographics are destiny’, thinking that the more Hispanic the population in America grew, the more and more the Democrats had a chance to win. And it was, you know, Ocasio-Cortez talking about open border policies and things like thinking that that was going to lead to a shift in the United States that would create a permanent Democrat dominance in the country.

They did not know, however, the people who are emigrating here as well as Hispanics who have been here in Texas since even before Texas was a state, that families have ties here, they believe in core principles like faith, family, freedom, believing that the United States of America is the greatest country in the historical of the world.

Not all this dogma that’s being put out by the Democrats that’s trashing the United States of America. And so, this leftist, progressive ideology that’s been promoted by the Democrats is completely contrary to the values and principles that are held by the Hispanic community in the state of Texas and I believe in other states also.

And that’s why we continue to gain votes among the Hispanic community, and that population group will help Republicans not only hold on to leadership in the state of Texas but to add to leadership across the country.

CLAY: Governor, Buck and I are gonna be doing our radio show Thursday and Friday from Austin getting ready for the big Alabama-Texas game that’s gonna be taking place there. So, maybe we’ll cross paths. It should be a fun time next week.

GOV. ABBOTT: We look forward to it. Should be a fun time. As you know, I went to undergrad school at the University of Texas and so I’m pulling for my Longhorns, but we got a very young team this year, and we just hope that they will go out and play very hard.

CLAY: No doubt. Governor, appreciate the time. Have a great Labor Day weekend.

GOV. ABBOTT: Thank you. Take care.

CLAY: For sure. That’s governor Greg Abbott, great state of Texas. And like I mentioned, Buck is out in L.A. this weekend, out in California, but he and I are gonna be doing the radio program down in Austin on Thursday, Friday. Look forward to seeing a lot of our Texan listeners down there.