Greg Abbott spoke with Robert Hallmark and Kurt Verlei on KCRS.
*Transcription may not be exact.
ROBERT HALLMARK: Morning, sir. How are you?
ATTORNEY GENERAL GREG ABBOTT: Well I’m doing fabulous myself. I am criss-crossing the state. I’m about to leave Austin and head to Houston. And then go from Houston out to Midland. I sure am looking forward to being out there.
HALLMARK: Well, good luck to you on that whole airport thing. That’s a lot of fun. I’ve made that trip from time to time and it’s always fun and interesting. So you’re going to be in town tonight and visiting with folks…getting the campaign started. What’s your message today about?
GENERAL ABBOTT: We have an event that I want to tell you guys about but also all of your listeners. It’s an event that we’re having at Compressor Systems. It’s a business that you guys may know, it’s located over at 3809 S. FM 1788. This is an event where I’m laying out one of my platforms in my run for governor. What I’m talking about is the first building block as far as government is concerned. And that is making sure that our financial house is in order. What I’m really focused on is ensuring that we’re going to have the money and resources not only to build the schools, the roads, and access to water. But also that we will not be looking to dig any deeper into your pockets, taxpayer dollars out of your wallets. We want to make sure that we are fiscally responsible in Austin, Texas. We keep our budget limited so that you have more freedom, more ability to grow and expand businesses and most importantly, those businesses right there in Midland and the Permian Basin are going to have the resources where they can grow jobs.
HALLMARK: You know, General, all the talk here lately as you are aware of, has been about how bad the federal government is treating folks whether it’s healthcare or whatever it is. And so, from what you’re telling me here, it sounds like we’re going to continue kind of the track we’ve been on. Governor Perry really has been..you know we can do it better in Texas.
GENERAL ABBOTT: The Texas model does work. And the Texas model is superior to any other state. But listen, understand, because I didn’t hear what was going on before we started talking about what you were talking about and what you’re talking about is what everyone is talking about. And that is how the federal government has lied to Americans about these big federal programs and all they’re doing is taking more of our liberty, taking more of our money, dictating more results to us, and we see that doesn’t work. Instead, we see the contrary works. When government gets out of the way, unless you the individual, the small or large business, has freedom to operate. You succeed and Texas succeeds. Texas has created more jobs than any other state in the country. And I’m going to ensure that Texas continues to create those jobs, and actually finds ways to create even more.
HALLMARK: Well, General Abbott, as governor I guess you’re not going to head up the lawsuits personally. Because they’ve certainly kept you busy, haven’t they?
GENERAL ABBOTT: Well, my total now is up to 30 lawsuits against the Obama administration. However, what I will be doing is moving form the general on the battlefield to the commander-in-chief of these operations. All along, this has been a join effort between myself and Governor Perry, as we fight back and push back against an overreaching federal government. I will continue to be doing that very same thing as govern just with a broader platform.
HALLMARK: Talk to us about water issues in this state. That’s got to be a major issue facing state government.
GENERAL ABBOTT: Water’s a huge issue. Let’s put this into some context. I know people are talking about the drought and things like that, and that has an impact. What has an equal impact is the fact that there are 1400 people moving to the state of Texas every single day. So there are more people tapping into our limited water supplies, and we have to be effective in ensuring we have adequate water for the cities, the communities, for Midland, for Odessa, as well as for the industrial operations that exist in the area that create the jobs. With this bond package that passed on Tuesday, there’s going to be the financial resources there now that we can work with local authorities, so that you have a local-based solution for the Permian Basin just like they’ll have a local-based solution for Longview, Texas on the other side of the state. And we will, at the state level in Austin, Texas, work to make sure we have the smartest solutions to work to solve our problems now that we have the money to pay for it.
HALLMARK: What you, of course Kurt was talking about keeping you busy too, you’ve also been very busy with this whole abortion stuff that’s been going on around the country and having to go back in sometime refight some of those battles in the appeals courts.
GENERAL ABBOTT: We’ve had a big win in the Court of Appeals last week, and here’s what happened. Listen, I think that most people in Texas agree that abortion after five months is when you are aborting a child that is more than five months into development, at a point in time when they can literally feel pain. So I think most people are saying that after a woman has five months to have an abortion, we need to rethink this issue, about if she should be able to have an abortion after that point. And that’s what my democrat opponent is saying, that even after five months, someone should be able to have an abortion, and that’s what she filibustered for, 13 hours for, to have the right to late term abortion after the child is already developed. The other thing about it is we were trying to ensure that health care facilities are going to be safer for these procedures so that we can’t have rookie doctors doing these procedures that put the health and safety of a mother into jeopardy. SO we are looking out both for the health and safety of women, as well as ensuring that if abortions are had, they shouldn’t be had at a point in time when a fetus really does feel pain, and the fetus has developed for five months.
HALLMARK: And this happens after this news cycle when we had this thing in Philadelphia for so long on the news, that it amazes me that we are still having a huge argument about some of this stuff, but we do.
GENERAL ABBOTT: The Gosnell case, where he was snipping the spinal cords of fully developed children in order to kill them.
HALLMARK: That’s just murder.
GENERAL ABBOTT: And where the healthcare of women was really jeopardized and actually harmed, because you had someone who was not a qualified doctor, not working out of a safe healthcare center. It’s those kinds of defects that we are trying to make Texas better than.
HALLMARK: We don’t recognize same sex marriage in the state of Texas, and I think rightfully so, yet it’s landed at our doorstep with controversy over same-sex divorce?
GENERAL ABBOTT: Right, and we had an argument in the Texas Supreme Court earlier this week where that issue was the issue. And that is, even though in the Texas constitution, Texas law is that same-sex marriage is not recognized, someone is now asking for a same sex divorce. Well our position is very simple. In order to grant a same-sex divorce, you first must recognize a same-sex marriage and so we believe that by granting this same-sex divorce it violates the Texas Constitution, and as a result something that can’t be done here.
HALLMARK: You brought up Wendy Davis a few moments ago, and we do still have the primary system to go through. It seems like the race is already on between you and of course Wendy Davis who is the democratic announceed candidate. There is still a primary to get through in the first part of the year, do you have any thoughts on the primary system? That’s where republicans vs. republicans and democrats vs. democrats. Got any thoughts there?
GENERAL ABBOTT: Yea I feel very good about the primary process, but I continue to do every single day what I explained to you earlier, that I’m doing today, I crisscross the state, going to many different towns and cities telling people why it is that I’m going to be fighting for them for the future and why I would be the best person to have as the republican nominee. But listen, I’m telling you, this is going to be a big fight on our hands in the general election against a well-funded Democrat who’s going to get a ton of money, a ton of money, from both plaintiff trial lawyers and from New York, California and from Washington D.C. and let me tell ya, Texas is not ready for her, and we will not tolerate these people from Washington D.C., New York and California trying to come to Texas and tell us what to do.
HALLMARK: Well you know folks who really watch politics may have noticed that the race in Virginia, where we hear that actually democratic operatives actually came in a funded the libertarian candidate there just to blow up the election. Boy I tell you, this could be, you’re it’s a battle everyday to get this done.
GENERAL ABBOTT: Well we see those democrat operatives also operate in the state of Texas. They’ve also talked about funding the libertarian opposition, but also you need to know this, in that Virginia race for governor, the republican candidate was outspent by about 15 million dollars and listen, you just can’t have a one-sided race like that. So the other thing I’m working on, and that we always need to do is to raise the money to make sure that the democrats from out of state aren’t going to be funding our opposition with 15 million dollars more than myself. We have to have the resources so that my message connects with a majority of the Texans, so we’ll win, but we gotta make sure we have those resources.
HALLMARK: Great, so your gonna be in Midland, actually out at the Compressor Store. Gimme the exact address on that one more time if you have it?
GENERAL ABBOTT: Sure, it is 3809 South FM 1788.
HALLMARK: Ok very good, so that’s where you’ll be. Do you have the time on that sir?
GENERAL ABBOTT: Sure, it opens up at 3:45 and I’m going to start talking around 4, and then i’ll be around to shake hands and take photos, visit with people. It’s open to everyone and I look forward to seeing you and getting to know you and getting to know your concerns and issues.
HALLMARK: Good! Attorney General for the state of Texas running for the job of governor, and we’ll be talking to him i’m sure some more between now and that time. Thanks for coming on the program today, good luck.
GENERAL ABBOTT: Look forward to it, thank you guys!