Former President Barack Obama criticized the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to his hometown of Chicago, noting that the Republicans who now support it, including Gov. Greg Abbott, had attacked him a decade ago for overseeing routine military exercises in Texas.
“If I had sent in the National Guard into Texas and just said, ‘You know what, a lot of problems in Dallas, you know, a lot of crime there, and I don’t care what Governor Abbott says, I’m going to kind of take over law enforcement because I think things are out of control’ – it is mind boggling to me how Fox News would have responded,” Obama said in an appearance on the “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast that posted on Monday.
Obama then went on to talk about outrage sparked by regular military exercises in Texas when he was president, an apparent reference to Jade Helm 15, an operation that fueled right-wing conspiracies.
Abbott, then in his first year in office, directed the Texas State Guard to monitor the military exercise, saying he wanted Texans to know their “safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed.”
“Ted Cruz and a number of other folks were out there lending credence to the fact that I was preparing for, you know, the whole black helicopter, one world government — I was about to take over Texas,” Obama said.
Cruz’s office did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Abbott said in a statement: “If the liberal governments in Obama’s hometown were protecting people and property and upholding law and order, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Public safety should be the first priority for any elected official, and President Trump is stepping up where Democrats are failing.”
Abbott was a regular adversary of Obama’s when the Democrat was in the White House and Abbott was the state attorney general. He sued the Obama administration dozens of times, joking “I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home.”
Abbott earlier this month agreed to send Texas soldiers to Chicago at President Donald Trump’s request. The Texas Republican has said the soldiers are “putting America first by ensuring that the federal government can safely enforce federal law.”
But the move has drawn criticism, even from some Republicans. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt told the New York Times he was “surprised” Abbott agreed to send troops to Illinois.
“Abbott and I sued the Biden administration when the shoe was on the other foot and the Biden administration was trying to force us to vaccinate all of our soldiers and force masks across the country,” Stitt said. “As a federalist believer, one governor against another governor, I don’t think that’s the right way to approach this.”