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Tag: Greg Abbott

  • A Black Scholar’s Circle of relatives Sues Texas’ Governor And A.G. Over His Suspension For His Coiffure

    HOUSTON (AP) — The circle of relatives of a Black highschool pupil in Texas on Saturday filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in opposition to the state’s governor and legal professional basic over his ongoing suspension through his college district for his coiffure.

    Darryl George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill Top Faculty in Mont Belvieu, has been serving an in-school suspension since Aug. 31 on the Houston-area college. Faculty officers say his dreadlocks fall under his eyebrows and ear lobes and violate the district’s get dressed code.

    George’s mom, Darresha George, and the circle of relatives’s legal professional deny {the teenager}’s coiffure violates the get dressed code, announcing his hair is smartly tied in twisted dreadlocks on most sensible of his head.

    The lawsuit accuses Gov. Greg Abbott and Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton of failing to put into effect the CROWN Act, a brand new state legislation outlawing racial discrimination according to hairstyles. Darryl George’s supporters allege the continued suspension through the Barbers Hill Impartial Faculty District violates the legislation, which took impact Sept. 1.

    The lawsuit alleges Abbott and Paxton, of their authentic tasks, have failed to offer protection to Darryl George’s constitutional rights in opposition to discrimination and in opposition to violations of his freedom of speech and expression. Darryl George “will have to be approved to put on his hair within the way wherein he wears it … since the so-called impartial grooming coverage has no shut affiliation with studying or protection and when implemented, disproportionately affects Black men,” in line with the lawsuit.

    The lawsuit, filed in Houston federal court docket through Darryl George’s mom, is the newest prison motion taken associated with the suspension.

    On Tuesday, Darresha George and her legal professional filed a proper criticism with the Texas Training Company, alleging Darryl George is being stressed and mistreated through college district officers over his hair and that his in-school suspension is in violation of the CROWN Act.

    They allege that right through his suspension, Darryl George is compelled to sit down for 8 hours on a stool and that he’s being denied the new loose lunch he’s certified to obtain. The company is investigating the criticism.

    Darresha George mentioned she used to be not too long ago hospitalized after a chain of panic and nervousness assaults introduced on from tension associated with her son’s suspension.

  • Texas Trooper Emailed Boss To Warn Of ‘Inhumane’ Razor Cord ‘Traps’ At Border: File

    An officer running at Texas’ southern border with Mexico emailed his awesome expressing deep considerations that efforts to forestall migrants from crossing into the U.S. had “stepped over a line into the inhumane” previous this month, in line with a stunning account revealed via the San Antonio Categorical-Information.

    The unnamed trooper, who works for Texas’ Division of Public Protection, described troubling orders to forestall asylum seekers from crossing the Rio Grande in Eagle Go, Texas, in fresh months. State officers have drawn sharp grievance after deploying miles of floating barricades coated in razor twine at the river, an initiative the officer likened to “traps” intended to snare migrants.

    The e-mail main points a couple of troubling incidents by which migrants have been stuck or injured via the razor twine.

    In a single example, a 19-year-old lady “in glaring ache” used to be discovered caught within the twine earlier than she used to be minimize unfastened. Scientific officers decided she used to be pregnant and having a miscarriage. At any other level, soldiers handled a person with a “vital laceration” on his leg that he sustained whilst looking to unfastened his kid from a “entice within the water” coated in razor twine.

    The e-mail additionally main points a second on June 25 when a shift officer ordered soldiers to push a big staff of other folks — together with young children and young children that have been nursing — again into the Rio Grande “to visit Mexico.” Soldiers on web page resisted the order once they expressed fear the exhausted migrants may drown, they usually have been later ordered to inform the crowd to return to Mexico earlier than leaving the web page.

    The trooper additionally alluded to an order to forestall officials from offering water to migrants, even though Texas officers have denied one of these mandate exists.

    “Because of the intense warmth, the order not to give other folks water must be in an instant reversed as neatly,” the trooper wrote, suggesting a chain of coverage adjustments to offer protection to migrants’ protection. The officer later added: “I imagine we’ve stepped over a line into the inhumane.”

    HuffPost has reached out to Texas’ DPS for remark at the document.

    Migrants trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico approach the site where workers are assembling large buoys to be used as a barrier along the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 11.
    Migrants attempting to go into the U.S. from Mexico manner the web page the place staff are assembling huge buoys for use as a barrier alongside the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Go, Texas, on July 11.

    Eric Homosexual/Related Press

    Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Division of Public Protection, instructed the Categorical-Information that the company used to be acutely aware of the e-mail and that its director, Steven McCraw, known as for an audit closing Saturday into reducing chance for migrants. McCraw additionally despatched any other electronic mail to soldiers pronouncing the twine, a key characteristic of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) border measures, used to be intended to discourage smuggling, “to not injure migrants.”

    “The smugglers care now not if the migrants are injured, however we do, and we should take all vital measures to mitigate the danger to them together with accidents from looking to pass over the concertina twine, drownings and dehydration,” the message mentioned.

    Abbott has taken dramatic steps to forestall migrants from crossing the state’s border with Mexico, lambasting President Joe Biden for failing to do sufficient to forestall a surge of crossings. The governor additionally has dropped off 1000’s of migrants in towns around the country, principally in states led via Democratic officers, in an act that human rights teams have blasted as inhumane.

    The document introduced swift condemnation from Democrats. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) known as the razor twine limitations “demise traps” on Twitter, pronouncing he had recommended the Biden management to interfere “for the sake of human rights.”

  • Gov. Greg Abbott’s First Staff Of Texas Migrants Arrives in Los Angeles

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) introduced on Wednesday {that a} busload of migrants from the state has arrived for the primary time in Los Angeles, including to the rising listing of towns that experience taken in migrants at Abbott’s order.

    “Los Angeles is a significant town that migrants search to visit, in particular now that its town leaders authorized its self-declared sanctuary town standing,” Abbott mentioned in a remark launched Wednesday night. “Our border communities are at the frontlines of President Biden’s border disaster, and Texas will proceed offering this much-needed reduction till he steps as much as do his process and protected the border.”

    In line with the remark, the migrants have been dropped off at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The arriving follows greater than a yr after Abbott directed the Texas Department of Emergency Control (TDEM) to constitution buses of migrants launched from federal custody from Texas to Washington, D.C., as a method of addressing selections made through President Joe Biden.

    Remaining yr, Biden introduced he would finish Name 42, a pandemic-era coverage installed position all through the Donald Trump management that despatched asylum-seekers again around the border to Mexico.

    In his letter to the TDEM in April 2022, Abbott mentioned that Biden’s transfer would lead to an inflow of 1000’s of migrants in Texas, which the U.S. Division of Place of birth Safety “has no actual plan for.” He added that Texas’ sources are “already crushed” and the state would now not have the ability to maintain teams of migrants in Texas communities.

    After greater than 40 migrants arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Brass launched a remark announcing that the town has done an emergency control plan evolved upfront through native, state and federal departments in conjunction with nonprofit organizations.

    “It’s abhorrent that an American elected authentic is the use of human beings as pawns in his reasonable political video games,” Bass mentioned within the remark. “In a while once I took workplace, I directed Town Departments to start out making plans within the match Los Angeles was once at the receiving finish of a despicable stunt that Republican Governors have grown so keen on.”

    In spite of disapproval of Abbott’s plan, Brass emphasised that Los Angeles “seeks to regard all other folks with dignity and compassion” and “is probably not swayed or moved through petty politicians taking part in with human lives.”

    “For the whole lot that we do, we can proceed to fasten fingers and we can proceed to steer. And we can at all times put other folks’s well being and neatly being over politics,” she mentioned.

    Migrants who were sent on a bus from Texas line a sidewalk near the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 11, 2022.
    Migrants who have been despatched on a bus from Texas line a sidewalk close to the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 11, 2022.

    Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Occasions by way of Getty Pictures

    Abbott has been busing migrants over the last yr to different towns, together with New York Town, Chicago, Philadelphia and, maximum not too long ago, Denver. In line with the Texas Tribune, the state has despatched greater than 19,000 migrants to those towns, prompting town officers to talk out.

    Remaining month, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote a letter to Abbott urging him to forestall sending migrants to the town, which she described as a “unhealthy and inhumane motion.” Chicago has gained greater than 8,000 males, girls and youngsters from Texas since August and was once dealing with a loss of refuge and sources.

    “None of those pressing wishes have been addressed in Texas,” Lightfoot mentioned, referencing how just about all the migrants have been in dire want of meals, water, clothes and hospital therapy. “As a substitute, those folks and households have been packed onto buses and shipped around the nation like freight with out regard to their private instances.”

    A number of teams, together with the American Civil Liberties Union, in addition to politicians have spoken out in opposition to Abbott’s migrant busing program. In April, the Texas Democratic Birthday party mentioned that Abbott is making an attempt to “demonize immigrants.”

    “For years, Texas Republicans have seemed to the Southern Border as a wedge factor, making a narrative that stirs up feelings however neglects the reality,” the Texas Democratic Birthday party mentioned in a remark.

  • Texas Turns into Maximum Populous State To Ban Gender-Putting forward Care For Minors

    AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas has grow to be probably the most populous state to prohibit gender-affirming maintain minors after Gov. Greg Abbott signed law on Friday.

    Each and every primary clinical group, together with the American Scientific Affiliation, has adversarial the bans and supported the clinical maintain adolescence when administered accurately. Proceedings had been filed in numerous states the place bans had been enacted this yr.

    Remaining yr, Abbott was the primary governor to reserve the investigation of households who have been receiving care. The investigations have been later halted through a Texas pass judgement on.

    The GOP-controlled Legislature despatched the invoice to Abbott closing month. Republicans within the Senate took the overall vote over the objections from Democrats, who used parliamentary maneuvers to lengthen passage however may now not derail it totally.

    Transgender rights activists have disrupted the Texas Space with protests from the chamber gallery, which ended in state police forcing demonstrators to transport outdoor the development.

  • Greg Abbott Replaces Texas Lawyer Normal With out Remark On Ken Paxton

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) nominally broke his silence at the impeachment of Ken Paxton, the state’s far-right legal professional normal, on Wednesday when he officially named Paxton’s alternative: John Scott, a former Texas secretary of state and deputy legal professional normal.

    The governor didn’t, on the other hand, be offering any direct remark at the accusations towards Paxton or disclose whether or not he would improve Paxton thru his impeachment trial.

    “[Scott’s] a long time of revel in and experience in litigation will lend a hand information him whilst serving because the state’s most sensible legislation enforcement officer,” Abbott mentioned in a commentary.

    Paxton used to be suspended from his process Saturday when the Texas state Space voted overwhelmingly to approve articles of impeachment towards him over the staunch objections of former President Donald Trump.

    But Trump may also be conversant in Scott, who represented the previous president in one in all his many unsuccessful makes an attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election — albeit in brief.

    Texas state legislation dictates that the governor can appoint an intervening time legal professional normal pending the general result of an impeachment trial within the state Senate; Paxton’s trial is predicted to begin no later than Aug. 28.

    A historical past of scandal stuck as much as Paxton in contemporary weeks as state lawmakers have been compelled to believe whether or not to greenlight $3.3 million in taxpayer budget to settle a whistleblower lawsuit towards the legal professional normal.

    Many within the Texas GOP, together with Space Speaker Dade Phelan, are towards the usage of taxpayer cash to settle the lawsuit, which used to be introduced on when a gaggle of Paxton’s aides got here ahead accusing him of unethical behavior.

    A number of of the aides have been therefore fired in alleged retaliation.

    The gang had issues over Paxton’s courting with a GOP political donor, the Austin-based actual property developer Nate Paul. They mentioned Paxton used to be the usage of the ability of his place of job to lend a hand Paul with industry entanglements in change for an elaborate house rework and a role for a girl with whom Paxton used to be allegedly having an affair.

    Previous to the whistleblower swimsuit, Paxton used to be charged with securities fraud in a 2015 case that, remarkably, has but to visit trial.

  • Invoice To Bar Trans Athletes From School Sports activities Headed To Texas Governor’s Table

    The Texas legislature has authorized a invoice that might bar transgender athletes from taking part in on faculty sports activities groups that align with their gender id.

    The ban now heads to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for a signature. Abbott has in the past expressed toughen for the invoice and is predicted to signal it into regulation.

    The measure, SB15, will require transgender athletes in any intercollegiate athletic pageant this is backed or approved by way of a public faculty or college to compete within the workforce that corresponds with the gender they had been assigned at beginning. If signed into regulation, the invoice would grant whistleblower coverage for many who document faculty methods that violate the regulation and would permit other folks to document civil complaints towards a faculty in the event that they imagine its program has violated the regulation, Texas Tribune reported.

    Legislators stated that the invoice does no longer follow to intramural sports activities, the Texas Tribune reported. It will permit ladies to take part in a males’s workforce for a game with out a ladies’s workforce, in keeping with the opening.

    The state Senate authorized the overall model of the invoice on Friday in a vote of 19-12 after minor amendments from the state Area.

    The NCAA has allowed transgender athletes to compete in faculty sports activities for over a decade, however switched to a sport-by-sport way in 2022. Debates about transgender athletes had been ongoing, particularly amid the slew of anti-transgender law around the nation.

    Fighters of letting trans athletes compete argue that transgender ladies have an unfair merit over cisgender ladies because of organic variations.

    However LGBTQ+ advocates, organizations and mavens have debunked such claims, stating that the athletic talent of transgender athletes varies simply because it does with cisgender athletes, and that such law is discriminatory to transgender athletes. These teams additionally say that such law may open the door to humiliating remedy of all athletes who’re girls and women who don’t are compatible culturally-accepted norms of femininity.

    LGBTQ+ advocates decried the Texas invoice right through the legislative consultation, echoing equivalent sentiments at the damaging nature of barring transgender athletes from taking part in in sports activities groups that align with their gender id.

    “Trans other folks belong in sports activities—identical to they belong within the arts, in tech, and in political place of work. Trans other folks belong. Length.”

    – Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez

    “S.B. 15 at once goals transgender collegiate athletes and forestalls them from having equivalent get admission to to the similar alternatives and advantages that cisgender collegiate athletes have, although transgender athletes had been collaborating in collegiate sports activities with their cisgender opposite numbers because the early 2000s with out incident,” Shelly Skeen, an legal professional at Lambda Prison, stated in a observation remaining week.

    “The aim and impact of this regulation is to deprive and exclude transgender collegiate athletes,” she endured. “Apart from transgender athletes from sports activities pageant harms all collegiate athletes in addition to the coed frame as an entire by way of depriving scholars of the total extent of the school enjoy.”

    The law comes a month after the Biden management proposed a rule that might forbid blanket bans towards transgender athletes collaborating at school sports activities groups that align with their gender id. The White Area proposal was once criticized by way of some LGBTQ+ advocates who famous it will nonetheless permit faculties receiving federal investment to undertake insurance policies that prohibit transgender athletes from collaborating in sports activities.

    SB15 is certainly one of a number of expenses concentrated on transgender other folks which have been handed in Texas, together with one making the state the biggest within the country to bar gender-affirming care for transgender formative years.

    A minimum of 20 states within the U.S. have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes. Just about 500 anti-LGBTQ+ expenses had been handed in states around the country this previous 12 months, proscribing get admission to to gender-affirming care, drag presentations and the usage of toilets that align with one’s gender id.

    “Trans other folks belong in sports activities—identical to they belong within the arts, in tech, and in political place of work. Trans other folks belong. Length. This invoice is only one in a slate of expenses that concentrate on trans Texans and strive to take away them from public lifestyles,” Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez stated in a observation in regards to the Texas invoice previous this month.

  • Texas Set To Grow to be Greatest State To Bar Gender-Asserting Care For Trans Formative years

    Texas is primed to develop into the newest state to prohibit gender-affirming handle trans minors as Republicans national proceed their attack towards queer American citizens.

    Lawmakers despatched Senate Invoice 14 to Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) table Wednesday with a vote of 19-12. The invoice would bar medical doctors from offering hormone remedy and puberty-blocking remedies to minors, in addition to gender-affirming surgical procedures. Sufferers already receiving care can be required to “wean” themselves off such remedy in a “medically suitable” means.

    It’s unclear what that provision manner, as scientific teams, together with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Clinical Affiliation, have lengthy mentioned such care is medically essential.

    If signed, the regulation would cross into impact on Sept. 1 and can be a notable second in Republican efforts to restrict well being care to trans minors. Texas will be the biggest state to take action, and the provisions may affect lots of the estimated 30,000 trans formative years between the ages of 13 and 17 that reside there.

    Civil rights teams have vowed to oppose the regulation in court docket. Ricardo Martinez, the CEO of Equality Texas, mentioned the hassle was once a part of a “nefarious plan to do away with us from public existence” however pledged the gang would proceed to battle the invoice.

    “This law is vicious, it’s merciless and it’s blatantly unconstitutional,” Ash Corridor, the coverage and advocacy strategist on the ACLU of Texas, mentioned in a commentary closing week. “The bigotry and discrimination on this invoice won’t rise up in court docket and it’ll now not stand the check of time.”

    The Texas GOP has taken a couple of steps to restrict the rights of trans other people this consultation. Lawmakers within the statehouse voted to advance a separate invoice Wednesday that will require athletes on public school groups to play on groups in accordance with their gender assigned at beginning.

    State Sen. Bob Corridor (R) advised the Texas Tribune that Republican lawmakers equated get entry to to well being care to protective youngsters from smoking and alcohol, pronouncing it was once the legislature’s process to “give protection to other people.”

    “We give protection to youngsters towards numerous issues. We don’t allow them to smoke. We don’t allow them to drink. We don’t allow them to purchase lottery playing cards,” he mentioned. “And so we’re doing the best factor.”

    Abbott has supported equivalent measures previously. Closing yr, he drew fierce complaint after signing a directive ordering a state company to research folks for kid abuse in the event that they search gender-affirming remedy for his or her youngsters. Lambda Criminal and the ACLU sued over that effort, which has been on dangle since June because the case makes its means during the court docket device.

    The attack on trans other people has develop into a flashpoint in Republican politics in recent times. A minimum of 14 states have enacted bans or boundaries on well being handle trans minors, making the hassle key legislative priorities regardless of the small selection of other people such rules affect. Different GOP-driven efforts have focused drag queens, get entry to to bogs and discussions on gender identification or sexual orientation in study rooms.

  • Elon Musk and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott spoil floor on Tesla lithium refinery

    Win Mcnamee | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott to wreck floor on the website online of the electrical car maker’s new lithium refinery in Corpus Christi on Monday.

    Tesla plans to take a position $375 million to construct the ability at the Gulf coast that may lend a hand it protected a home provide of lithium hydroxide, a key component used to make batteries for its electrical cars, and its home- and utility-scale batteries.

    Musk mentioned that Tesla is aiming to provide sufficient battery-grade lithium on the refinery to fabricate 1,000,000 cars according to 12 months, and to provide extra lithium than the remainder of North The usa’s refining capability blended there.

    Mining corporate Albemarle introduced plans to take a position $1.3 billion in a brand new lithium processing facility in South Carolina in March.

    In keeping with filings with the Texas Comptroller’s administrative center, Tesla in particular plans to build a “battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility,” and different “amenities to make stronger different forms of battery fabrics processing, refining and production and ancillary production operations in make stronger of Tesla’s sustainable product line.”

    The corporate promised in its filings that “the method Tesla will use is cutting edge and designed to devour much less hazardous reagents and create usable byproducts in comparison to the normal procedure.”

    On Monday, Musk claimed, “There is not any poisonous emissions or the rest — you’ll want to reside proper in the midst of the refinery and now not endure any in poor health results.”

    Tesla’s battery uncooked subject material and recycling chief, Turner Caldwell, mentioned on the match that the corporate would to find “advisable use alternatives” for the byproduct of its lithium, which they be expecting to be most commonly sand and limestone.

    Usually, refining ore into battery-grade lithium calls for an commercial procedure that comes with crushing uncooked subject material, heating it at a top temperature, and combining it in a slurry with acids. One of the most acids utilized in lithium processing usually is hydrochloric acid, which is a hazardous air pollutant below the U.S. Blank Air Act.

    Caldwell and Musk didn’t expose the particular chemistry the corporate would depend upon for processing.

    Ultimate 12 months in April, Musk mentioned Tesla might wish to get into lithium refining as a result of the price of the steel had “long past to insane ranges.” Lithium costs have considerably declined since he made the ones remarks.

    Alternatively, China nonetheless controls greater than part of the sector’s lithium processing and refining capability whilst the U.S. has lately managed simply 1%. Musk mentioned the provision of battery-grade lithium was once a “basic chokepoint” for the electrical car trade and others.

    Governor Abbott, a Republican, praised Elon Musk as the best entrepreneur on Earth.

    “Texas needs so to be self-reliant, now not dependent upon any overseas antagonistic country for what we’d like,” he mentioned.

  • ‘Despicable’: Greg Abbott Ripped For Characterization Of Mass Taking pictures Sufferers

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has been slammed for the way he described the sufferers of the most recent mass capturing in his state.

    On Sunday, Abbott used Twitter to supply a $50,000 praise for info on a fugitive who on Friday allegedly used an AR-15-style rifle to gun down 5 neighbors after he’d been requested to forestall firing a weapon in his Cleveland backyard.

    Professional-gun Abbott described the sufferers, who have been all from Honduras— and who’ve been recognized as Sonia Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Juliza Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8 — as “unlawful immigrants,” a time period thought to be to be dehumanizing.

    The Republican governor additionally highlighted how the suspect — 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa — is “within the nation illegally.”

    “Superstar Trek” actor George Takei led the refrain of grievance of Abbott’s labeling of the sufferers.

    “That is despicable,” he wrote. “I’d have idea citing the immigration standing of the blameless sufferers of this mindless violence could be underneath even you. However I used to be flawed.”

    Superstar chef José Andrés prompt Abbott to “display some empathy,” noting how “no one is illegitimate in heaven.”

    Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez described it as a “new low” for Abbott.

  • ABC Information Reporter Questions Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Over Biden Border Claims

    ABC Information reporter Martha Raddatz known as out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and two different distinguished Republicans for sending a “message” to migrants at the safety of the U.S.-Mexico border.

    Raddatz talked to the GOP governor for a document on Wednesday’s expiration of a Donald Trump immigration coverage that allowed the “fast expulsion” of migrants. The coverage, imposed in March 2020 because of COVID-19 pandemic-related considerations, barred over 2 million migrants on the border, ABC reported.

    Raddatz grilled Abbott for his earlier claims of an “open border” that she stated despatched a message that “reverberates in Mexico.”

    “I don’t suppose I’ve ever heard President Joe Biden say ‘We now have an open border, come on over,’” Raddatz stated.

    “However other folks I’ve heard say it are you, are former President Trump, Ron DeSantis. That message reverberates in Mexico and past. In order that they do get the message that it’s an open border and smugglers use all the ones sorts of statements.”

    Abbott later stated “it used to be identified from the time that Joe Biden were given elected that Joe Biden supported open borders.” He stated smugglers know whether or not Biden will implement immigration regulations.

    Raddatz pressed additional: “How do you play into that? What are you able to do higher?”

    Using the time period “open border” to explain Biden’s coverage, PolitiFact discovered, has been “inconsistent” together with his immigration stance, as he’s “nonetheless supported security features on the border.”

    “We don’t have an open border. That’s absurd,” Terence Garrett, political science professor on the College of Texas Rio Grande Valley, instructed the e-newsletter.

    Watch extra from Raddatz’s interview with Abbott underneath.