Abbott Spent Hours Fundraising After Uvalde Shooting – And Lied About It
The Dallas Morning News did some digging into Texas Gov. Abbott’s campaign fundraiser in Huntsville, Texas, just a few hours after the horrific school shooting in Uvalde that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers:
But the governor didn’t touch down and quickly depart, as he implied, after news outlets reported he’d gone ahead with the May 24 fundraiser at a private home in East Texas. Some expected Abbott to instead rush to the South Texas town where residents awaited news about unaccounted-for relatives.
The following day, Abbott said the stop in Huntsville was to “let people know that I could not stay, that I needed to go” to Austin to continue working with law enforcement on the response to the 21 killings at Robb Elementary School.
Newly obtained campaign finance reports and flight-tracking records show that Abbott, using northeast Texas rancher-businessman Ricky Baker’s loaned jet, arrived in Huntsville at 4:52 p.m. on May 24. He was driven about two miles to a local supporter’s house and didn’t depart the city until 7:47 p.m.