Trump slams Texas Governor Greg Abbott for failing to get behind state Attorney General

Donald Trump has slammed Texas Governor Greg Abbott for failing to get behind his Attorney General Ken Paxton – who was impeached this weekend over misconduct allegations.

Trump, who is a longtime ally of the state’s top lawyer, described Paxton on Saturday as as ‘one of the most hard working and effective Attorney Generals in the United States’.

That came hours before the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to impeach Paxton on 20 counts that included bribery and abuse of public trust.

But Abbott, who is now empowered to appoint an interim attorney general, has remained silent on the impeachment throughout the week and weekend, causing Trump to take aim at him personally.

‘MISSING IN ACTION! Where is the Governor of Texas on his Attorney General’s Impeachment?’ he wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday evening. 

Trump (right), who is a longtime ally of Paxton (left), described him as one of the ‘most hard working’ and ‘effective’ AGs in the country 

Abbott had not commented on the case against his attorney general all week, causing Trump to finally take aim at him personally in a post to Truth Social

‘MISSING IN ACTION! Where is the Governor of Texas on his Attorney General’s Impeachment?’ wrote Trump in a Truth Social post on Saturday evening

Earlier in the day before the debate in the House began, Trump voiced his own support of Paxton, and called the Texas House speaker facilitating the impeachment a ‘Republican in name only’.

‘The RINO Speaker of the House of Texas, Dade Phelan, who is barely a Republican at all and failed the test on voter integrity, wants to impeach one of the most hard working and effective Attorney Generals in the United States, Ken Paxton, who just won re-election with a large number of American Patriots strongly voting for him,’ he wrote.

‘You would think that any issue would have been fully adjudicated by the voters of Texas, especially when that vote was so conclusive….’ he added.

Paxton has been under criminal indictment since 2015 over conduct from before he took office but was reelected in both 2018 and 2022. In 2014, he admitted that he breached Texas laws by failing to register as an ‘investment advisor’ while soliciting clients.

A year later, he was indicted on felony charges by a grand jury in his hometown near Dallas following accusations he defrauded investors in a tech startup. He has since pleaded not guilty to two felony counts that carry a potential sentence of up to 99 years in prison. 

The move to impeach Paxton on Saturday made him the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to have been impeached. 

Paxton shared a statement in which he called his impeachment an ‘ugly spectacle’. He is pictured reading a statement in his office in Austin, Texas, on May 26

Paxton shared a statement on Saturday evening after his impeachment

Paxton has decried what he called ‘political theater’ based on ‘hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims’, and said it’s an attempt to disenfranchise voters who reelected him in November. 

Trump echoed that sentiment. ‘Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed – I will fight you if it does,’ he wrote in another post.

On Friday, his son, Donald Trump Jr., called the impeachment proceedings a ‘disgrace’. 

Hours after his impeachment Paxton took to Twitter himself. ‘The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just,’ he began a statement.

‘I look forward to a quick resolution in the Texas Senate, where I have full confidence the process will be fair and just,’ he wrote.