Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who attended a campaign fundraiser hours after a shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, reportedly was at the fundraiser for hours.
The Republican governor, who initially said he stopped “on the way” to Austin to “let people know” he couldn’t stay, visited the fundraiser in Huntsville, 150 miles east of Austin, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Records obtained by the outlet show the governor, via a loaned jet, arrived in Huntsville at 4:52 p.m. and didn’t leave until about three hours later.
Abbott could have raised up to $50,000 at the event, held at a private home by host Jeff Bradley, according to the newspaper.
The governor’s campaign spokeswoman Renae Eze, in a statement, wrote that Abbott’s “description of his movements that day are accurate.”
“Unlike Beto O’Rourke who took advantage of the tragedy in Uvalde by increasing his fundraising efforts and resorting to political stunts, Governor Abbott canceled all political activity, including fundraising,” Eze wrote. O’Rourke’s campaign emails sent in the days after the shooting included one directing supporters to donate to a Uvalde relief GoFundMe page.
O’Rourke, Abbott’s Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial election, called out the governor at a press conference the day after the shooting.
“This is on you. Until you choose to do something different, this will continue to happen,” O’Rourke said in May. “Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.”
Abbott, in an interview with KENS-TV Friday, reiterated that he was at the fundraiser to let people know what was going on in Uvalde and “took questions about that” at the event.
The report comes as criticism continues over law enforcement’s response to the Uvalde shooting. The outrage led Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo to resign from his City Council post earlier this month. Community members have continued to call for his ouster as school police chief and for other local officials to be held accountable.