‘Ineptitude’ of Abbott, Republican leaders led to Texas power disaster, O’Rourke says

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Mike Stunson
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As millions of Texans remain without power Wednesday, former El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke called out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders.

The former Democratic presidential candidate compared the state’s massive power outage to the COVID-19 pandemic — calling it another disaster worsened by “the inaction & ineptitude” of the Republican leaders.

“This doesn’t have to happen and doesn’t have to continue,” O’Rourke said in a series of tweets Tuesday night. “If you can’t do your most important job — protecting the lives of those you were sworn to serve — then get out of the way and give the power and resources to local leaders who are fighting with all they’ve got to get past your mess and save the people in their communities.”

Abbott has blamed the Electric Reliability Council of Texas for the widespread issues in the state, the Star-Telegram reported. He deemed it a “total failure” on the council’s part and urged the leaders to step down.

The governor has also asked the state legislature to investigate ERCOT and has called for reforms.

But the state’s Democratic Party Chair Gilbert Hinojosa, like O’Rourke, said “the blame falls on Abbott.”

O’Rourke doubled down in an appearance on MSNBC Tuesday. He said the much of the situation stemming from the historic winter storm “was avoidable.”

“The energy capital of North America cannot provide enough energy to warm and power people’s homes,” O’Rourke said. “We are nearing a failed state in Texas, and it has nothing to do with God or natural disasters. It has everything to do with those in positions of public trust who have failed us.”

More than 3 million Texans are still without power as of Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

“State leaders don’t get to say that they didn’t see this coming,” O’Rourke tweeted. “Energy experts and State House Dems, among others, were warning of this for years. Abbott chose to ignore the facts, the science and the tough decisions and now Texans will once again pay the price.”

O’Rourke said last month he is considering running for governor in 2022. He narrowly lost to Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate election in Texas.

Tarrant County gets another one to three inches of snow as freezing temperatures linger

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