Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tapped into his inner “Dirty Harry” on Wednesday and publicly dared Mayor Eric Adams to “make my day” by carrying through on his threat to send New Yorkers to campaign against his re-election bid.
Abbott also vowed to keep sending busloads of asylum-seekers to New York City, saying Adams was merely “getting a taste” of what beleaguered border communities have been dealing with in the Lone Star State since President Biden took office.
Abbott’s comments on Fox News came amid his ongoing feud with Adams over migrant relocations and just hours after three charter buses hired by Abbott dropped off nearly 100 migrants outside the Port Authority terminal in Midtown Manhattan.
The transports added to almost 70 who arrived on Friday and Sunday.
In response to Adams’ threat Tuesday that he was “deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good, old-fashioned door-knocking” against Abbott, the Republican governor said, “You know, I kind of feels like Clint Eastwood.”
“Go ahead, Major. Make my day,” he said.
The taunt echoed Eastwood’s iconic line from the 1983 movie “Sudden Impact,” in which his San Francisco detective character “Dirty Harry” faced off against a robber who was holding a coffee shop waitress at gunpoint.
Then-President Ronald Reagan also famously invoked Eastwood’s words in 1985 when he threatened to veto “any tax increase that Congress might even think of sending up.”
“And I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead. Make my day,” he added.
Abbott said there “could hardly be anything better” for him than for Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke to be “aided by a bunch of New Yorkers.”
“That will not be viewed very positively by the state of Texas,” he said.
Abbott also accused Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, both Democrats, of “rank hypocrisy” for attacking his motives for him in responding to what he calls President Biden’s “open border policies.”
“Listen, New York is a sanctuary city,” Abbott said.
“Mayor Adams said that they welcome illegal immigrants. And now once they have to deal with the reality of it, they’re suddenly flummoxed and they cannot handle it.”
Abbott added: “They are now getting a taste of what we’re having to deal with… the challenges that Texas is dealing with every day.”
“Only when they see that will the Biden ministration begin to have to realize the Biden administration is gonna have to finally start enforcing the laws passed by Congress that secure the border,” he said.
Adams responded during an unrelated afternoon news conference in Queens, saying of Abbott, “I know he thinks he’s Clint Eastwood, but he’s not.”
“He is an anti-American governor that is really going against everything we stand for,” Adams blasted in response to a question from The Post.
“And I am going to do everything feasible to make sure Texans, the people of Texas, realize how harmful he is to us globally.”
Adams then called Abbott a “global embarrassment.”
“Because this is not what we do as Americans,” the mayor said.
“All of us — and I’m sure if he goes into his lineage, he came from somewhere. And if his ancestors of him were treated the way he’s treating these asylum seekers and migrants, then he would not be where he is right now.
The mayor said that “without the proper coordination,” the city was “unable to receive people at one location and give them the support they deserve…but often they end up at our intake centers.”
Adams also called on New Yorkers to assist the migrants, saying that “if anyone in the city sees someone that they believe needs the assistance, we’re asking them to point them and direct them to the intake centers.
The Biden administration quietly ended the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy Monday — clearing the way for potentially tens of thousands more migrants to enter the US and stay here while their applications for asylum are processed.
The Department of Homeland Security announced it would no longer enroll asylum-seekers in the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program – which forced about 70,000 people back south of the border over the past three years to await their immigration hearings.
Abbott, who began sending migrants to Washington in April, said that “our goal is to, for one, help our local communities and in doing so send even more buses to New York, to DC and maybe even to other communities to alleviate the challenge we dealing with.”
In addition, Abbott said he wanted “to continue to expose this national catastrophe caused by President Biden.”
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