The Interesting Thing Here

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made Austin’s police budget cuts a top campaign issue for candidates running in November. https://t.co/k1c8rCUyHU

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 10, 2020

....is that the Texas Democratic Party sounds like....Democrats!

“Greg Abbott knows Texans are fed up with his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, so he tries a tired old trick to change the subject and manufacture fear,” said Manny Garcia, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. “[Texans] know that we must dismantle systemic racism, and they know peaceful protest against police violence should not be met with more violence, yet that’s exactly what Donald Trump has advocated for.”

The other interesting thing is that Greg Abbott is so bereft of talking points and campaign issues he's having to invent one that he hopes pits rural voters against urban voters.  Except I don't see too many rural voters getting all that excited if city slickers are stupid enough to fire all their police departments.  If you think Texas cities are overrun with liberals and crime and that's why you don't live there, what do you care?

Meanwhile, Cornyn responded about Trump's lies ("Remain calm!  All is well!") because his opponent lit a fire under his ass.

It's on tape, John. Stop trying to diminish confidence in our press.

It looks like you got the memo back in March to downplay the pandemic too.

Now nearly 200,000 Americans are dead. https://t.co/p0LgMxjYBw pic.twitter.com/mTZaI7xZsQ

— MJ Hegar (@mjhegar) September 10, 2020

In response to the recent revelation that President Trump intentionally downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic early on, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn suggested Trump could have struck a better balance between keeping calm and informing the public. https://t.co/TRI7k2bPnq

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 10, 2020

Earlier, Cornyn reportedly had a different perspective on Trump's reported comments to Woodward for his book, "Rage," which is due out Tuesday.

"I don't have any confidence in the reporting, so I'm not going to comment," Cornyn told CNN reporter Manu Raju, who noted that Trump's remarks to Woodward were recorded.

During the afternoon call with reporters, Cornyn did not raise any concerns about the credibility of the reporting on the comments.

I think John's not as confident of victory as he once was.  Beto O'Rourke is still casting a long shadow in Texas.  And Trump's is the shadow every GOP candidate wants to get out from under.