Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz are scheduled to appear at an NRA convention just days after a gunman shot and killed 19 children at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, but Fox ignored those poor optics and attacked President Joe Biden for enacting police reform and Democrat Beto O’Rourke for confronting Abbott during his presser. UPDATE: Abbott will send pre-recorded message instead of attending in person.

The pretext for the deflection was Biden’s executive order on police reform, signed yesterday, on the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, during Fox’s Your World show. The order has no bearing on the Uvalde tragedy but that didn’t stop Fox host Neil Cavuto and guest Joe Cardinale, a retired NYPD lieutenant, from using it to run cover for Abbott and his re-election campaign.

Cavuto set the agenda by “asking” if yesterday was “the right moment to be looking at this type of reform.” He added, “I’m not minimizing its importance, I am just wondering so soon after this disaster and the dramatic spike in crime across the country, particularly in American cities, whether it’s ill-timed?”

In other words, Cavuto was not questioning the substance of the bill, just using it to “question” Biden’s judgment.

Cardinale, a frequent Fox guest, took the cue. “It’s absolutely ill-timed. I mean, he could’ve put this off,” Cardinale said. Then he upped the demonization and deflected from pertinent questions Abbott's judgment: his having weakened his state’s gun laws just months before the Uvalde school shooting, the sixth mass shooting in his 7½ years in office; his lack of specific proposals for the legislature to address gun violence during his Wednesday press conference, as The Texas Tribune noted; and his having “raised no issue with the fact that the alleged shooter had been able to purchase two rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition without raising suspicion.”

And speaking of bad timing, Abbott also refused to say whether he’d stick to his scheduled attendance at this weekend’s NRA convention in Houston.

Cavuto didn’t mention any of that either. Instead, he let Cardinale continue his attack on Biden and Abbott’s Democratic challenger in November, Beto O’Rourke. "Let the incident in Texas play out with the funerals and everything and then address it,” Cardinale insisted, without any apparent concern about the NRA convention where Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, along with Donald Trump, are also scheduled to attend.  

No, Cardinale thought it a great time to demonize Biden and O’Rourke: “If you want to see what’s wrong with this country, just look no further than President Biden and Beto O’Rourke,” Cardinale said. “Beto O’Rourke is a disgusting human being for what he did today [interrupting Abbott’s press conference to confront him on lax gun laws]. That was uncalled for, and it was nothing but political grandstanding.”

“Right now, the focus should be on what happened in Texas and how we can go about helping the people down in Texas and avoiding this in other cities across the United States,” Cardinale continued, despite not focusing on any of that, himself.” Without a trace of irony, he added, “They’re going to use it for political gain,” and, “They have the focus on the wrong issues.”

Cavuto did his part. He mentioned that O’Rourke “barged into this press event, and he was saying that this is on those very people around the governor, the governor himself, for encouraging the use of guns and providing almost a thirst for guns that created this crime wave and this violent wave.” Then Cavuto helpfully mentioned, “The governor was quick to point today that there are more shootings in a weekend in Chicago than there are any of these school shootings.”

Cardinale agreed. “He’s doing what he should be doing, he's helping the people down in Texas try to get a grip on what happened.” He claimed, “This isn’t a Second Amendment issue” and “asked,” “How did this fall on the governor’s lap that this person decided to take it upon himself to create havoc?" He finally acknowledged that guns were "an issue" but "to just dump it on the lap of any one individual is wrong.”

In 2015, Abbott tweeted how “EMBARRASSED” he was that Texas was second to California “for new gun purchases” and urged Texans to “pick up the pace.”

I'm EMBARRASSED: Texas #2 in nation for new gun purchases, behind CALIFORNIA. Let's pick up the pace Texans. @NRA https://t.co/Ry2GInbS1g

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) October 28, 2015

He has been ripped for it since the Uvalde tragedy, but not by Cavuto or Cardinale.

You can watch the Abbott protection action below, from the May 25, 2022 Your World.

5/27/22 Update, via The Texas Tribune: Abbott will provide pre-recorded remarks to the NRA convention today but travel to Uvalde instead. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has also decided not to speak. Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump still plan to attend.