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Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett mocked her state’s governor during a weekend appearance, referring to the wheelchair-bound Greg Abbott as “Gov. Hot Wheels” while speaking at a banquet in Los Angeles.
“You all know we got Gov. Hot Wheels down there. Come on, now,” Crockett, a Dallas Democrat, said about Abbott, a Republican, while addressing the Human Rights Campaign event. “And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot-ass mess, honey.”
Abbott, who was elected in 2014, was paralyzed in 1984 after a tree fell on him while he was running. The accident severely damaged Abbott’s spinal cord, confining him, now 67, to a wheelchair for more than 40 years.
Crockett, elected to the House in 2022, was roundly criticized by Republicans for the comments, an aside she made during her speech to the civil rights group event after she thanked Morgan Cox, a group board member and fellow Dallas resident, according to video of the event posted to Human Rights Campaign’s YouTube channel.
“Crockett’s comments are disgraceful,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn posted on the social media platform X. “Shameful.”
Neither Abbott’s nor Crockett’s office immediately replied to requests for comment.
Crockett has faced criticism from Republicans for suggesting last week that tech billionaire Elon Musk, heading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, “be taken down.”
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
