West Says Gov. Abbott Complicit With Biden's Vaccine Mandate for Texas National Guard

After President Joe Biden announced this vaccine mandate for federal employees and the U.S. Military, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott decided to follow the president’s lead and appears to be allowing Texas National Guardsmen to be forced into receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

In a press release, Lt. Col. Allen West, who is challenging Gov. Abbott in the 2020 Republican gubernatorial primary race, stated that the Texas National Guard is under the command of Gov. Abbott, and that “unless on active-duty orders, the Commander-in-Chief of the Texas National Guard is the Governor” and not the current Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Col. West added that he believed forcing guardsmen to take the vaccine was “highly disturbing,” continuing that Abbott’s inaction to stop the mandatory vaccination of the Texas National Guard was nothing less than an “onerous and intrusive violation of the sovereignty of Texas.”

“It is highly disturbing that our Texas National Guard members are being ordered — mandated — to take a COVID shot. Unless on active-duty orders, the Commander-in-Chief of the Texas National Guard is the Governor, not Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

It is an unlawful, unethical, and immoral order to mandate, not for deployment purposes, that service members of the Texas Military Department receive this inoculation, especially when it wasn’t mandated for 15,000 invading Haitian illegal immigrants. As Governor of Texas, I will defend our Texas Military forces from this onerous and intrusive violation of the sovereignty of Texas.”- Lt. Col. Allen West.