Schumer in Senate floor speech calls Abbott 'absolute fraud,' following massacre

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott an "absolute fraud," over what he apparent considers the contrast in the Republican governor's empathy for those suffering after the recent school shooting in his state and his Second Amendment stances. 

"Gov. Abbott, will you ask your MAGA buddies and NRA pals to put aside their agendas and think of someone other than themselves like you asked the families to do? Of course not," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "No amount of bloodshed seems to be enough for MAGA Republicans."

Nineteen children and two adults were killed Thursday inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. 

Texas has some on the country's strongest laws protecting Second Amendment rights include one Abbott signed last year that allows adults to carry a gun in public without a special permit. 

At a press conference Wednesday, Abbott asked residents to put aside their political agendas as the city of Uvalde processes the aftermath of the shooting.

"My God, how dare he?" Schumer, a New York Democrat also said Thursday. "What an absolutely fraud the governor of Texas is. And this is the same Governor Abbott who tomorrow ... will go speak at the [NRA] convention in Houston."

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke's went to the press conference Wednesday to attack Abbott, in a political outburst that resulted in him being removed. 

Schumer's remarks were delivered prior to a scheduled Senate vote on legislation title the Domestic Terrorism Protection Act, which is aimed at combating acts of violent extremism driven by white supremacy.

The bill, which failed to pass, is primarily a reaction to the mass shooting that  took place recently in Buffalo, New York, during which 10 black people were killed. The FBI is investigating the active shooter incident as a hate crime.