Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said on Thursday that Donald Trump is mistaken over who is responsible for his state’s border security.
Perry argued that his rival for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination is confusing federal responsibilities with those at the state level.
“Donald Trump needs a primer in whose responsibility it is to secure the border,” Perry told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“That’s a federal responsibility,” he said. “It’s a constitutional requirement.”
Perry added that his state had stepped up its role in border security because of federal disinterest.
“The state of Texas intervened in a big way over the course of the last five or six years because of the impact that we were having from drug cartels, transnational gangs, from those that would be trafficking in the sexual trade,” he said.
“And we spent almost a billion dollars of Texas taxpayers’ money,” Perry added.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Perry’s role in Texas’s border security and illegal immigration.
“Rick Perry failed at the border,” Trump tweeted earlier this month. “Now he’s critical of me.”
“He needs a new pair of glasses to see the crimes committed by illegal immigrants,” Trump added.
The former Texas governor also said Thursday that President Obama had not helped the Lone Star State protect its borders during his tenure there.
“Last summer, people were witness to my meeting with the president, [and it] became abundantly clear to me the president wasn’t going to engage in … directing this country to do its constitutional duty and secure that border with all of these children showing up on our border and other individuals,” said Perry, who served as governor of Texas from 2000 to this year.
“Literally, tens of thousands of people trying to cross the border,” he added of last summer’s border surge.
Perry additionally vowed he would take a more active role in federal border protection should he win the nation’s highest office next year.
“We know how to do it, and it’s the federal government’s responsibility,” he said.
“If I’m elected president of the United States, I will assure you one thing: there will be the will in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “It will reside in the White House to secure that border.”
Perry also promised he will appear in the GOP’s upcoming televised presidential debates.
Trump’s presence in one of the most crowded Republican fields in recent memory is raising concerns some candidates such as Perry will get crowded out.
“Well, we have a voice in the process,” Perry said. “I mean, that’s the more important part from my perspective.”
“So rules are rules,” he said of the debates. “I know how to play by the rules.”
“And Americans are paying attention to this process right now,” he added. “And I feel very confident we’ll be on the stage.”
CNN and Fox have each announced they are structuring their debates based on an average of national polling numbers for each GOP White House hopeful.