The state of Texas is fighting against President Barack Obama's directive ordering public schools to allow students to use the bathroom matching their gender identities because the order is just another example of the president turning "the Constitution upside down," the state's Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday.
"By him issuing this directive, it is totally against what Congress chose to do," Abbott told CNN's
"New Day" co-host Alisyn Camerota. "Congress is the branch of government in charge of making policy. Congress voted on this very issue. Congress voted not to add transgender to the Civil Rights Act, or to Title 9."
However, he continued, Obama is acting as a king, acting as a dictator, by imposing this as absolutely contrary to what the Constitution allows."
And even though the president may empathize with some interests, he continued, he "cannot mow down the Constitution"
Abbott had initially supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's bid for the GOP nomination, but now backs Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee.
"Ted Cruz is more than a presidential candidate to me," said Abbott. "Ted Cruz is a friend of mine. When I was the attorney general of Texas, Ted Cruz was my solicitor general. I knew him from behind the scenes. Where his convictions were. So I was a Ted Cruz guy."
But after Cruz dropped out of the race, there was a choice to be made, said Abbott, and Republicans who are not voting for the eventual nominee are "aligning their principles with Hillary Clinton, which is far more dangerous."