Fox News’ Chris Wallace corners Texas AG for blatant hypocrisy on vaccine mandates: 'That’s not consistent'

When MAGA Republicans appear on Fox News, they expect softball interviews from the cable news outlet's prime-time opinion hosts. But Fox News' Chris Wallace, for all his conservative leanings, isn't shy about throwing hardball questions at both Republicans and Democrats — and the "Fox News Sunday" host gave Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quite a workout during a November 14 appearance on the show.

The far-right Paxton is suing the Biden Administration over its vaccine/COVID-19 testing mandate, claiming that President Joe Biden is imposing an unfair burden on businesses. But Wallace pointed out that Gov. Greg Abbott, through executive order, has imposed a vaccine-related mandate of his own.

Wallace told Paxton, "You say that Texas companies should take care of their own workers. So, given that, how do you justify the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, issuing an executive order that bans any business in Texas from issuing a vaccine mandate, and how do you justify the governor issuing a ban on all school districts on mask mandates? A ban that was overturned just this week by a federal judge?"

Paxton responded that he "justified" it because Abbott has the power to issue executive orders and that he was "perfectly comfortable" defending the Texas governor because vaccine and mask mandates are unnecessary.

But Wallace didn't let up on Paxton.

"I just want to drill down on this a little bit," Wallace told the Texas attorney general. "You said that Texas companies should take care of their own workers. Is that consistent with the governor's executive order and your enforcement of that order, which bans companies from taking care of their own workers as they see fit?"

Paxton made an attempt at a states' rights type of argument, trying in vain to convince Wallace that Biden doesn't have the authority to make vaccine-related mandates while Abbott does. Wallace, however, wasn't buying it.

Wallace persisted, "But you said that businesses should take care of their own workers and the governor is saying that they can't see care of their workers as they see fit. They are prohibited from deciding, if they so choose, to issue a vaccine mandate. That's not consistent."

The "Fox News Sunday" host went on to tell Paxton, "You are saying they should have the authority and the ability to decide what their workers should do, and the governor's executive order prohibits them from deciding what they want to do. He bans vaccine mandates…. Are you saying there is a difference from a mandate to get a vaccine from the federal government?"

Paxton responded, "Your question is confusing, but yes, the federal government has no authority to do this…. The governor has a different authority under state law that the legislature has given him, and he's operating under that state law." But Wallace refused to let up, telling Paxton, "So he can tell private businesses what to do? That's OK. So, they can't take care of their own?"