Texas should be thankful to have Greg Abbott at the helm. Truly it is times like these that separate those who are leaders, and those who are not fit to lead.

Many heard President Joe Biden’s speech on Monday surrounding the horrific massacre of innocent children at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. After the initial report that afternoon of an active shooter, the news tumbled out little by little, none of it good. Beyond the established facts of who, what, and where, there were not a whole lot of facts on the ground that anyone could (or should) have commented on. Sadly, the legacy media did their usual knee jerk-driven agenda around gun control, but one expects more from the President of the United States in addressing a national tragedy.

All Biden did was reinforce how ill-equipped he is to be the leader of anything, let alone a nation of 331 million people. Biden did nothing to bring comfort, unity, or clarity to the people of the United States. If anything, he brought further confusion and muddied the tragedy with his political agenda. The Uvalde tragedy was still in play, and parents and family members were still waiting to hear whether their child had been harmed. Instead of showing restraint and decorum, Biden decided to enrage the base and energize the nation toward division. It was all about him and his political agenda, and nothing about the children whose lives were tragically lost or the families and community that were grieving.

Even the tone of Biden’s voice changed throughout his speech to reflect two different realities. When Biden bothered to mention the children and their families, he mumbled, was doddering, and stood there with bowed shoulders and forced grief. Even with that, Biden still managed to rub salt into the Uvalde community’s wounds.

To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There’s a hollowness in your chest, and you feel like you’re being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out. It’s suffocating. And it’s never quite the same.

Newsflash Joe: It’s not about you! Biden is a parent who lost two children tragically; you would think he would be more adept at speaking comfort and peace into such a situation, and pointing people in the direction of unity and healing.

But nah, like the flip of a switch, Biden’s voice changed. The worm turned, with acidity and bile.

As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?

What?! How do you invoke God’s name in order to further your agenda?

With more clarity than he bothered to show for the Uvalde children and their families, he rattled off a list of mass shootings, making sure he ended with the recent shooting at a Buffalo grocery store. In the midst of his free association rant, Biden managed to insert a nonsensical analogy that again, had no place in a speech that is meant to bring comfort and focus.

What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?

Deer aren’t running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, for God’s sake. It’s just sick.

Seriously?!

Like a well-prescribed formula for someone who claims to be “deeply Catholic,” Biden went back to the subdued and depressed voice, and dragged out a piece of scripture that fit the situation. Of course his speech writers could not even be bothered to give the chapter and verse (Psalm 34:18); that’s how important it was. As if uttering “scripture” conjures some magical talisman. Biden barely mumbled out something about prayer and comfort, before he quickly went back to the political agenda.

Scripture says—Jill and I have talked about this in different contexts, in other contexts: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” So many crushed spirits.

So, tonight, I ask the nation to pray for them, to give the parents and siblings the strength in the darkness they feel right now.

I wanted to throw up. What a small, sick man to try and use this moment of tragedy to push his gun control agenda.

It took a large, compassionate man to focus the moment of tragedy and present truth, comfort, and clarity in portions that those who are grieving, and those who are angry, and those who are confused can digest. Greg Abbott was that man, and his Wednesday press conference was a palate cleanser and a soul soother.

The first thing Abbott did was point out that it was indeed a tragedy, and to remind us about something the Left likes to ignore: the nature of good and evil embedded in these types of acts.

“To begin with, let me point out the obvious: Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday. Anyone who shoots his grandmother in the face has to have the evil in his heart. But it is far more evil for someone to gun down little kids.

This goes beyond mental illness, because not everyone who struggles with mental illness goes out and willfully targets and kills innocents. Abbott goes on to explain what good looks like, and how that good was stripped because of an evil person. Persons intent on evil will find whatever tool they deem necessary to cause destruction and damage. This shooter’s tool happened to be a gun.

It is intolerable and it is unacceptable for us to have in the state anyone who would kill little kids in school. Children are a blessing. God teaches us that. They are filled with laughter. Innocence. And joy. Their love is a gift that parents get to unwrap every single day. Parents in Uvalde had that gift taken away from them. Stolen by a demented person.

Abbott went on to address the community’s pain and loss:

“To say the least, Uvalde has been shaken to its core. Families are broken apart. Hearts are forever shattered. All Texans are grieving with the people of Uvalde, and people are rightfully angry about what has happened. Events like this, they tear at the fabric of a community. Our job is to ensure that the community is not going to be ripped apart.

Abbott then appealed for unity and focused on what was needed at this time. Whatever solutions may be needed to solve the problem, the time to litigate it is not hours or even days after a tragedy.

You give people space to process and grieve. Anything else is an assault.

All Texans must come together and support the families that have been affected by this horrific tragedy. What they need now more than ever is our love. What they need is uplifting from all of our fellow Texans, all of our fellow Americans.”

What I most appreciated about Abbott’s response is that he grounded all this with facts on the ground and paid honor to the role and courage of law enforcement in blunting this crisis and mitigating the damage.

Even outlets like Fox News reported wrong information about the circumstances at hand in Uvalde, and especially about the shooter. Abbott cautioned against the incorrect information, then made it a point to outline, in detail, the correct information and where the investigation stood at that moment in time.

There’s been a lot of things that have been said. Some are correct, some are incorrect. Let me tell you the best information that we have at this time. Understanding, very importantly, that this is an ongoing investigation, and ongoing investigations often revealed new information as those investigations progress.

Texans especially, but all Americans in general, appreciate information about the reality on the ground, rather than postulating on what should have happened. That is much of what is going on in legacy media and the gun control lobby right now.

For the reality is as horrible as what happened, it could have been worse. The reason it is not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do. They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives. And it is a fact that because of their quick response, getting on the scene, being able to respond to the gunman, and eliminate the gunman, they were able to save lives.

Unfortunately, not enough.

Prayer works because you focus on what is beyond you, rather than what is. Greg Abbott understood to focus the community of Uvalde and all Americans on that prayer, give them clarity about the situation at hand, but offer comfort and love as they process and deal with things that will not be clear for a long time. This is the antithesis of the mockery, sneering, and self-serving agenda resident in Biden’s speech.

The crucible of tragedy makes or breaks leaders. We now know which one is forged, and which one is broken.