At least five soldiers involuntarily tied to Texas’ Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border scheme have died, a number of them due to suspected suicide, reports have said. Facing bipartisan criticism over these tragic deaths, Abbott has issued a response befitting a true leader: But Joe Biden.

The Texas Tribune reports that right-wing Republican demanded to know why critics were “not at the very same time saying something” about deaths under President Biden. “Why are they silent about that? The answer—they’re just playing politics,” Abbott complained. “The life of a soldier is far more valuable than the words of a politician playing politics.”

Okay—so why is he sending soldiers on a political mission that retired military have already described as political?

“Abbott is shrugging off the deaths of five Guardsmen as he continues to denigrate the service of all Guard members by asking them to perform as the backdrop for his political photo ops,” challenger Beto O’Rourke responded in a statement reported by The Texas Tribune. “He hasn’t paid them on time, he’s slashed their earned benefits, he has many living without necessities as basic as bathrooms, and he’s left them without any leadership from the governor. This is a mess of Abbott’s making.”

Army Times reported in October that the Texas National Guard had been deployed to Abbott’s scheme as the state had also slashed their tuition assistance by more than half. “The benefit cut for soldiers comes after the Texas legislature provided a $300 million funding boost for the Texas Military Department’s border mission amid a record-high year for Border Patrol apprehensions.” Priorities.

Abbott was also defensive about soldiers’ late pay, saying that only 84 soldiers were affected. But the Texas Military Department has previously acknowledged nearly double that number. The Texas Tribune reported the department had also acknowledged that these paycheck delays were due to having to add thousands of soldiers to the payroll. Allen West, the disgraced former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who is challenging Abbott from the right, has claimed soldiers have “reached out to him about unsanitary conditions in camps and a lack of proper equipment,” KSAT reported.

If you still need more proof that Abbott’s scheme is truly reprehensible, it was resoundingly applauded by anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies. But that was probably a plus for Greg considering he also welcomed the Border Patrol union’s endorsement.

KSAT reports that state Sen. César Blanco called the deaths “tragic,” adding that the state must “make sure that the Texas Military Department is deploying mental health services to these regions to ensure that these guardsmen are doing OK.” But also not subjecting them to needless, wasteful political operations in the first place.

Abbott’s border scheme has similarly been slammed by the New York Daily News editorial board last last month, saying that “play-acting that the border is a warzone has long been a cheap political trick that needlessly frightens voters and harms migrants, many of whom are merely asking for a chance to go through the asylum process, as is their legal right. Now it is also harming the National Guard troops that Abbott is responsible for. It is past time for Operation Lone Star to end, and for the governor to take responsibility for what his immature antics have wrought.”