'He cares about his poll numbers': Houston police chief shreds Greg Abbott for ending mask mandate

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo had some harsh words for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after he rescinded his state's mask mandate earlier this month.

Appearing on CNN Tuesday, Acevedo said that ending the mandate would make his officers' jobs more difficult because he expected them to have to respond to a flood of incidents in which citizens refuse to comply with stores' individual mask mandates because the statewide mandate had been lifted.

"In Texas, we have very strong property rights," he said. "So if a person does not want to wear the mask and refuses to wear the mask and refuses to leave, it becomes criminal trespass. Law enforcement will be called and they'll either be arrested or given a criminal trespass warning, which means they can't come back to that business for a year."

Acevedo then said that in the days since Abbott announced the end of the mask mandate, a bar employee has already had glass broken over his head after asking a patron to wear a mask.

CNN host Alisyn Camerota then asked Acevedo why he believed Abbott lifted the mandate.

"I think he cares about his poll numbers and the extreme to the right has a real problem with masks," he said. "Quite frankly, he's going to continue to wear his mask, is my understanding, because he understands the risk to his own health. And so if it's good enough for him to wear a mask, I'm not sure why he doesn't care enough about the rest of Texans to continue to follow the science."

Watch the video below.