WATCH: Gov Abbott says Biden and Democrats are 'lying' about voter integrity laws in Texas

Texas Governor Greg Abbot defended the election integrity laws up for a vote in his state, calling out President Joe Biden for his outright lies about those laws in an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo.

Bartiromo said Texas' voting laws had been "misrepresented" by Texas Demcorat lawmakers and by media. Abbott agreed, going farther. "The word you chose," he said, "to say that what they were saying about it is a misrepresentation is pretty much the nicest thing you can say. The fact of the matter is that they have been lying about what's going on and that lie has been perpetuated by the main stream media."

He said that the voting laws, far from being discriminatory, expanded access to voting.

And Abbott slammed Biden for his misrepresentation of the election integrity laws, saying: "So this is the same president who called me a neanderthal, now he's invoking Jim Crow 2, and I've got to tell you what: That is diminishing for the people in the United States of America who did have to suffer through Jim Crow," Abbott said.

"Anybody who says this is a Jim Crow law, they either don't know Jim Crow laws or they don't know what's going on in the state of Texas. Because there is no segregation," Abbot said. "There is no attempt to make it harder for people of color."

"And in fact," Abbott continued, "Texas passed a voter ID law a few years ago, and they said the same thing 'oh, this is voter suppression that will deny people of color the ability to vote.' But ever since we passed that law there's been more people who vote than ever before—including people of color."

"It's easier today than it's ever been, for people of color, for all Texans, to cast a vote," Abbott told Bartiromo. "And so these aspersions that are being cast by the President of the United States are completely reprehensible and it shows the American people that the President of the United States is willing to lie about what's going on to try to get his way.

"And that's one reason why you're seeing President Biden's polling numbers continue to plummet."

Abbott's comments come after a group of about 60 Texas Democrat lawmakers fled the state rather than vote on the new election integrity laws, which expand early voting while cutting back on the fraught mail-in-balloting system, which was expanded during the coronavirus pandemic to prevent contagion, and was not intended to be permanent.