Rick Perry has no regrets about using his veto

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, told reporters, "I'm here today to restate the lawful constitutional authority for a governor to use his or her veto authority." And he said, "I stand behind my veto and I would make that veto again."

The Texas governor, appearing after his court appearance on felony abuse of power charges, took a few questions, among them, whether the court proceedings were distracting him from his duties as governor or from a potential presidential campaign. He denied they were posing a problem, saying, "I'm able to multitask pretty good," and he cited his ability to deal with border security issues and the Ebola crisis in Texas during the case.

In this pretrial hearing, his attorneys argued that the case should be quashed for reasons including whether the special prosecutor, Michael McCrum, had been properly sworn in.

An Austin grand jury indicted Perry in August for abusing the powers of his office when he used his veto last summer to try to oust Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. Lehmberg had been arrested on charges related to drunk driving. Perry pressured Lehmberg to resign, and when she refused, he vetoed state funding for public corruption prosecutors, who are under Lehmberg's supervision.

Perry's indictment by an Austin grand jury rests on felony counts of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. If convicted, his maximum punishment on the former charge is five to 99 years in prison; the latter is two to 10 years.