Former President Barack Obama on Thursday sought to flip the script on accusations that he backs gerrymandering as he defended Democrats for launching retaliatory redistricting plans responding to Texas Republicans’ battle to redraw their state’s congressional map.

Barack Obama is praising the Democratic state lawmakers in Texas who broke quorum and fled their state last week in protest of their Republican colleagues’ aggressive redistricting effort that’s designed to award the GOP five additional seats in the U.

Texas Democrats, who broke quorum in an attempt to prevent Republicans’ gerrymander of the state, on Friday said they were proud of the fight they had put up thus far in their state but signaled that chapter may be coming to a close, with the battle playing out on the national level in the future.