Texas Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton (R) on Saturday lambasted his opponent Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) “lip service” to MAGA, his cowardice in refusing to overturn the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, and his support of several of President Donald Trump’s enemies.
Paxton’s stern words for career politician Cornyn occurred during an interview on Breitbart News Saturday with Breitbart’s D.C. Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle — Paxton’s first big interview since the Texas GOP Primary race on Tuesday. Paxton and Cornyn are headed for a heated runoff election so one of them can ultimately face the blasphemous, abortion-loving Democrat nominee James Talarico.
President Trump has yet to endorse in the race, demanding first that the Senate pass the SAVE America Act, a massive piece of legislation aimed at cracking down on voter fraud which is currently stalled because of the 60-vote threshold required by the filibuster.
In what Boyle called a “master chess move,” Paxton said he would drop out of the Texas Senate Republican primary runoff if the Senate lifts the filibuster to pass the voter ID bill. Paxton did so after Trump announced on Wednesday that he would soon make an endorsement between the two and would expect the unchosen candidate to bow out. Paxton suggested he would not bow out if he did not receive the coveted endorsement, but then he set the condition of nuking the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act as his price. The artful move places the onus on four-term Cornyn to agree to end the filibuster to pass a major pillar of the president’s agenda — a move he has not voiced any support for.
“My number one campaign message has been on election integrity… [After President Trump’s State of the Union], I literally thought, well, okay, if this is the way it’s going to be, let’s make sure we get something good done for the country. The most important thing we can do to save this country is to protect our elections in states that refuse to do that,” Paxton told Boyle.
“Since the time that I put out the tweet, it’s been interesting because the Senate still hasn’t pushed forward the Save America Act. You hear a lot of consternation, but I haven’t heard any new Republican senators who have been opposed to it, like Mitch McConnell and others, come out and support it. And I haven’t heard John Cornyn come out — he says he supports it, but he doesn’t. He’s never said anything about supporting getting rid of the filibuster,” Paxton continued. “And he has done nothing to get this bill passed for years, and he has done nothing to get it passed since I said that. I’m still hopeful because I think this is the most important bill sitting in front of Congress, and it is essential for saving our country from fraudulent elections, which ultimately destroy the country.”
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Paxton went on to say Cornyn pays “lip service” to MAGA with no follow-through, to which Boyle said the move showed Cornyn has spent his entire career engaging in “performance theater.”
“He’s asking the State of Texas for six more years. He’s been there for 24 years,” Paxton said. “I can’t vote in the Senate right now — I feel like I’m having more influence over the Save America Act than he has, and I’m not even there. This is the guy that supposedly can get things done. He’s promised the State of Texas that he’s the guy, he’s conservative, he’s pro-Trump. He cares about the Save America Act, but he’s the only one that can actually get it done. And right now he’s not getting it done. It’s as we just said, lip service, big talk. This has been typical of John Cornyn for 24 years in the Senate and 40 years-plus in office. A lot of talk but no delivering.”
As the rivalry dials up ahead of the runoff, more vetting has revealed Cornyn’s previous defense of Trump enemies like James Comey, Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Lisa Monaco, and Robert Mueller, his soft spot for the Russia Collusion Hoax, and his fondness for illegal amnesty, Boyle noted.
“I’m shocked what I’ve learned in the last few days. I gotta say this stuff is an albatross around his neck,” Boyle told Paxton. “I think he would have a serious problem winning a general election and motivating Republicans to vote for him in November. But your thoughts on what’s come out about Senator Cornyn over the last several days? Because I think that it’s just devastating.”
“He has talked a big game about loving Donald Trump. But, as you said, if you look at what he’s actually done — supporting the people that tried to destroy Donald Trump, and even during the election coming out saying that Donald Trump’s day is over — everything that John Cornyn did was designed to make sure that Donald Trump did not get reelected,” Paxton said.
“If the people of Texas knew how viciously John Cornyn went after Donald Trump by encouraging and inciting these people like Jack Smith and Mueller and [Monaco] to basically destroy the president, there’s no way that the people of Texas would put up with that and vote for John Cornyn,” he continued. “This is the way John Cornyn works. He works behind the scenes usually, but that stuff is out in public, and we have the information. We just need to let the voters know.”
Boyle zeroed in on Cornyn’s support for Deputy Attorney General Monaco, who had the position under former President Joe Biden and “was involved in cooking up the Russia hoax with John Brennan back in the Obama administration.” He specifically pointed to a resurfaced video of Cornyn championing her on the Senate floor when she was nominated for the position.
“We’ve seen him make a lot of mistakes, and I’ve seen him do a lot of things that hurt the country and hurt the state of Texas. But this — Lisa Monaco is another story,” Paxton replied. “That just adds weight to what I’ve been saying: that John Cornyn does not represent the values of Texas or Republicans. He’s so aligned with many of the Democratic causes. He’s not the guy that stands up to the Democrats. He’s the guy that sides with them and helps them get this stuff done, including supporting Lisa Monaco, who has been a nemesis to the president. I just don’t get how this guy has stayed around so long, but it’s clearly because no one’s challenged him, and no one’s brought this stuff up.”
Cornyn has another ally in radical leftist Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who ran against Talarico in the Democrat Senate primary and lost. Boyle pointed to a recent MSNBC interview in which Crockett said: “I actually don’t hate Senator Cornyn at all. And right now, what we have is a Senator who actually is a real Republican who’s doing everything that he can to make it seem like he’s a MAGA Republican so that he can get through his primary.”
“I rarely agree with her, but on this one, she hit the nail on the head. She identified John Cornyn for what he is, and she likes him. She works with him. John likes her, and he works with her. He said ‘I wanna be her dance partner in the Senate.’ He said it. And it’s true,” Paxton answered.
“I have said from the beginning, since I started running against him… we started getting the fake John Cornyn. And we’ve had the fake John Cornyn who loves Donald Trump, who was for the border wall, who’s not for amnesty, who didn’t vote with Biden to restrict Second Amendment rights, didn’t vote with Biden to get Afghan refugees over here without being vetted, who didn’t massively increase the federal deficit from $6.2 trillion to $38 trillion. Well, guess what? The real John Cornyn did all of that stuff — and the real John Cornyn is coming back the day the primary is over,” he continued.
Cornyn massively outspent Paxton for the primary election — north of $70 million at least — while only narrowly surpassing Paxton, who spent a little over $4 million.
“It would suggest that if Cornyn were the nominee, he would have to spend an enormous amount of more money than you would in a general election,” Boyle remarked.
“Yeah, it’s interesting. I think he’s actually spent more than that. When you consider all sources, I think it’s closer to $100 million — and the argument has been from the Cornyn campaign that I’m going to be very expensive to get elected. I’m thinking the facts defy that,” Paxton said. “Even right now, you can see they’re close to a $100 million. They’re going to spend at least another $50 million in a runoff, maybe a $100 million, and then [they] have to go spend money… in the general election, probably $200 million, maybe $150 million — I don’t know.”
“But this idea that somehow I’m more expensive is ridiculous. I think you can look at the evidence right now… that’s just dishonest and wrong. And this first election shows exactly what I’m saying,” he added. “They’re not telling the truth.”
Whoever ultimately snags the nomination will have to go up against Talarico, a radical leftist who defiles the Christian faith with claims like “God is non-binary” and justifications for killing unborn babies in abortions. Paxton said his main attack strategy against Talarico if he gets to face him in the general election is to show Texans just how extreme his beliefs are.
“The way we defeat him is let people know what he actually believes. If Texans know what he believes, there’s no way this guy is going to win,” Paxton said.
“This idea that he wants to abolish ICE, that he thinks that God is non-binary, that he thinks Christians have a moral obligation to make sure that men play women’s sports — I mean, this guy has some very radical ideas that I guarantee you a high percentage of Texans would be offended by and would not vote for if they knew his positions,” he continued. “The way to beat him is just to tell the truth about what he actually believes, and that alone will defeat him in Texas.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.