Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened a direct and ferocious front against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), using the senior senators own words to portray him as a long-standing antagonist of President Donald Trump and the America First movement.
According to Breitbart, Paxtons campaign on Friday unveiled a hard-hitting digital ad and an accompanying statement that together amount to the most comprehensive conservative indictment yet of Cornyns record on Trump. Paxton charged that John Cornyn has spent years trying to destroy President Trump and undermine the America First movement, adding, Time after time, when President Trump was under attack, John Cornyn joined in with the Swamp to try and tear him down.
From his support for the lawfare against the President to his relentless attempts to stop both his 2016 and 2024 presidential campaigns, Cornyn has worked tirelessly to hurt Donald Trump. While he has been engaged in his anti-Trump witch hunts, I have always stood by the Presidentfighting the stolen 2020 election, standing up to corrupt lawfare against President Trump, and supporting his 2024 campaign on Day 1.
The centerpiece of Paxtons offensive is a two-minute digital ad, provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of its public release, that strings together years of Cornyns public comments and media appearances to paint a picture of a Republican senator consistently aligned with Washingtons anti-Trump establishment. The video opens with stark text on the screen: Time after time, John Cornyn has helped the swamp try to destroy President Trump, immediately framing Cornyn as a willing ally of the permanent bureaucracy and corporate media that conservatives blame for the weaponization of government.
From there, the ad turns to television clips of news anchors recounting Cornyns efforts to sideline Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential race, highlighting his refusal to back the presidents return to the White House. One anchor notes, The senator didnt say who he intends to support, but he did double down on who he believes the Republican Party should not nominate and that is President Donald Trump, while another summarizes Cornyns posture: Cornyn is saying, I think President Trumps time has passed him by, and continues, And he adds, I dont think President Trump understands that when you run in a general election, you have to appeal to voters beyond your base.
The ad then shifts from media narration to Cornyns own attacks, beginning with his criticism of Trumps challenges to the 2020 election. In a clip from the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 protests, Cornyn declares, President Trump fed that fantasy by repeatedly claiming the election was stolen, followed by his blunt assessment, The presidents actions were reckless, language that placed him squarely in the camp of Republicans eager to distance themselves from Trump and his supporters.
Paxtons team next highlights Cornyns posture during Trumps second impeachment, using footage of the senator masked and hedging on whether he would vote to convict. When a reporter asks, Do you believe that the president committed impeachable offenses? Cornyn pointedly refuses to defend Trump outright, responding, Im going to listen to the, uh, whats presented, a stance that conservatives saw as giving oxygen to a Democrat-driven impeachment spectacle.
The ad then rewinds to Cornyns role in amplifying the now-discredited Russia collusion narrative, beginning with a Senate floor clip in which he defends former FBI Director James Comey and the broader investigation. It is our responsibility to get to the bottom of what exactly happened due to Russian involvement in our elections, Cornyn says, echoing the talking points of intelligence agencies and Democrats who used the Russia Hoax to hamstring Trumps presidency and justify intrusive probes into his campaign.
That theme continues with a segment from CBSs Face the Nation, where Cornyn is pressed on whether the Senates Russia inquiry amounts to a partisan witch hunt. The anchor asks, This question of whether there are any ties to the Trump campaign thats a legitimate area of inquiry, and the committee is engaged in that? Its not a witch hunt? and Cornyn pointedly refuses to adopt Trumps language, replying, It is a legitimate area of inquiry, thereby undercutting the presidents insistence that the investigation was politically motivated.
Paxtons ad then fast-forwards to Cornyns comments on the Biden Justice Departments pursuit of Trump over classified documents, a case conservatives widely view as a textbook example of lawfare and selective prosecution. Cornyn sides with special counsel Jack Smiths effort, declaring, You simply do not take classified documents out of a secure facility, before blaming Trump for the unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago by asserting, Hes created a circumstance for himself, which is, I think, very, very serious, and later adding, This one is basically something hes admitted to on the material facts.
The video also underscores Cornyns support for key Biden-era Justice Department figures, including Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who has been central to the administrations aggressive posture toward Trump and his allies. In one clip, Cornyn praises her nomination: Ms. Monaco is a lifelong public servant, and continues, I believe she is well-qualified to serve as Deputy Attorney General, and I plan to support her nomination, a stance that conservatives argue helped empower the very apparatus now targeting the president.
Further reinforcing that narrative, the ad shows Cornyn defending Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who led the special counsel probe that consumed much of Trumps first term and ultimately failed to substantiate the core collusion claims. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Director Mueller, Cornyn says, a line that Paxtons campaign uses to remind Republican voters of Cornyns alignment with the architects of the Russia investigation that conservatives regard as a politically motivated witch hunt.
As the video nears its end, it returns to Cornyns more recent efforts to push Trump aside, featuring additional news footage of anchors noting that Cornyn does not believe Trump should run again. A reporter then asks Cornyn directly if Trumps time has passed, and the senator answers without hesitation: I do, a sound bite that crystallizes the contrast Paxton is drawing between his own loyalty and Cornyns repeated attempts to move the party beyond Trump.
The final 20 seconds of the ad pivot from Cornyns record to Paxtons, emphasizing that while Cornyn was attacking and fighting Trump, Paxton was standing by the President and aligning himself with the America First base. The imagery and messaging are designed to leave Republican primary voters with a stark choice between a state attorney general who embraced Trumps challenges to the 2020 election and a Washington veteran portrayed as a reliable ally of the Swamp and its legal crusades against the president.
This escalation comes at a politically precarious moment for Cornyn, who, after nearly a quarter-century in the Senate and now seeking a fifth term, appears to have lost his grip on a coveted Trump endorsement. Cornyn was widely believed to be on the verge of securing Trumps backing following last weeks primary and ahead of a May runoff against Paxton, but resurfaced footage of his past comments, combined with Paxtons aggressive counteroffensive, has complicated that calculus and exposed the senators long record of skepticism toward Trump.
Paxton further raised the stakes by publicly offering to withdraw from the race if Cornyn could shepherd the SAVE America Act through the Senate and onto the presidents desk, a challenge that underscored conservative frustration with GOP leaderships inabilityor unwillingnessto deliver on core border and security priorities. Cornyn has so far failed to meet that test, and as a result, Trump, by multiple accounts, has cooled on the idea of endorsing him, leaving the veteran senator twisting in the wind as the president remains neutral and grassroots conservatives weigh whether they want another six years of a Republican who repeatedly sided with the establishment against the leader of their movement.
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