Trump accuses Sen. Cornyn, Karl Rove of sabotaging Ken Paxton in Texas
- Trump accuses Sen. John Cornyn and Karl Rove of actively sabotaging Ken Paxton's Senate campaign, calling them 'RINOs' and 'political hacks.'
- This comes after Cornyn lost the primary to Trump-backed Paxton, and has since refused to kiss the ring, instead offering spicy criticisms.
- Paxton is reportedly in a tight race with Democrat James Talarico, a matchup that shouldn't be tight in Texas unless your candidate is a walking ethics complaint.
- Trump preemptively frames any potential Republican loss as the fault of the establishment, not the deeply unpopular AG embroiled in securities fraud charges.
Brief Summary
In a stunning display of political accountability, Donald Trump has decided that if Ken Paxton loses his Senate bid, it will be the fault of John Cornyn and Karl Rove—two men who are not on the ballot but are apparently responsible for every cosmic misfortune in the GOP. The former president took to social media to warn that these 'RINO' saboteurs are doing 'everything possible' to make Paxton lose, which is a pretty bold claim given that Paxton has spent his career making himself uniquely unelectable on his own merits.
Cornyn, the incumbent who had the audacity to lose the primary and then the bad manners to point out that Paxton might be a liability, is now being cast as the puppet master of a grand conspiracy. Rove, meanwhile, is dragged in as the 'Liddle Buddy' for crimes against Trump, presumably including having once won elections in Texas without divine intervention. The reality is that Paxton is locked in a tight race against a Democrat in a state that shouldn't be competitive, which suggests the saboteurs might be the 91 felony counts and the legal baggage Paxton carries around like a designer handbag.
Why This Matters
For the average Texan, this is a masterclass in political scapegoating that should terrify you regardless of party affiliation. If Trump's theory holds, then the GOP is now a party where accountability is a foreign concept, and losing an election is always someone else's fault—never the candidate who is under indictment for securities fraud and has been accused of legal corruption. The idea that Cornyn and Rove are pulling strings from the shadows is comforting to Trump because it means Paxton's legal troubles and ethical stench aren't the real problem; the real problem is those dastardly establishment ghouls.
Practically, this means your vote in the Texas Senate race is being framed as a proxy war for the soul of the GOP, rather than a referendum on whether you want a guy with active felony charges representing you. Keep an eye on this—if Paxton loses, Trump will weaponize this blame to purge more moderates, and if Paxton wins, he'll take credit for a victory that had nothing to do with him. Either way, voters in Texas are stuck with a choice between a scandal-plagued climber and a Democrat in a state that hasn't turned blue since the dinosaurs, and the only 'impact' that matters is how much longer the circus will distract from actual governance.