President Donald Trump is pinning the blame on Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and former White House adviser Karl Rove in the event that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ends up losing his Senate race next month.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump said Cornyn and Rove “are doing everything possible” to hurt Paxton’s chances in his campaign against Democratic nominee James Talarico, who Trump says “is the ANTITHESIS of Texas Values.”
Trump did not point to any specific action or statement that Cornyn or Rove have made about Paxton, but the two conservative figures have either publicly or privately expressed their discontent with the Republican candidate.
“John Cornyn who, after my Endorsement, lost the Primary to Ken by a very wide margin, and Karl Rove, who shouldn’t be allowed to spew his jealousy on FoxNews, should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump wrote. “They are hurting Texas and, more importantly, hurting the United States of America! If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career.”
The president urged Cornyn’s supporters to vote for Paxton in the Nov. 3 election.
“We cannot take a chance on having a FREAKO, sometimes referred to as James TalaFREAKO, as our man in Washington, D.C., representing the magnificent people of the Great State of Texas!” Trump concluded.
After losing the Republican primary runoff election in May, Cornyn has refused to endorse Paxton. Cornyn has not endorsed Talarico either, though the Democratic candidate said he would welcome the incumbent’s support.
Following their primary feud, Paxton complained about the outgoing senator’s lack of support in a leaked audio clip reported last week.
Rove recently expressed doubts about Paxton’s candidacy, saying Cornyn would have a better shot at beating Talarico.
“If John Cornyn were the nominee, this race would be over,” the former Bush adviser said at a Texas event last month. “But when you got a guy who’s got multiple girlfriends, $200,000 worth of improvements in his house from a corrupt business guy for whom he does favors … and now it’s in the court of public opinion. If this were not out there, this would be a normal Republican versus Democrat.”
Throughout his campaign, Paxton has had to battle past scandals in which he’s been accused of fraud, corruption, and cheating on his wife, who filed for a divorce last year. Despite the controversies, the Republican nominee maintains he’s fit for the job and has continued attacking his opponent over several different issues. One of them involved Talarico’s nine-day absence from the campaign trail because he was sick with the flu.
The health episode caused a fiasco after Republicans claimed the Texas Democrat was checked into a mental health facility. The unverified rumor was promptly rebutted by Talarico and his campaign. Talarico returned to the campaign trail on Oct. 9 and participated in a televised CNN town hall on Wednesday.