Bulwark Takes - Trump Humiliates John Cornyn With Paxton Endorsement

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

Donald Trump just endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over longtime Senator John Cornyn. Tim Miller joined Chris Jansing on MS Now to say it’s one of the most humiliating political rejections imaginable. After years of defending Trump, flattering Trump, and publicly groveling for Trump’s approval, Cornyn still got tossed aside in favor of Paxton, a scandal-plagued MAGA loyalist. Tim breaks down why Trump’s endorsement matters, what it says about the Republican Party, and why Democrats believe James Talarico could now have a real opening in Texas.Make today a good day, and get yourself some Soul gummies. Right now, Soul is offering 30% off your entire order! Go to https://GetSoul.com and use the code BULWARKTAKES.

Hey, everybody, Tim Miller from the bulwark. We had breaking news while I was live on MS now. Donald Trump has decided to endorse Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate primary. I get into on the show what I think the implications are for that Senate race. I think it's good news mildly for Tala Rico. It's still going to be an uphill battle. I think that it's telling that Donald Trump feels the need that he needs to shore up support with his bag of base. So we get into all that.

But what I wanted to focus on here for you guys is how absolutely embarrassingly humiliating this is for John Corny. Big John Cornyn. You remember that? Some of you guys might not remember that. You might not remember that. Let's go find the old video. It came down off the bench after doing this time. He fought heathens of the hellions and all kinds of crimes.

He was just getting started and a long ways to go. We sent him to Washington to the really big show, Big John. Big John! Big God! Big bad, John! The Senate wasn't ready said pay your dues. That John said, sit down, friend, I got some big news. You see on from Texas where we do things quick,

And the way this place is ruined up, that to make me sick. Big John. Big God. Big God. Big bad John. Big bad John. Big John. Big bad John.

He's a big guy. He's got a schlong. He rides on a big horse. He's got a big hat. He's a man. Big Bad John. John Corny. can get behind him. He's not a cuck. He is not the president's man bottom. He doesn't wear panties.

He's a man. He's Big Bad John. He speaks for himself. Well, Big Bad John has been laying prostrate before the president of the United States licking his feet saying, yes, sir, Mr. Trump, sir. whatever you need, sir, I'll be wee little John for you. As long as you endorse me in this primary, I'll do whatever you want. What are some things that Big Bad John has done recently? Here's a selfie of him pretending to read the art of the deal to try to get support from Trump's fan boys and girls. Yeah. Big Bad John.

He's not in the big hat anymore. or he's in an oversized jacket, sitting around pretending to page through Trump's book, because I love you, sir, love me too. I'll read your book. If that's not enough, big bad, John, just one week ago, just one week ago, in order to make Trump happy, said, sir, I have a new bill that will upgrade one of the nation's longest highways here in because everything's bigger in Texas, except for me. And we are going to rename that highway after you.

Texas is Trump country. And this bill cements POTUS's legacy by designating 1,800 miles of open road to forever be known as the Trump interstate. He announced. He called Trump in the announcement the most effective and influential old president in our lifetime. He traveled around with him on his plane. He walked behind him. He carried his bags. He did

whatever. Whatever you want. I'm no longer Big Bad, John. I'm Trump's little bitty, John. Whatever you want, sir. Whatever you want. And it got him nothing. It got him nothing.

He knew Trump was wrong on January 6th. He said as much. He knew Trump was wrong about the tariffs. He knew. He knew. Trump was wrong about Ukraine. He knows Trump is corrupt. John Cornyn is not an idiot. But he wasn't a big enough man to stand up for what he knew and say what he thought was right.

He was a wee little small man. Small weak John, not big bad John. Small weak John. And small weak John did what he thought he could do to stay in power because it was so important to him. to have his little pin and says I'm a senator and he still got fucking boned

he still got stomped on like a little bug like a wee little bug and now it's a unapologetic corrupt grifter and somebody who's just a total moral disgrace who is the rightful embodiment

of the Texas Republican Party and he will represent them as their nominee for Senate against James Tala Rico. We'll see how that turns out. Stick around for more analysis of this breaking news and also how it connects to what's going on in the Kentucky House race. We'll be back soon. If you've been listening to this show for a while, you already know how much I love Sol's out-of-office THC Gummies and their sparkling beverages. Now they've launched something new just in time for the summer. Mood Gummies. Soul is a wellness brand that makes delicious hemp-derived CBD and THC products designed to make feeling good simple.

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Go to GetSoul.com and use code Bullwork Takes. That's GetSoul.com promo code Bullwork Takes for 30% off. So, Tim, Westmore's office, the Maryland governor, went on to say, quote, Marylanders should look to the state board of elections for accurate information, not social media misinformation, designed to undermine confidence in our elections. But has Trump already accomplished what he wants to accomplish created a cloud of doubt that hangs over this election? I don't think so. I mean, I think that that strategy could conceivably work when we get into

the fall in other states. I think this is a big warning sign that everybody should take seriously. Obviously, there are going to be very important elections that are held via mail-in-ballot, California's heavily male, Colorado, some of the key house races are in states that use a lot of mail in elections, a lot of mail and ballots, rather, and I think that he will try to undermine those, even though he votes by mail. He voted by mail recently in Florida. The Maryland primary election is not that, right? Obviously, just the facts are totally wrong. It's not like any wrong ballots came in. It was about the ballots that got sent to people.

People can go get a new ballot. And this is nothing. Like, not that there are no fraudulent ballots that have gotten sent in. And again, it's a primary election, not a general election. So to me, this is just Trump trying to create a stir. And, you know, he's going to continue to do that over and over again. And he will only do it if they lose and he won't do it if they win. We know the playbook by now.

You know, one tactic I would think about looking at that Westmore response, I agree with everything he said. I'd maybe add to it. Considering the other big news item out today, this $1.8 billion slush fund, that Donald Trump has, that they're going to hand out to people who were allegedly victimized by Justice Department politicization. It seems like Wes Moore is now a victim of politicization by the Justice Department. They're going after him on false pretenses.

And I do think that the people who are victims right now of this Justice Department should be applying for those funds and going to court to try to get those funds to try to highlight the insanity of the corruption that is happening inside the Trump administration. Well, and let's not forget, Tim, just a handful of months ago, the president himself voted by mail. Remember? Yeah. Because of the fact that I'm president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine. You were in Tall Beach, sir, the last few weekends.

That's right. And I, yeah. And I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn't be there. You and I both, he said he couldn't be there, but he agreed that he had been there for the past two weekends. But I guess if you believe that 2020 election was stolen or that there is no election integrity or that anybody who wins who you didn't vote for is suspect, you're not changing minds. Are we at a place of parity, I think is my question where you're not changing minds one way or another? Look, I think maybe. I think there are people in the Donald Trump MAGA, you know, who are just committed to that movement and who that movement is part of their identity that are never going to be convinced by this. But Donald Trump won a lot of new votes in 2024. And I think that looking at all the ways that he's corrupting the system and undermining the system is important for the Democrats to win some of those votes back.

And that's why I tried to tie this to this $1.8 billion that Trump is stealing from the American taxpayer and giving to his allies and. people that stormed the Capitol on January 6th as part of this 2020 election fraud. Like all these things are tied together, including, look, here in Louisiana, thinking about mail-in votes and people's votes not being counted, they canceled, they nullified the votes of about 40,000 people that voted via absentee ballot here in a red state in Louisiana. I presume many of those were Republican votes. They canceled those votes because of the Supreme Court ruling in the Voting Rights Act.

So, you know, I do think that there's way to win some people over on this. Obviously, it's frustrating. to be continuing to talk about this six years later, but I don't think that the right thing to do is just throw up your hands and just deal with the fact that this is inevitable. Yeah, this is fascinating, Tim. Massey, you heard him, said this could be the biggest revenge loss ever for Trump. Do you think he can win?

And if he does, could it potentially pour, I don't know, some cold water on the idea that every Republican has to fear Donald Trump? Yeah. Well, I think this is an important race for that reason, Chris. I do think it's an uphill battle for Massey. if you look at the polls, he's winning among voters basically under the age of 50, 55, and he's getting absolutely crushed among older voters. I think that probably is not a great sign for him.

I like the types of people that tend to be older voters that turn out more, particularly in these midterm primary elections, you know, as opposed to, you know, a general election. So I think it's going to be tough for him. But I think he's done something really important. And even if he loses close, it's really important, which is he bucked Trump, he stuck to his guns, and he ran a campaign unapologetically about the areas where he and Trump disagree. And nobody's really done that. Like when Liz Cheney bucked Trump, she ran, but it was kind of a quixotic campaign.

I don't think she even really thought that she could win. You know, Bill Cassidy totally backed off all of his critiques of Trump and tried to run as a MAGA person. Massey is running a unique experiment here. And I think even if he, you know, gets 45% of the vote in a Republican primary, that's pretty telling about Donald Trump losing some political altitude. And as he mentioned, it is a total outrage and telling that the Secretary of War defends Pete Hegeseth in the middle of a war. We're in war right now with Iran, flew to Kentucky to try to primary him. I just, I think that is pretty outrageous. And again, even if MASSY loses telling that they felt like they needed to do that.

So from a 30-second commercial to breaking news, Tim, for you, Donald J. Trump on Truth Social, and it's pretty long, has posted that he is endorsing in the Texas Senate runoff. Ken Paxton, no huge surprise. The incumbent John Cornyn said just yesterday that, you know, that ship has sailed. He was not expecting the endorsement. But it's interesting when you, and I've only skimmed it, to be fair, because it was just handed to me. He called Ken, a true MAGA warrior who has always... delivered for Texas. It's not until paragraph four he brings up John Cornyn where he says,

he's a good man. I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough, which is pretty much Donald Trump's decision-making in a nutshell, support me or else? I don't know. I think this is pretty telling. It's a little bit of a backdown for Trump. Cornyn won, you know, we're there in a runoff now. So in the first round of balloting, Cornyn had the lead. And Trump had said he was going to endorse the person that won the first round of balloting because he didn't want this long drawn-out primary, thought it might hurt the eventual nominee against James Telerico. Huge backlash among his supporters, MAGA supporters, to that idea that he had endorsed

Cornyn, and then he kind of went quiet on the race for a while. For him to now flip and endorse Paxton, who lost in the first round, to me, I think, shows it's kind of a similar story to the Massey story. He's worried about losing ground really for the first time in a long time with his MAGA base. And while, you know, they might not have a majority in opposition to him, the fact that he feels the need to try to shore that up by endorsing Ken Paxton, a very risky bet, tons of baggage, and very possible that he could lose to James Talarico. And that could be the deciding vote in the Senate. I think making such a risky bet to appease his mega allies shows you that Trump's worried about losing altitude with his own base. There's a new poll from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center.

at Texas Southern University. And what that found was a razor-thin margin between the two potential candidates. It found Senator John Cornyn, leading Democrat James Talleyco, by 1% in a hypothetical matchup. Ken Paxton and James Tala Rico are tied at 45%.

So obviously, these are results within the margin of error. Now, I just got this from Tala RICO for Texas, which is the statement they put out. And he said, as I said on primary night, it doesn't matter who wins this runoff. We already know what we're running against, the billionaire mega donors and their corrupt political system. So I wonder when you take all of that information together, Tim, what you make of it. Well, look, I think it's going to be still a tough race for James Telerico. It's Texas, after all.

But this is obviously a preferable opponent and makes sense that he doesn't want to say that. But it helps them make that case against corruption, which he's been making on the campaign trail during the prime. Mary. And, you know, to have an opponent who is corrupt, who had been indicted, who's going to be backed by, you know, the big donors in the Epstein class, I think that makes his case much easier. It's going to be a challenging race. But, look, I mean, I think the Tala Rico has run a good campaign so far and recognizes that he's got to win over some Trump voters. And I think the Paxton nomination makes that case a little bit easier for him and what's going to be a tough race. And just, I just do have to say, a really humiliating moment for John Cornyn, who was, you know, at times independent and bipartisan.

It's true on the Hill. But during this campaign did not do what Thomas Massey did. And he sucked up to Trump as much as possible and really groveled in front of Trump to try to get his endorsement and win him over. And to have the rug pulled out for him in the end here. And for that to be at the end of his career, you know, I think is pretty embarrassing.