Speaking to Fox News Channel’s Martha MacCallum, Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the Senate Majority Leader, revealed how he is trying to ensure that a notorious and much-disliked RINO senator wins the tough primary race he is facing, a move that many watchers saw as being an utter betrayal of his voter base.
For reference, the senator and primary race involved is that of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the incumbent who is in a slog of a fight against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton is very much regarded as the MAGA candidate, and Cornyn as the Establishment, RINO candidate. Trump has not yet endorsed either man, and Paxton is pulling ahead of Cornyn in the polling quite significantly, as voters prefer him to the RINO.
But Sen. Thune, who is despised by much of MAGA for his refusal to get the SAVE America Act passed, said that he is trying to get Sen. Cornyn re-elected. he began, “I’ve spoken with the president already today about Texas, and I’m certainly hopeful. I think, as probably you know, Martha, I made no secret of the fact that I hope the president will endorse John Cornyn.”
Continuing, he claimed that the despised RINO is the only one who can win the November general election, a claim the polling does not support, saying, “He is an incredibly effective senator for the state of Texas, strong conservative voice here in the United States Senate, and represents, by far, our very best hope of making sure that Texas stays red in November, in that Senate election.”
He then added, on that same point, “And so we’ll see ultimately, the President, you know, he makes his own decisions, but I’ve certainly weighed in many a time, many times, I should say, in support of Senator Cornyn and and I believe he is not only going to win the primary, but the general election in November.”
MacCallum then said she has heard rumors that Trump will openly endorse Cornyn, saying, “Yeah, I was just watching Matt Whitlock, who used to do the Republican Senate Committee. He said he believes that an endorsement for Cornyn is coming from the President. You said you just spoke with him. Is it coming shortly that endorsement from the President?”
Thune declined to give a straight answer. He said, “Well, I’m not going to characterize the conversations I’ve had with the President, but I think it’s fair to say that he’s paying a lot of attention, and he knows full well, Megan, how important it is that we hold Texas in the Republican column, Republican hands.”
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Concluding, he insisted, “And so I expect you’ll be hearing from him before too long. And I’m not certainly going to get ahead of that, but I’m just very hopeful that the endorsement will be for John Cornyn.”
Posters on X were furious over what the Senator said. One, for example, argued that Thune is refusing to get the much-needed SAVE America Act passed because he is using it as leverage to try and save his RINO buddy Cornyn, saying, “John Thune appears to hint that he is the one preventing President Trump from endorsing Ken Paxton for Texas’s Senate seat, saying he “hopes the president will endorse John Cornyn,” with many claiming Thune is using the SAVE Act to protect Cornyn.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video