Paxton PAC running TV ads in Palm Beach while Trump at Mar-a-Lago |
Paxton PAC running TV ads in Palm Beach while Trump at Mar-a-Lago
A super PAC backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for Senate is airing television ads in Palm Beach, Fla., where President Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, as his endorsement in a competitive primary runoff hangs in the balance.
Lone Star Liberty PAC came out with a new television ad on Friday that accuses Paxton’s opponent, Rep. John Cornyn (R-Texas), of having “betrayed” Trump, citing his votes to confirm Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general and Lisa Monaco as deputy attorney general in 2021.
“John Cornyn betrayed President Trump, and he doesn’t deserve our trust” the one-minute spot states. It concludes with a clip from earlier in the week of Cornyn telling an NBC News reporter to “go away.”
The play comes as Trump is still reportedly weighing an endorsement in the closely watched race, which advanced to a runoff after neither candidate secured enough votes in the March 3 GOP primary to win outright.
Top Republicans on Capitol Hill have been lobbying Trump behind the scenes to back Cornyn amid concerns that the seat could be costly to defend in the general election if Paxton, whose time as attorney general has been mired in controversy, wins.
The winner of the May 26 runoff will face Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) in November.
Trump has so far declined to wade into the race but signaled several times in recent weeks that he was nearing a decision. The president told NBC News in a phone interview on Saturday that he “like[s] both candidates very much” and expected to make up his mind in the next week.
“A lot has to do with the SAVE America Act. A lot is going to determine — Republicans have to get that passed, because that will secure voting in this country,” Trump said, according to the network.
Trump previously asked whoever he did not endorse to drop out of the race, something Paxton said he would consider doing on the condition that Senate leaders agreed to lift the filibuster to advance the SAVE Act.
Republicans have been facing pressure to pass the nationwide voter ID bill, which would also require proof of U.S. citizenship to register in federal elections, with midterm primaries already underway in some states.
The measure has passed the House but stalled in the Senate, largely because Republicans lack the required 60 votes needed to break a Democratic filibuster and move it forward.
On Wednesday, Cornyn reversed his longstanding opposition to eliminating the filibuster, saying he was open to changing the rule.
“After careful consideration, I support whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary for us to get the SAVE America Act and homeland security funding past the Democrats’ obstruction, through the Senate, and on the president’s desk for his signature,” Cornyn wrote in an op-ed published by the New York Post.
The senator denied later that day that he switched his stance to curry favor with Trump in hopes of earning the president’s endorsement.
“I’d say that’s not true,” Cornyn told a reporter when asked to respond to the speculation.
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