John Cornyn Blames Trump for Coming Midterm ‘Disaster,’ Predicts He’ll Pay for It With ‘the Most Miserable Two Years of His Life’

RIGHT: John Cornyn (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) LEFT: Donald Trump (Mark Schiefelbein/AP photo)

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) argued President Donald Trump is setting the GOP up for a midterm “disaster” that will result in “the most miserable two years of his [Trump’s] life” during a freshly released interview with The New York Times.

“If that’s the way friends treat you, you wonder about his enemies,” mused Cornyn about Trump’s declaration that Cornyn would be his “friend for a long time to come” despite the president’s endorsement of Texas Attorney Ken Paxton (R), who, with Trump’s help, prevailed over Cornyn in the Lone Star State’s Republican primary.

“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” said Cornyn, who observed that Trump’s targeting of lawmakers like himself, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) gives “Some of us a little more freedom, and certainly leverage.”

“As the president told President [Volodymyr] Zelensky when he was in his office a year or so ago — he said, ‘You don’t have any cards.’ Well, we’ve got some cards to play,” he added.

From the Times‘ write-up of its conversation with Cornyn:

Mr. Cornyn said he is not a “wounded bear” seeking retribution or revenge. He is determined that Republicans hold the Senate because he said he feared they would lose the House in November.

But in the interview, he gave voice in starkly candid terms to a growing sentiment among Senate Republicans that Mr. Trump was hurting his own party with self-serving decisions and his insistence on “slavish” loyalty, ultimately setting himself up for a midterm “disaster” that would pave the way for “the most miserable two years of his life.”

And in the interim, Mr. Cornyn said, he reserves the right to choose “where I’m going to — or going to not — defer” to Mr. Trump.

One of those areas appears to be the special protection from I.R.S. scrutiny that the Justice Department granted Mr. Trump and his family and businesses as part of a settlement of a lawsuit over the leak of his tax data, an exemption Mr. Cornyn said needed to be overturned.

“I think that’s a terrible mistake,” Mr. Cornyn said. “The president needs to be treated like everybody else.”

…

Mr. Cornyn believes that impact will reach far beyond his race. He is the epitome of a reliable conservative with what he listed as his “99.3 percent” voting record in line with the president. Unlike Mr. Cassidy of Louisiana, he did not vote to remove Mr. Trump from office after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters. Still, he said, the president threw him under the bus.

“If he would do that to me, he would do that to anybody,” Mr. Cornyn said. “There’s never going to be good enough for him, other than 100 percent, you know, slavish adherence to whatever he wants. But obviously that’s not what the senator’s role is supposed to be, especially in terms of checks and balances.”

Mr. Cornyn stood by his attacks on Mr. Paxton and said that while he supported the party ticket, he would not campaign or raise money for his primary opponent — a loss for Mr. Paxton since Mr. Cornyn was a prolific fund-raiser. But he fears Republicans are in for a rough midterm and Mr. Trump for a difficult final two years, in part because of self-inflicted wounds such the president’s endorsement of Mr. Paxton putting the Texas seat at risk.

“It’s going to make things harder, certainly more expensive in Texas, and make it harder around the country,” Mr. Cornyn said, predicting that Mr. Trump would come to regret his actions. “I don’t say that with any sort of desire for vengeance; I just think that’s the way it’s going to be. He’s going to have the most miserable two years of his life in the last two years of his term, I think, because I think November is going to be a disaster.”

“Congratulations to Ken Paxton on such a tremendous win, and to John Cornyn for having run a strong and powerful race but, more importantly, having had a truly great career. John will remain my friend for a long time to come, as we both watch Ken become a fantastic, common sense Senator, one who is respected by all,” wrote Trump in a Truth Social post celebrating Paxton’s victory last month.

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