John Cornyn Rips Trump’s Obsession With Election that ‘Happened Six Years Ago’ As Midterms Approach

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who recently lost his state’s primary due in part to President Donald Trump, ripped the president’s obsession with the 2020 elections as Republicans face an uphill battle in the November midterms.

Trump spent Thursday night’s primetime address railing against foreign and “deep state” interference in past U.S. elections and presenting declassified documents that he said proved his point. Critics have claimed that Trump is gearing up to interfere in the midterms and usher Republicans to victory.

At the yearly Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Politico’s Jonathan Martin asked Cornyn, “Does that speech last night give you alarm about the sanctity of this fall’s elections, the midterm elections, and President Trump’s intentions this fall?”

“Well, we have 109 days until the midterm elections, and I don’t understand talking about what happened six years ago in light of these upcoming elections. And, you know, frankly, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, there wasn’t a whole lot new,” Cornyn said of Trump’s speech.

“I mean, the president gets his president’s daily brief,” Cornyn added. “He’s entitled to classified information. Now, some of this was declassified. But we’ve known that our adversaries are trying to influence our elections for a long time. Russians in 2016, we know the Chinese, Iranians, the North Koreans, anybody who can try to sow discord in the United States, particularly during our elections, is going to do that. But the bottom line is none of this would have changed the outcome. So I don’t really, I guess I don’t get it.”

“Does it give you pause about this fall’s elections, though, his intentions?” Martin pressed.

“Well, I think, historically, the midterms for the party in power are really tough, as you know. So yeah, I’m concerned about it. So, we ought to be talking about things looking forward that our constituents are most concerned about,” Cornyn said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who also lost his primary after Trump backed his challenger, expressed his own dismay at Trump avoiding “kitchen table” issues.

“As a Republican, my concern is that it’s setting up a Democratic wave election. We should be talking about what matters to the people around the kitchen table. And right now, they can’t afford their health care, their housing, their groceries, or the gasoline. And so Republicans have good plans for that. We should be talking about our plans to make life more affordable for the average American,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy added that he wasn’t overly concerned that Trump could meddle in the elections.

“Our electoral system’s incredibly decentralized. I mean, it’s incredibly de-centralized,” Cassidy said. “There’s not like one place where you can go and control the master election across the country. Every state has their own system, and within that state there’s sometimes sub-systems. And so, it would take a really massive effort to do that. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be vigilant, but that is not what bubbles up to the top of my mind.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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