‘This Is Embarrassing’: CNN’s John King Stunned by Longtime Senator’s Massive Loss to Trump-Backed Candidate

CNN’s John King called Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) defeat on Tuesday night to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton “embarrassing,” recalling when Cornyn was a “rising star” in politics.

Paxton was projected the winner of a U.S. Senate primary runoff race on Tuesday shortly after polls closed. With approximately 50% of the vote in, The Associated Press and others called the race for Paxton, who took more than 60% of the vote compared to Cornyn’s 37%.

Cornyn was first elected to the Senate in 2002, but found himself in trouble when President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton, describing Cornyn as disloyal to the MAGA movement.

King told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday that while Trump’s approval ratings are falling on issues like affordability and the Iran war, the Paxton-Cornyn race displayed once again that the president still has “power” in the Republican base, enough to influence primaries to get political enemies out of office. Trump also recently endorsed the opponent of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a libertarian-leaning House member who has clashed with the president. Massie will be out of office after losing said primary.

King said:

If you look at this map, Kaitlin, we’ve talked about this before, you’ve talked about it with your smart panels in recent weeks, President Trump is incredibly weak nationally right now. His national poll numbers are down, he’s underwater, the Iran war is unpopular, gas prices are up. However, the president has shown yet again in Texas his power over the Republican base. Senator Cornyn graceful there as he heads for the exits. This is embarrassing for a veteran Republican incumbent. I’m old enough to remember when John Cornyn was a rising star in Texas politics two and a half, three decades ago.

Tonight, Ken Paxton is getting 63% of the vote, has a 222,000 vote lead. The incumbent Republican senator getting just 37%. Perhaps that changes a little bit as the final votes come in, but thumping, shellacking, call it what you will, 254 counties in the giant state of Texas, more counties than any other state…one, two, three, four. Four of those counties John Cornyn is leading in the vote tonight.

Watch above via CNN.

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