Trump is frustrated with Senate: John Cornyn | The Record with Greta Van Susteren

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]And it's a showdown Texas. Four-term Republican senator from Texas, John Cornin is in the political fight of his life. He's up against Texas three-term attorney general Ken Paxton in tonight's runoff election. Late in the game, President Trump endorsed Paxton. Many believe that boosts Paxton's chances. To give an idea of just how big this race is, advertising has topped $100 million.

[00:00:21]That's mostly spent from Cornin's side, but that giant amount may not be enough to return Cornin for a fifth term. If the prediction markets are right, tonight Paxton will run away with this race. What time do polls close? Well, it depends on where you live in the giant state that is 250 times as big as Rhode Island. Polls close at either 8:00 p.m.

[00:00:40]or 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. Senator John Cornin joins me. Nice to talk to you, sir.

[00:00:44]>> Hey, Greta. Nice to be with you.

[00:00:47]>> Sir, the uh voters who haven't voted yet and who may be watching this show or listening this want to know why you what's your big what's the big reason to vote for you over Attorney General Paxton? What's the What would you focus on?

[00:00:59]>> Well, I believe I believe I can win in the general election, which is what elections are all about, against a very dangerous James Taler Rico, who's really a wolf in sheep's clothing, who the mainstream media is going to just uh adoringly cover uh from now till November, even though he is completely out of step with where I believe most Texans are. If Paxton were the nominee, he'll spend most of his time trying to defend his scandalous record that uh is we are now litigating in the primary.

[00:01:30]And uh I think uh that's going to scare off some independent voters who are going to be necessary to uh support our nominee. And it's not just me and it's not just a Senate race. We haven't lost a statewide race since 1994 in Texas on the Republican side. But if Paxton's a nominee, if he does win, which I think is an open question, I think he'll be an albatross around the neck of all the down ballot races, including the five new congressional seats that President Trump is depending on to help maintain the Republican majority in the House.

[00:02:05]>> When you say scandalous, are you talking about the situation with his wife, which is it's no secret, it's been all over the news. Um, and she actually she chose not to endorse. She's endorsed in in Senate in in races in Texas for tonight, but just hasn't endorsed you or her husband.

[00:02:21]>> Yeah.

[00:02:21]>> Is that the scandalous part you're talking about?

[00:02:24]>> No, there's there's so much more. It's the indictment for securities fraud.

[00:02:29]It's the uh his senior staff who he handpicked some of the most conservative lawyers in in the country turned him into the FBI for interfering in a federal investigation of his one of his major campaign donors. And that was the basis upon Paul which he got impeached by a Republican le state house. And he ultimately ended up hanging the Texas taxpayers with a $6.6 million judgment there that he won't have to pay but the taxpayers will because of his misbehavior and the list really just goes on and on and on.

[00:03:03]>> Why do you think that President Trump, it didn't happen till actually the 11th hour almost. He just recently uh decided to endorse. But why did do you have a conversation with President Trump about it or did did he call you and say I'm going with Paxton or what impact do you think it'll have on the race?

[00:03:17]>> Well, I I've talked to the president on a regular basis and but he did not give me a heads up on this. Um I think it wasn't so much about me which means this is different than uh Kentucky with Thomas Massie or Bill Cassidy in Louisiana because he's called me a friend and and a good man. um and I voted with him 99.3% of the time. So, uh this is more I think about the president's frustration uh with the Senate and as you know he's uh he wants what he wants and he wants it yesterday and particularly on something like the Save America Act which I'm an original co-sponsor of and support wholeheartedly. Um he wanted to get that done but we did not have yet the numbers to to pass that. So, I think he's trying to send a message to the Senate majority leader and others that uh uh to get in line. But, you know, in the end, GR up Texans are going to be the ones to choose our leaders here. And I'm well known and I I believe well trusted by uh the Texas uh electorate, all 30 Well, maybe not all 32 million of us, but u I've served in this position a long time, and I think they trust me. I don't think they can trust Ken Paxton.

[00:04:32]you an interesting tweet that you tweeted that um in Texas under the primary system uh is if you didn't vote for instance in March Democrat or Republican you can vote or or independent you can vote today you can cross over if you're a Democrat if you're an independent you can of course it means you can't vote in the Democratic primary uh that's coming up but um so are you calling on Democrats and independents to come vote for you?

[00:04:56]>> Not at all. um we only had about 11% of registered uh voters vote in the Republican primary. So that leaves a whole lot of Republican voters who will vote Republican in November who can now participate in this primary runoff. And that's you know I believe that uh we need more people to exercise their their rights and that uh you know we just passed Memorial Day for 250 years. Uh people have fought and died to preserve our freedom and our right to self-determination. And all I'm suggesting is that bigger turnouts are good for Texas and they're good for America.

[00:05:34]>> When you're out on the campaign trail, have you heard the topic of Iran coming up and voters, even Republican voters, disillusioned with the fact that uh we seem to be doing saber rattling uh with Iran and maybe even an escalated war.

[00:05:48]I think people don't know exactly what is going on and as you know that the president said there's negotiations going forward but nothing's final. Uh for my part I applaud President Trump's um intervention to make sure that the Iranian regime never gets access to a nuclear weapon. That would be catastrophic and be very dangerous. uh and uh so I applaud that and also the work that we've done with our with the Israeli allies to combat these proxy forces that are result that have so much American and other blood on their hands.

[00:06:23]But I don't think we we can leave without the straight of Hormuz being opened. We can't leave that in the hands of the Iranian regime. Um and so uh I I hope the president is uh got plans to open the the straight of Hormuz and not depend on the Iranian regime to open it when and if they you know as they will but I don't think we know yet what the final deal is yet. It doesn't sound like there is a final deal.

[00:06:52]>> Um one last quick question. How fast can you count votes in the big state of Texas? Polls close eight or nine depending on where you are eastern. But how fast when do you think we'll get the results?

[00:07:03]>> I think probably about that time. Uh early voting will be announced at uh 7:00 central time, 8:00 Eastern time. And that'll tell us a lot.

[00:07:14]That'll be about 60% of the total votes.

[00:07:17]And then we'll the other 40% will will come in from the major metropolitan areas quickly and then maybe from some of the smaller parts of the state. As you said, we have 254 counties in Texas.

[00:07:30]It's a big place and but we are optimistic based on what we've seen so far in early voting.

[00:07:37]>> Senator John Cornin, thank you very much. As I would say to your opponent, if you're here too, good luck tonight and we'll be watching. Thank you, sir.

[00:07:43]>> Thank you, Greta.

[00:07:45]>> People think news just happens. It doesn't. It happens because there's someone there to capture the moment, to explain it, and share it. That's my job.

[00:07:55]I go where news breaks and give you the facts. Join me for the record on Newsmax.