WASHINGTON \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday blasted U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the state\u2019s senior senator and a fellow Republican, over his early-morning vote for a $95 billion aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.<\/p>\n
Cornyn responded by telling Paxton to mind his own business \u2014 and by business, the senator meant criminal charges that have been pending against Paxton since 2015.<\/p>\n
The vitriolic exchange, conducted over social media, exposed heightened divisions between two of the state\u2019s top Republicans who could become GOP primary opponents in 2026.<\/p>\n
The commotion focused on a bipartisan 70-29 vote in the predawn hours after the Senate worked over the weekend and through Monday night to finish the bill ahead of a scheduled two-week break.<\/p>\n
Republican senators last year insisted that any Ukraine aid package had to include provisions securing the U.S. southern border.<\/p>\n
Most of them, including Cornyn, last week rejected a bipartisan compromise on the border as insufficient and pushed instead for tougher measures<\/a>.<\/p>\n After Democrats refused to include tougher provisions in the foreign-aid bill, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and most Senate Republicans voted against the package.<\/p>\n Cornyn and 21 other Republican senators voted for it.<\/p>\n \u201cUnbelievable that @JohnCornyn<\/a> would stay up all night to defend other countries borders, but not America,\u201d Paxton posted on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n Paxton dismissed Cornyn as an \u201cAmerica Last RINO,\u201d or Republican in name only, who joined the Biden administration \u201cto fund and prioritize foreign wars over the national security crisis at the southern border.\u201d<\/p>\n Paxton has made a name for himself taking Democratic presidents to court, but his latest attack on Cornyn reflected a willingness to bash fellow Republicans he views as insufficiently conservative, including state lawmakers who supported his impeachment last year.<\/p>\n It also could be a messaging test for a 2026 primary challenge. Paxton previously teased that he could run against<\/a> Cornyn, who he has attacked as a \u201cpuppet of the Bush\u201d family.<\/p>\n Cornyn quickly returned fire Tuesday by targeting Paxton\u2019s ongoing legal troubles.<\/p>\n \u201cKen, your criminal defense lawyers are calling to suggest you spend less time pushing Russian propaganda and more time defending longstanding felony charges against you in Houston, as well as ongoing federal grand jury proceedings in San Antonio that will probably result in further criminal charges,\u201d Cornyn wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Paxton will be in<\/a> a Houston court Friday for a pretrial hearing in nearly 9-year-old securities fraud charges<\/a> based on private business deals in 2011.<\/p>\n In addition, a federal grand jury in San Antonio is reviewing Paxton\u2019s ties to Austin real estate investor Nate Paul. Former top officials in the attorney general\u2019s office accused Paxton of misusing the powers of his office to help Paul.<\/p>\n Those allegations formed the basis of articles of impeachment that led to last year\u2019s trial before the Texas Senate, which voted largely along party lines to acquit Paxton in September.<\/p>\n It was not the first time the two have traded shots.<\/p>\n Paxton won a 2022 primary runoff over Land Commissioner George P. Bush<\/a>, whose ads called the incumbent a \u201ccrook.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Cornyn did not endorse in the race and, responding to reporters\u2019 questions at the time, said he typically steers clear of primary politics.<\/p>\n Still, he took the opportunity to throw shade at Paxton based on the years the state\u2019s top lawyer had spent under indictment<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the chief law enforcement officer of the state of Texas, and it\u2019s a source of embarrassment to me that that has been unresolved,\u201d Cornyn said at the time. \u201cAs a former attorney general myself, I\u2019m embarrassed by what we\u2019re having to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n Paxton responded by criticizing \u201cSenator Cornyn\u2019s ability to compromise<\/a> with radical Senate Democrats in DC.\u201d<\/p>\n Paxton has established a national profile by repeatedly taking Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to court over a host of hot-button issues, but his most prolific filings have come in the recent battles over immigration enforcement at the southern border.<\/p>\n He has flatly rejected cease-and-desist letters from the Department of Homeland Security<\/a> demanding state authorities grant federal Border Patrol agents access to the Rio Grande through a city park in Eagle Pass. The state took control of the 47-acre park more than a month ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since Biden took office, Republicans have criticized his approach to immigration and the southern border. Their calls for action grew louder as the number of migrants crossing into the United States climbed.<\/p>\n When Biden asked for billions in additional Ukraine aid last year, Republicans balked and demanded it be paired with measures to secure the border.<\/p>\n U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., negotiated a border compromise that was quickly denounced by the party\u2019s far right and then abandoned by all but a few Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n Cruz said Tuesday that Texas bears the brunt of the burden when it comes to the border crisis and reiterated his call for what is known as House Resolution 2. That GOP package of get-tough border proposals passed the House on a party-line vote last year but has been rejected by Senate Democrats.<\/p>\n Cruz has said he would vote for Ukraine aid if it was paired with HR 2, which he described as the \u201conly serious border legislation\u201d considered by this Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important that Israel eradicates Hamas, that Taiwan remains resilient against China\u2019s threats, and that Ukraine defeats Russia. I have consistently supported providing aid to ensure these allies are strong,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, we must defend our nation first. I will vote to support aid to our allies, but only after America\u2019s border is secured.\u201d<\/p>\n The foreign-aid bill next goes to the House, where it faces an uncertain future. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., indicated he will not bring up the bill<\/a> as passed due to its lack of border policy changes.<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who is seeking his party\u2019s nomination to face Cruz in November, criticized Cruz for opposing the aid package.<\/p>\n Allred said in a statement the aid package is critically important to national security and global stability. He said he supports comprehensive immigration reform but denounced HR 2 as \u201can extreme, hard-line border bill.\u201d<\/p>\n Cornyn bemoaned the lack of tough border security measures in the aid bill, saying he supported Republican efforts to include them after rejecting Lankford\u2019s bipartisan compromise.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the fact remains that the global threat landscape today is more complex than any point since World War II,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cThis legislation replenishes our military stockpiles and addresses the biggest national security threats we face, from Hamas\u2019 horrific attacks on Israel to China\u2019s aggression in the Indo-Pacific to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n \u00a92024 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a> <\/p>\n KeyWords:: bf45193e-82ef-47aa-beb2-6ac840182c77 WASHINGTON \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday blasted U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the state\u2019s senior senator and a fellow Republican, over his early-morning vote for a $95 billion aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Cornyn responded by telling Paxton to mind his own business \u2014 and by business, the senator meant criminal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115507,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115506\/revisions\/115507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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