The Long Wait for Trump’s Texas Senate Endorsement

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Welcome to the Texas Take. I'm your host, Jeremy Wallace, and I feel like we're all living through maybe the worst episode of The Bachelor Ever. US Senators John Cornyn and Ken Paxson are hanging on Donald Trump's every word in every truth social post right now, hoping they hear or see their name.

Remember, Trump has said he's going to endorse one of them, but as of this recording, no pick yet. Who's he going to pick? Who's he's gonna who's gonna get the rose? Uh as Tom Petty so elegantly stated. Trump has already blown past one key deadline, and it's costing Republican donors money. The longer he drags this thing out, the more money they have to spend in the race between Cornyn and Paxton.

We'll explain all this in a minute. And did y'all see the mess I kind of created at the Austin Airport this week? It was completely unintentional. I played far more of a role in setting off this weird confrontation slash debate at the drop off line between US Representative Greg Cassar and John Cornet. All of a sudden I had Corny and Kinsar debating homeland security budgets over boxes of Whataburger. Well, take a listen.

I was hoping that we could tell your s your Democrats to vote to make these things. Let's do it. Let's do it. No, what do you do? I voted some more time and time again. Lots to unpack and all that. We'll get to that. And stay tuned, I'm gonna have a report on U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who was in Houston this week. Why was he here? And what did he have to say about the criticism that Trump has been unloading on him in the High Court lately?

Stick around. But first, we need to get into one simple question. What is this latest beef? With James Talarico. Okay, old video has surfaced that Republicans are pushing all over the nation, which they have James Tallerico on video from back in two thousand and twenty-two. Wearing a face mask, and of course remember this was the era of COVID back then or at the tail end of it.

He's wearing a mask and he's talking about reducing beef consumption and veganism. Oh boy, you can already feel how that would have set off a barbecue upheaval within the GOP ranks, questioning Talarico's Texiness. Is he really coming for our brisket? Well, here's what Telerico said in that clip. We have I think heard more and more um issues of animal welfare. I think not just because it's the right thing to do and the moral thing to do.

But also it's as all of you know necessary to fight climate change. It is now existential that um we try to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society. And so I I am proud to say that our campaign um has officially become a non meat campaign. So we um have

We are uh we are only buying vegan products from from our local vegan businesses. Um some of you may know big nonas. They they were little nonas and then they opened up uh uh brick and mortar so another big nonas, but uh we just got our pizza from there uh today. And so Um the point is that I think all of us, um not just policymakers, but but everyone has to take personal responsibility um in this effort.

So sadly, as much as I beg and pleaded to get Talarico onto this show to directly explain all this, I failed. He's actually a regular listener, and I've had him on the program before. But when you are running for the US Senate, there are many more handlers and hoops that jump through. I get it. It was just a month ago or so that Talarico was asking, when can he get back on the show? Well, I tried this week, James. I'm trying to get you back on.

Anyhow, absent of getting him on, what I decided to do was pull out what I think sounds like something he would have said from just a week ago. he was on another, you know, national television program being asked about

you know, these Republican culture wars that are suddenly being directed at him. They're now going after all kinds of things about his wokeism and what he said in the past on this or that issue. But yet the thing that Talarico says in this clip is that This is what Republicans do anytime they are facing tough issues ahead for them. There's rising prices, you know, at gas lines and at grocery stores.

We're now nearly a month into this war with Iran and it's really kind of hard to see what the objectives are or what what the end goal ultimately will be. Anyhow, here's a flavor of what James Tallerico was talking about. Here's why they're doing this. There's another war in the Middle East. There's a cost of living crisis crushing the middle class. There's a secret pedophile ring and no one has been prosecuted.

So the people responsible are trying to distract us with the same old culture wars. Trump's own press secretary said they're not ruling out a military draft for their new war in Iran. So what do we think the American people care more about? Culture wars or actual wars? What do we think they care more about? Pronouns or prices? This is what the people in power always do. They divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture.

So we don't notice that they are picking our pockets, that they're closing our schools, gutting our health care, raising taxes on all of us while they cut taxes for themselves. It's literally the oldest strategy in the world. And they are afraid of this movement we're building in Texas. Working people uniting across all those manufactured divisions.

to take on this broken, corrupt political system. You know, Jen, I've I've spent my entire career in Texas bringing Democrats and Republicans together to take on corporate interests. to lower the cost of housing, of child care, of prescription drugs including insulin. And now together working people in Texas are taking that fight to the US Senate. But here's the thing. As much as Tal Rico wants to just write off those culture wars as being a distraction, it does have an impact.

Ask every Democrat running for Texas in twenty twenty four. Republicans use the idea of transgender children playing sports Whether it was really happening or not, as an effective weapon against Colin Alred in other campaigns, Talerico just can't brush this off and assume it's not gonna stick.

National Republicans know that they have to get out there now and start trying to paint him as a woke liberal who hates beef. You know, they gotta use everything they can. They have to try to define him before he can define himself.

'Cause remember what the the threat of Tallerico is, is that he has an ability to appeal to maybe people in the middle or, you know, more moderate Republicans. Because of the way he's integrated his faith message within his speeches. It's one of those things that's drawn him a lot of attention, not just from other Texans, but remember it was Joe Rogan who not too long ago was just praising, you know, Talerico. Like Rogan is hardly a leftist or a vegan.

Uh but anyhow, remember he he was saying how Telarico was the right kind of candidate and encouraged him to run for office before he jumped into this race. So what you are witnessing here is the National Republicans, more specifically, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, trying to help def define Tal Rico before he can fully define himself. Now these jabs at Tal Rico make even more sense when you consider where they're coming from.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is doing this right now, and other National Republicans are helping amplify it. Why is that important? Because, as you might remember, John Corner and Ken Paxton can't really make this case right now. They're a tad busy, watching every breath of air escape from Trump's mouth as they wait to see who he'll ask to the big dam.

Trump, of course, said he'll endorse either Cornyn or Paxton soon, that's all he's told us, and expects the other to drop out when he does. There's a lot of speculation that Cornyn might be that choice. But I still haven't seen anything straight up from Trump that suggests that is actually going to be what happened. I was with him in Corpus Christi in late February when both Paxon and Cornyn were there, and here's what Trump had to say, giving no indication of any sort of lean, at least to me.

Great Attorney General Ken Paxton. Where's Ken? Hi Ken. Hi Ken. And we have a great John Cornyn. Hi, John. Thank you, John. They're in a little race together, you know. I asked Corner again on Monday if he's heard anything from Trump on this front. And it was really nothing. What is the latest on uh President Trump and whether he's gonna endorse in this race? Have you talked to him recently? Where don't you change? I don't have any updates for you on that. So here we are.

No endorsements still, and a key deadline for the candidates to pull their name off the May runoff ballot just passed. So no matter who or if Trump ever picks somebody, The other cannot get off the ballot.

Sure, they can say they aren't running, but tens of thousands of people could still vote for that person creating a little extra drama on election day that you know neither Corny nor Paxson are going to want when they're really trying to remarshal their troops to deal with Talerico in November. Now remember why this is a problem to begin with.

The whole reason Trump said he wanted to endorse someone in this race to end the runoff was because Republican donors are worried about burning a lot more cash on the primary instead of on the general election where James Talarico stands. Remember, despite all the jabs at Talerico for being woke or, you know, being against beef or vegan or whatever, whatever they're trying to say, it all points to that they're worried that he's still a legitimate threat come November.

You know how I know this? Because the NRSC is the one who's putting out that clip. They aren't spending that kind of time in other races when they know they have a a race in the back. They know Talarico is a threat because he can peel off moderate voters in a way that maybe some other Democratic nominees may not have been able to. And remember, A tough general election race in the US for the U.S. Senate and Texas is guaranteed to be one thing for sure, expensive.

good races when they happen in Texas, which isn't always. You know, we've had some, you know, stinkers in some years. But remember in twenty eighteen when Beto Rourke put the fright in Ted Cruz, that race was the most expensive US Senate race in that cycle. costing over a hundred and twenty five million for the two candidates. And remember, just you know in 2024, that all-red campaign against Ted Cruz, it too was the most expensive race in the country that year.

hitting two hundred million dollars. That's a lot of money in an an area that you really don't want to be spending money if you don't have to when you have other problems in places like Georgia, North Carolina, Maine, Ohio. You get it. It's not much of a stretch to think that this will become the most expensive race in the nation, thanks in large part to our 20 big media markets. Y'all there are more people to reach on Houston TV, just Houston T V than

in all of Maine. You know, Republicans have a major fight on their hand up there. You don't think they want to take all that money on Houston TV and sending it up into Maine to maybe kind of swing voters there? Just know the longer it takes for Trump to make a choice in this race, the more Paxson and Cornyn are going to have to attack each other and spend resources. You know, that means money from the donors.

And that's gonna be against each other and not against James Tallerico, which at this point you really want to be putting all your attention to making sure that Tel Rico can't build any more momentum than he has already had. You need to start defining him now before he gets a chance to define himself because he's certainly the least known in this race, even with Paxton or Cornyn as the nominee.

While Cornet is focused on Paxon, he did get a little extra debate action with an unexpected travel buddy earlier this week, thanks partly to yours truly. It was completely unintentional, y'all. Here's the deal. I went to Austin Bergstrom Airport where Cornyn was about to hold a press conference. in which he was gonna deliver boxes of Whataburger to TSA workers who are working without any pay right now because of that partial government shutdown.

Remember, the Department of Homeland Security funding ran out because Democrats have been demanding reforms to ICE before they will vote for it to get the uh Department of Homeland Security back up and operating. Well, Cornyn thought he was just going to do a press conference slamming Democrats for opposing, you know, funding for the Department of Homeland Security, uh, which has s started to hurt TSA agents who are still required to work.

Cornyn was th thinking he was just going to catch his flight back to DC after he had held his press conference. But his timing was perfect for US Representative Greg Cassar, an Austin Democrat, who was rushing to the airport at that exact same moment to catch the same flight to DC that Cornyn was going to be on. Cassar had no idea what Korn was doing or was even didn't even know he was going to have a press conference.

but then Cassar saw me out front of the airport. He put down his carry on bag and just like that he was suddenly crashing Cornyn's press conference with the two men basically duking it out verbally. In the drop off line at the airport. Meanwhile, remember Cornyn's trying to get to the back of his truck so he could pull out these Whataburger boxes to get'em, you know, to TSA agents. And of course, you can count on me to have my video recording the whole thing.

Here's a little bit of what was going on there. Senator, I was hoping that we could tell your s your Democrats to vote to pay these let's do it. Let's do it. No, why don't we do it? I voted for time and time again. No, I'm not sure. There's a bipartisan bill to fund just the DSA.

Not acceptable. Not acceptable to fund the D CSA. How about all the uh terrorist attacks like we see down on Sixth Street? You want those to continue? These people are keeping us safe. Tell the Democrats to vote for funding the DHS. But let's talk about each one. Would you fund? TSA. Sounds like instead of bringing people burgers, you should bring them in their blue check. Which involves funding TSA. What are we doing here today, Senator? Well a little token of appreciation for our TSA agents.

You know two things here. This Whataburger thing in Texas politics is becoming quite a thing now, right? Cornyn was carrying the boxes of Whataburger just weeks after Donald Trump made a surprise visit to, you guessed it, a Whataburger in Corpus Christi. Okay, you ready? Can you handle this? No. Hamburgers for all.

It's not just a Republican thing. Remember when Joe Biden uh went with Better Work uh to knock back some Whataburger during the two thousand twenty presidential campaign? Oh y'all, that was a big deal at the time. I had more of all of this in the Texas Take newsletter earlier this week. Go check that out for a little bit more on the politics of Whataburger.

But but look, there's a second point in this exchange between uh Cassar and Corner that's probably more important. It's about this partial government shutdown. It's definitely true that Democrats voted against funding for the Department of Homeland Security, demanding reforms in how ICE operates. Here's Cassard telling me in a a short time after he interrupted Corny's original press conference. Here's what Kassar was trying to tell me that Democrats want out of reforms for.

For ICE You know what before I give billions more to ICE who already have billions and billions of dollars, we should get the masks off and make them follow warrant requirements. I'm comfortable with that position. The problem with that approach is that other divisions within the Department of Homeland Security are paying a price. The US Coast Guard and TSA are among them.

It's you know, both of them are within the Department of Homeland Security budget. So when you s you know, halt the Department of Homeland Security budget, you're also hurting their budget. It's why TSA workers are still working at airports but without pay. They just missed their first paycheck.

Many of those workers are not calling in sick or looking for other work because they are living paycheck to paycheck, like well, like many of us, right? And they can't afford to just miss weeks and weeks of paycheck. Well here's what Cassar says that Democrats are trying to do. They're trying to fund at least just the TSA on a separate, you know, budget vote or uh in other parts of the Department of Homeland Security, but they just want to take ICE out of the equation.

But Corny told me right after that that there's no dice here. He's not going to do partial spending bills or We'll be talking about reforms to ICE until Democrats drop their fight and just fund homeland security straight up. Then they can negotiate later on. Here's him explaining it all.

Can't there be some reforms to uh how home ice and homeless security operate? We can talk about uh we can talk about that after the payment people start getting paid again. Um those debates will not can will not end when they get paid. paid um but it just means we won't be holding these poor people hospitals you have no nothing to say about what those reforms will look like.

So what does all this mean? First and foremost, y'all be nice to those TSA agents in line if you're trying to get to somewhere during spring break. They aren't getting paid right now. Imagine how tough that job already is or how irritating it could get. Pretty monotonous over and over again, right? So now they're not getting paid and have to do it or they lose their jobs. Sure, they'll eventually get their money back.

But in my case, if my paycheck's even an hour late, I get grumpy with my company. So imagine what it's gonna be like when you miss two or three paychecks. Anyhow, it doesn't seem like this is going to get resolved anytime soon. As Democrats, you know, I think Democrats are gonna take a few more shots at trying to get a revised funding package through that just, you know, supports other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. But who knows if that'll be successful.

Stay tuned to the Texas Tech newsletter, I'll keep you updated on all that there.

Finally, one last thing. Did you see Chief Justice John Roberts was in Houston this week talking at the Baker Institute at Rice University? What a time to be here. It was just days after Trump blasted Roberts in the High Court. Here's what Trump wrote on Truth Social. Quote This completely inept, embarrassing court was not what the Supreme Court of the United States was set up by our wonderful founding fathers to be.

They are hurting our country and will continue to do so. All I can do as president is call them out for their bad behavior. So Roberts was asked about the in that incoming criticism, though Trump's name was never actually mentioned during the questioning. Here's what Roberts ended up having to say about it. How do you handle criticism of your court? or your opinions today. Well it does it does come with the territory. Um uh often uh if i it

When any of us issue an opinion, there's often a dissent. Usually not. But uh I mean people their the most opinions or more opinions than anything else are unanimous. And that's pretty you get used to the criticism right away. Um uh Uh and it it can very much be be healthy. We don't believe that we're, you know, flawless in any way. Um and it's important uh that our our decisions are are subjected to scrutiny and and they are.

Um the problem sometimes um is that the criticism uh can move from a focus on uh legal analysis to uh personalities um and you see uh from all over, I mean not just any one political perspective on it. Um that it's more directed in a personal way and that uh frankly uh can be actually quite dangerous.

uh judges around the country work very hard uh to get it right. Um and if they don't, their opinions uh are subject to criticism. But uh uh personally directed hostility um is is dangerous and it's got to And yet say s had something to say about critics who accused him of trying to carry out the agenda of President George W. Bush. who appointed him back as Chief Justice back in two thousand and five.

Look, Roberts, you know, said not just him, but you know, a lot of people just assume that because a president appointed one of them, they just walk the line for that president. He says that's just not true. And the other thing, the notion that we carry forward the views of the people that appointed us is is absurd. President George W. Bush appointed me twenty years ago. The idea that uh I'm carrying out his agenda somehow is absurd. I i the issues here

Now, today, nobody would have thought those were going to be a big deal twenty years ago. And history is full of uh examples of presidents appointing people and being really surprised how they turned out going both ways. Um uh Felix Frankfurter turned out to be to be a lot more conservative than his appointing judge, Justice Brennan, a lot more liberal than his. And there is this experience as soon as you're confirmed. And it's amazing how sharp the difference is.

Uh the Secret Service people had protected me during the nomination. Once I had been confirmed and taken the oath, it's in the White House. You walk out the door, it's Supreme Court police right there. No more Secret Service, uh Supreme Court um um um police. Um and you become part of it it seems trite, of a real family.

And that family is not going to look kindly on the idea that, well, you're just, you know, carrying out somebody else's views. You've got eight other views to factor in now. And and the judge judge justices do that. Certainly I'll always be grateful for President Bush for appointing me, and I'm sure all my colleagues are grateful there. But um the idea that I'm carrying out and or they are carrying out some different agenda is I think really fallacious.

While I usually love Baker Institute programs, this one bummed me out a little bit only because they really missed a chance to get Roberts on the record talking about the ethics of the Supreme Court justices. It would have been nice to hear what Roberts thinks. About

You know, things like, you know, better disclosures on how justices take gifts from people, particularly from people who have interest before the courts. Remember, it was a Texas donor who helped cover the you know trips and other expenses for Justice Clarence Thomas that had previously been undisclosed until ProPublica and others exposed all that activity. It would have been nice to hear Roberts tell us a little bit more about what reforms have happened since then and if we can trust that.

you know, wealthy donors don't have an advantage in trying to become friends with Supreme Court justices, which may help them in cases they have interest in down the line. Well, what a busy week in Texas politics. Y'all, there is never a break, right? Even right after an election. Look at everything that is happening in Texas politics right now.

It's really why you need to follow the Texas Take newsletter. Remember, it's free and it comes out every weekday and has all the big political news, keeping you up to date on all the things that I talk about in this program even after we go off the air.

You can bet when Trump makes his endorsement, it'll be in that Texas Tech newsletter. And you know what? It's actually now been three years since I took over that Texas Tech newsletter full time. It was in mid-March back in 2023 that I started this. It's been well over seven hundred editions in your inboxes from yours truly. A big thanks to all of y'all who have helped it grow over these last couple years.

It has really turned into one heck of an endeavor. I love it because there's more of a direct relationship with y'all. It's, you know, through that newsletter where hundreds of y'all have been sending me emails and, you know, building up a rapport with me on various topics. I really love that part of it. It you know, it's better than back in the old days where we'd write a story in the newspaper and then you didn't get much feedback. But it feels like in the Texas Tech newsletter

You know, I get a lot of feedback from y'all and I read all of it. You know, I don't really, you know, put it out in a special edition or anything like that. I don't have a letter to the editor type section for the newsletter, but I do read all of them and I really appreciate all the feedback.

Well, thanks again for listening to this episode, and here's hoping your NCAA brackets do a little bit better than mine will. Look, I always put way too much faith in the Texas teams, particularly I you a you have H this year. I totally think they are much better than people are giving them credit for. That defense is serious, y'all.

Who knows how all that'll play out? But I know what, you know, I'm almost tempted not to pick them to go very far, just so when my bracket blows up, I won't have maybe jinxed them. I don't know. Who knows? Anyhow, until next week, y'all. Adios.