Thune Urges Trump To Endorse John Cornyn ‘Early’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is signaling that unity within the Republican Party could be critical heading into a key Senate race in Texas, urging President Donald J. Trump to step in early and back longtime Texas Senator John Cornyn in the state’s Republican runoff election.

During an appearance on Fox News with anchor Martha MacCallum, Thune suggested that an early endorsement from President Trump could spare Republicans a lengthy and expensive primary battle against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Thune acknowledged he had not yet spoken with the president since Tuesday’s primary results were finalized but indicated he plans to make the case for party unity moving forward.

“If Trump endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money, and … 10 weeks of a spirited campaign on our side that keeps us from spending time focusing on the Democrats. If the president can weigh in it would be enormously helpful,” Thune said.

For months, Senate Republicans have quietly encouraged President Trump to throw his support behind Cornyn, a four-term incumbent with deep ties to the party’s leadership. Cornyn himself recently suggested that the president would likely stay neutral until after the initial round of voting concluded.

The runoff between Cornyn and Paxton is scheduled for May 26, with the victor set to face Democrat James Talarico in the general election. Unlike the Republicans, Talarico did not face a primary challenge on Tuesday.

Despite predictions from several polls that Cornyn might struggle against Paxton, the longtime senator performed better than expected. According to the Associated Press, Cornyn was narrowly ahead with 94 percent of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning.

Thune described the night as a “great night” for Cornyn. Behind the scenes, allies of the Texas senator reportedly believe the stronger-than-expected showing could increase the chances of a Trump endorsement as the runoff campaign intensifies.

In the same interview, Thune also addressed a separate battle in the Senate involving a Democratic effort to limit President Trump’s authority to conduct military operations against Iran.

The resolution, introduced by Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine, sought to require congressional approval for continued military action. Senate Republicans ultimately blocked the measure.

Thune blasted the effort as a politically motivated attempt to undermine the president.

“This is all about the Democrats’ … Trump Derangement Syndrome … and their blind hatred of the president, just being opposed to anything that he wants to do … Clearly there are Democrats, I believe, who understand that what we’re doing in Iran right now makes all the sense in the world from a national security standpoint,” Thune said.

“But this is an attempt … to try to derail or step on the president’s messaging around that and create a political issue where there really isn’t one … This is … nothing more than political messaging on behalf of the Democrats. This isn’t going anywhere. The president’s acting well within his authorities as the commander in chief,” Thune added.

Thune went on to argue that President Trump’s approach toward Iran is long overdue, citing the regime’s nuclear ambitions and decades-long record of supporting terrorism.

“What the president is doing in Iran is something that, frankly, should have been done … arguably a long time ago … Iran has been building not only its nuclear capability, but its conventional weapons capability to a point that it would have threatened the entire region … [Iran is] run by somebody who has said, ‘Death to Israel. Death to America.’ That’s what they believe. They’re the biggest exporter of … terrorism in the world today and they … have more American blood on their hands than any nation in the world, if you look at the last 47 years … The president is taking steps to make the world and our country and our people safer,” Thune declared.

According to Thune, the administration’s strategy is already achieving measurable results.

“What [the administration is] doing [in Iran] is achieving the objectives that they set out to achieve, and that is to diminish the capability of Iran to threaten the entire region and the world with nuclear and conventional weapons; to diminish their naval capacity in that region; and ultimately, I would love to see a leadership change there, Martha.”

While Thune acknowledged that regime change is not currently an official policy goal of the administration, he suggested it would ultimately benefit the region.

“I think a regime change is a worthwhile objective. That’s not something I think that’s part of the president or our Defense Department or the State Department’s objectives here, but I think right now, it’s about achieving our military objectives, and it’s very clear,” he said.

“Those have been identified by the president and his team and I think the folks in the region are making significant headway in accomplishing that objective, and we want to make sure that we continue to support them, and continue to pray for our men and women in uniform and particularly … those families who have lost loved ones,” Thune concluded.