Trump will have ‘MISERABLE’ two years after midterms ‘DISASTER’: Sen. Cornyn

[0:00] Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas is predicting a midterm disaster that will make [0:05] President Trump's final two years in office miserable. Republican Senator Cornyn sat down [0:10] for an extensive interview with The New York Times, his first since he was defeated by the [0:13] Trump-endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last month in a Republican primary runoff. [0:19] He told the paper he thinks it's going to be, in his words, a pretty bumpy ride for the next [0:23] seven months in the Senate as he joins a handful of other Republicans who are either not seeking [0:27] re-election or were defeated in primaries by Trump-backed candidates. The senator added, [0:32] quote, as the president told President Zelensky when he was in his office a year or so ago, [0:36] he said, you don't have any cards. Well, we've got some cards to play. [0:40] Cornyn also gave voice in stark, candid terms to a growing sentiment among Senate Republicans that [0:46] President Trump was hurting his own party with self-serving decisions and his insistence on, [0:51] quote, slavish loyalty. He said the president's self-inflicted wounds are, quote, going to make [0:57] things harder, certainly more expensive in Texas, and make it harder around the country. [1:01] Cornyn continued, quote, I don't say that with any sort of desire for vengeance. I just think [1:05] that's the way it's going to be. He's going to have the most miserable two years of his life in [1:09] the last two years of his term, I think, because November is going to be a disaster. [1:14] If you're hearing some laughing, it's because my panel is here with me, joining me, the host of [1:19] When We Win with Maya Rupert podcast, Maya Rupert. She has managed both mayoral and presidential [1:24] campaigns. Also the author of a new book, The Real Ones. Also with us, MSNOW political analyst [1:28] Matthew Bartlett. He was a former U.S. State Department appointee during Trump's first term. [1:33] OK, I'll just take it from the from the laughs because, look, Cornyn is saying this as I'm not [1:38] saying this vengefully. I'm just reading the tea leaves. And I think back to when I was in Texas [1:42] in February with him, Matt, and Cornyn said to me, if we make Ken Paxton the Republican nominee here, [1:47] he's going to be and this was his words, kiss of death for Republicans in Texas. Right. [1:50] That was his pitch to voters. Trump came in at the last minute, endorsed against him. [1:55] And now you've got Cornyn finishing out the rest of his term. He's not a flamethrower by any stretch, [1:59] but these comments are stunning. Yeah. Wow. All my exes live in Texas. [2:09] You know what I mean? Tell me what you really think, Senator Cornyn. Like you said, [2:12] this has got not, you know, a flamethrower, not out for vengeance, but it sure seems it. And like you [2:18] said, a lot of this is just being honest. Yeah. These midterms could be quite painful. [2:23] Maybe, maybe not in Texas. We will see control of the House, control of the Senate. But the next [2:29] two years, you know, sometimes Donald Trump can be his own worst enemy. And whether he's [2:35] shoving nonsense towards Capitol Hill or when Democrats are in power, you know, he thought [2:42] he was going to get along better with Chuck and Nancy in the first term that he was with Paul Ryan [2:46] Mitch McConnell. Boy, was he wrong. So yeah, expect a bumpy ride on the horizon. And it seems as if [2:54] Senator Cornyn is going to go out and Texas plays a glory there. Yeah, it does seem that way. Right. [2:58] And I will say, I asked Cornyn what he makes of the people who say that he's part of this [3:02] like YOLO caucus. You only live once and maybe they're going to start bucking the president. [3:07] And he told me that those people should get a life. He was joking, of course. At least I think he was. [3:11] He was laughing. But at the same time for Democrats, is there an opening here for these [3:17] Republicans to be able to join with them on some specific issues? Because I do not get the sense [3:23] that the YOLO caucus is truly just going to be doing whatever Democrats want. That's not the point. [3:27] These are disagreements with Trump on various issues. But what is the opening for Democrats? [3:33] I think the opening for Democrats is exactly what he's predicting. There are a lot of races right now. [3:39] I think about, you know, Kentucky, Charles Booker versus Andy Barr in Kentucky, an open seat [3:48] for McConnell's seat. And Trump intervened there. He got in to clear the field for Andy Barr. [3:56] Andy Barr is now going to need to exhibit that loyalty that Cornyn was talking about, [4:04] which means he can't run against Trump in a state where the economy people are hurting, [4:11] farmers are hurting, people are really struggling under Trump's economy. But he is now tied to [4:17] everything that Trump is doing. And there are other states like that, right? Trump has injected [4:22] himself into these midterms in a way that makes it so that there are a lot of candidates who are now [4:27] going to have to run on the Trump economy, the Trump war, the Trump grocery prices, the Trump gas [4:34] prices. And if you can't run away from that in states where people are struggling, he is going [4:40] to make it a lot easier for a lot of Democrats who are running on change and saying, hey, we all need [4:47] something different. He just made it that much harder for Republicans to do anything because he [4:52] isn't going to let them make any daylight between him and what they're trying to do. [4:59] A place like Iowa, when you talk about agriculture, in fact, is one that very much comes to mind. [5:03] The other state that we've focused a lot on, though, this week, rightly so, is Maine. [5:07] This is a place that Democrats went from feeling really bullish to now feeling like because of [5:12] Graham Plattner's continued controversies and even new allegations that are coming out on Twitter [5:16] overnight, that it's going to be this steady, controversial drip, drip, drip going up until the [5:20] general election. And I've been struck by the Democrats who say, we need to just win. It [5:25] doesn't matter. And then the Democrats who say, well, wait, are we just racing to the bottom if [5:30] we don't actually figure out what our candidates can and can't be allowed to do? And I wonder your [5:35] take on this and the way that you're metabolizing this moment in your party. [5:38] Yeah. I mean, look, I think that Democrats need to make sure that the candidates that we're [5:45] running share values and don't have these things that are going to make people have to hold their [5:53] nose and vote. We are not in a position where we should have to do that. We have a huge bench of [5:57] people and we should be running candidates that people can feel proud of voting. What I will say [6:02] is that the Graham Plattner situation has been challenging in part because I'm not sort of immune [6:10] to this argument, that if we require candidates to have pristine backgrounds, that we won't [6:17] necessarily get real people who resonate with real voters. One of the things that I've been really [6:23] struck by specifically around Plattner is that that outcome is honestly very close to the outcome that [6:31] we see a lot of candidates of color and a lot of women of any race dealing with right now. Very often [6:37] we see them struggling to be read as authentic. And part of the reason is that there is, it feels [6:45] like this standard that we hold people to. And so what I would caution Democrats on is if we are [6:50] comfortable seeing the evidence of Graham Plattner's evolution, if that's what people think this is, [6:55] that's great. And I want people to be able to have real lives and still run for office. But I would [7:01] caution greatly that we don't end our grace with candidates that look like Graham Plattner. [7:07] And of course, she is making the gender and race argument that you know is near and dear to my [7:11] heart when we figure out what these candidates are allowed and not allowed to do, allowed authenticity [7:16] and all of that. That's great is something that you said there. Is it great? Like politically [7:20] speaking, this feels like it went from a race that had a ton of momentum for Democrats to now the [7:26] question becomes, is Susan Collins' resilience with voters going to continue in November? [7:31] Yeah, listen, I mean, you know, we've seen many people struggle with different candidates. I'll be [7:38] candid. I'm a Republican. Normally the bums are on my side, right? Normally the bums are on my side. [7:42] And the Democratic pushback is always, well, Trump is in the White House and look at the [7:45] allegations against him, right? [7:46] Correct. Now, you know, Nazi tattoos, crazy stuff. And Dems have to, are forced now to come to grips [7:54] with, maybe defend, maybe reject. If this is about Susan Collins, who, again, candidly, I love, [8:01] but she's been there for a long time. And these are some very rough waters in the Trump years. [8:06] It's going to be a very big challenge for her in Maine. If this is about Graham Plattner and the [8:12] women and the tattoos and his campaign being a weekly apology tour, it's going to be very difficult [8:19] for him to win. I think the truth is we don't know yet. Yeah. You know, like you said, what is [8:24] gas, what are gas prices in, in November? Is this war still going on? Do things get better? Do things [8:30] get worse? Does more come out? So yeah, it is just a, a, a very interesting race around, you know, [8:38] candidates behavior, as well as, you know, ideas and the atmosphere and the direction of our country [8:43] here. Um, so a very interesting race that I don't think we can say what happens next. Um, other than [8:50] boy, Republicans are so happy to finally be on the moral high ground right now.