Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was
acquitted on all 16 articles of impeachment by the GOP-controlled state Senate on Sept. 16, bringing what his lawyer deemed a “political witch hunt” to an end.
No longer subject to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s wide-ranging
gag order, Paxton appeared on the Wednesday episode of “Tucker Carlson on X,” where he discussed his impeachment, the possible motivations behind it, and his apparent foes in and outside the Republican Party.
Among the various supposed adversaries Paxton addressed over the course of the 46-minute interview, including his
staunch critic Karl Rove, the Bush family, whose champion he crushed in the 2022 Texas GOP primary, and the Biden administration, the Lone Star AG saved his most pointed critique for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
“To me, he’s been in Washington too long. He’s been there, what, for 14 years or so? And I can’t think of a single thing he’s accomplished for our state or even for the country,” said Paxton.
Paxton alleged that Cornyn, a senator since 2002 who
voted last year for gun control legislation, appears more concerned about protecting foreign nations than his own state, telling Carlson, “I haven’t seen him in that fight.”
Responding to Paxton’s subsequent claim that Cornyn has “never really had competition,” Carlson pressed the AG on whether he might consider running against him.
“Look, everything’s on the table for me,” Paxton said. “Now that I’ve been through this and I’ve seen how guys like John Cornyn have represented the state of Texas — and not represented us — I think it’s time somebody needs to step up and run against this guy that will do the job and do it the right way and represent us and worry about what’s going on at the border.”
Paxton added that the days when “money from DC and the support from guys like Mitch McConnell” would be enough to bolster a politico like Cornyn “are over.”
Cornyn, who has a
86.63 lifetime rating (out of 100) from the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Center for Legislative Accountability, handily won his 2020 Senate race, securing over a million more votes than his Democratic rival in the general election. In the preceding GOP primary, he lead the runner-up by over 64 points.
NBC News
indicated Cornyn had not responded to their request for comment.
The senator has, however, traded barbs with Paxton in recent weeks and years.
Earlier this month, Cornyn
called the allegations that had been levied against Paxton “deeply disturbing.”
In May 2022, Cornyn said the accusations of improprieties on Paxton’s part that were circulating at the time were “a source of embarrassment to me that that has been unresolved,”
reported the Texas Tribune.
Beyond intimating he might primary Cornyn in 2026, Paxton discussed possible motivations behind the effort to see him removed as Texas AG, noting that on the “[state] House investigating committees, there’s five members. There’s three Republicans and two Democrats. … They are the ones who investigated me and they hired, I think, four lawyers. Two of them came from the Biden DOJ. That’s not an accident. They were sent there.”
Carlson suggested the 48 lawsuits Paxton had filed against the Biden administration may have been what drew the ire of the federal powers that be.
“We were causing a lot of trouble for the Biden administration. Even if we didn’t win, we slowed them down and we were winning,” said Paxton. “I think our number is 77% of our cases. So we are a huge problem for the Biden administration.”
However, immediately upon being impeached, Paxton noted, he lost his office and was no longer in a position to bring additional lawsuits against the Biden administration. Upon his acquittal, his suspension was reportedly lifted.
The Dallas Morning News
reported that while Paxton’s impeachment is behind him, he may yet face more legal troubles and trials for his felony state charges, legal ethics complaint, and an ongoing whistleblower lawsuit.
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