Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) just made a very shrewd move to lock in Trump’s endorsement, agreeing to break the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act.
He is currently locked in a battle with Attorney General Ken Paxton for his Senate seat, with a runoff election scheduled for late May.
Cornyn is breaking a longtime stance on the filibuster, but he is actually doing it without really putting himself on the line.
Donald Trump recently stated he was going to interject himself into this race by endorsing a candidate and asking the other to drop out.
That statement was not necessarily well-received, as it should be up to the voters to decide who represents them in Texas, not Donald Trump.
Paxton decided to come up with a solution on his own. He announced he would willingly drop out of the race with a double caveat.
First, he wanted the Senate to break the filibuster. Second, he wanted them to pass the SAVE Act, which Trump has been adamant he wants passed before he sees another piece of legislation on his desk.
After Trump announced that he would block all legislation until the SAVE Act was passed, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) again told Trump that the caucus simply does not have the votes to break the filibuster.
The Hill reported, “The votes aren’t there, one, to nuke the filibuster, and the votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster. It’s just a reality.
“I’m the person who has to deliver sometimes the not-so-good news that the math doesn’t add up, but those are the facts and there’s no getting around it.”
Trump continues to threaten to primary anyone who disagrees with him, but that threat no longer holds the weight it once did. Thune has continuously hit Trump over the head with the reality that the votes in the Senate are not there for this, yet Trump seems ready to commit political suicide, so to speak, by slamming the brakes on his own administration while the GOP still has control of both chambers.
Cornyn has always opposed breaking the filibuster, but that just changed, and he is doing this on a freeroll of sorts.
Cornyn stated, “For many years, I believed that if the US Senate scrapped the filibuster, Texas and our nation would stand to lose more than we would gain.” He continued, “But when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt.”
He continued, “I spent years defending the filibuster because the 60-vote threshold was a net benefit to Texas and our nation. Before moderate Democrats went extinct, the rules worked. The Democrats’ recklessness and radicalism have changed the landscape. On these critical issues, at this critical hour, the old procedures no longer align with the core American principles we must defend.”
He knows the GOP does not have the votes to break the filibuster, so he is making this stance knowing it will never come to fruition. He is playing to Trump, nothing more. He is telling Trump that he will do whatever Trump wants, so long as he gets that endorsement and can continue to collect that government paycheck.
