Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana spent a year and a half trying to avoid Donald Trump’s wrath, in the hopes that it might help save his career. It didn’t work: The president, still enraged by Cassidy’s 2021 impeachment vote, helped orchestrate the senator’s primary defeat in mid-May.
Newly liberated, the Louisianan wasted little time showing renewed independence, defying the White House’s wishes on several issues.
Roughly a week after Cassidy’s loss, a similar dynamic unfolded in Texas, where incumbent Republican senator John Cornyn went to even greater lengths to stay on the president’s good side, only to see Trump back his primary rival and ensure his defeat.
An obvious question soon followed: After Trump became a problem for Cornyn, would Cornyn become a problem for Trump? An answer is starting to come into focus. The New York Times reported:
Now the Trump administration might find itself having to come to terms with Mr. Cornyn as he flexes new political freedom, joining a handful of other Senate Republicans not seeking re-election or defeated in primaries at Mr. Trump’s behest who now have added room to maneuver.
“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” Mr. Cornyn said during a wide-ranging conversation in his Capitol office as he reflected on the tumultuous Texas election and his nearly quarter-century in Washington.
To be sure, there are key qualitative differences between Cornyn and Cassidy: The Texan is clearly to the Louisianan’s right. Even if Cornyn were to decide to ignore party pressures and the White House’s wishes altogether and simply vote his conscience on every matter, he’d still rarely buck the party line.
That said, it’s been interesting to see some unsubtle shifts in recent days. Before Trump endorsed his primary challenger, for example, the Texan launched an effort to rename a highway after the president. In the wake of Trump helping end Cornyn’s career, the senator decided the highway project was no longer a priority.
Similarly, when the president announced that Bill Pulte, the highly controversial director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, would serve as the acting director of national intelligence, Cornyn was among the first GOP senators to say publicly that Pulte was unqualified for the position.
But the Times’ report highlighted an issue of even greater significance.
After Trump withdrew his outlandish $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS last month, he received two scandalous rewards from his own administration. The first was the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund, while the other was an IRS audit shield, unveiled by his Justice Department, granting Trump, his family and his controversial businesses immunity from all existing IRS tax audits.
Of the two rewards, the former appears to have been discarded in the face of overwhelming bipartisan opposition, while the latter remains intact.
Cornyn, however, is opposed to both.
“I think that’s a terrible mistake,” Cornyn told the Times, referring to the audit shield. “The president needs to be treated like everybody else.”
Whether the Texas Republican actually intends to do anything about this belief remains to be seen, but his newly stated position keeps the issue alive and at least opens the door to potential congressional action.
As for the big picture, Cornyn went on to tell the Times, in reference to Trump, “If he would do that to me, he would do that to anybody. There’s never going to be good enough for him, other than 100%, you know, slavish adherence to whatever he wants. But obviously that’s not what the senator’s role is supposed to be, especially in terms of checks and balances.”
Putting aside the question of why it took a full decade for Cornyn to recognize this problem, he has a unique opportunity to partner with the so-called YOLO caucus with six months remaining before his involuntary exit from Capitol Hill. Watch this space.
The post After Trump became a problem for Cornyn, Cornyn may soon become a problem for Trump appeared first on MS NOW.
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