EXCLUSIVE: Internal GOP Senate Strategy Memo
A recent debacle in Kansas has led the Senate Majority Leader to urge Sens. Cornyn and Cruz to stay out of the state.
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Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Ed. note — This was thrown over the transom this morning by my friend, Vinnie Lamponero.
TO: Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz
FROM: John Thune, Senate Majority Leader
RE: Stay out of Texas!
Some of our colleagues have recently made the mistake of holding town halls back in their home states, at which they were berated by their constituents for the frauds and failures of the Trump Administration, among them:
The shameful betrayal (a term you are never to use in public) of Ukraine and the Western alliance
The lack of demonstrable progress on its promises to “massively” deport illegal aliens, especially criminals
The chaotic and unprincipled “slash and burn” (a phrase you are never to use in public) attack on the federal workforce; Texas is home to 129,738 federal employees, the fifth-largest such group in the country
In the same vein, the meat cleaver attack on the Veterans Administration, targeted at key service providers and client advocates in its workforce
The arrogant and uninformed attacks on the Social Security system coming from co-President (a term you are never to use in public) Elon Musk, including calling it a “Ponzi scheme” last week
The complete failure to bring down the cost of living in one month. In fact, consumer prices are still going up, including the price of eggs.
The inconsistent messages from Washington about the measles outbreak (159 cases and rising) spreading through Texas, including gobbledygook (a term you are never to use in public) about how best to protect children against the disease.
We consider the likelihood very high that, were you to host a town hall or, for that matter, appear in public anywhere in the state, you would be accosted by frustrated Texans, some of them our most reliable voters, and called out for the failures of the Administration. This would pose two problems:
It would feed the narrative presented by disloyal Democrats, the mainstream media, and other opportunists that Trump 2.0 has not ushered in a new era of American greatness; and
It would upset our President – who, I remind you, is the greatest president ever (a term you are always to use in public) – and strain the already contentious relationship between the White House and the Senate.
These are outcomes I do not want you to risk. John, I am worried about your upcoming reelection battle and the prospect that Attorney General Ken Paxton will challenge you in the primary. Not only will it prolong the internal war in the Texas GOP at a crucial time, but it might bring someone with the same likeability as Ted into the Senate. No offense, Ted, but that would be bad for Texas.
Fortunately, both of you have long and well-documented public records of ignoring your constituents, at least the un-wealthy ones. Your failure to visit your home state, much less hold a townhall, will scarcely be noticed by the compliant Texas media. Of course, feel free to continue to get your message out through our reliable network of right-wing outlets. Ted, your podcast is a great example of the combative, targeted, one-side-of-the-story-only communications options we need to use.
For now, I encourage you to avoid Texas as much as possible If you do return there, confine your activities to high-dollar fundraisers and brief appearances before select groups with proven loyalty. We will let you know when circumstances change enough to make it safe to be seen in public. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
P.S. You are U.S. Senators – it is beneath your dignity for me to mandate, or even suggest, how you should behave when out in public. I would only call your attention to polling data that shows the so-called “Nazi salute” is deeply unpopular. Please restrict your use of it to only the most friendly audiences.
For either of them to appear in public in a vertical position would require a backbone. Neither seems to have one.
When Cornyn, a Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on The Constitution, Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism, and other Judiciary Subcommittees, voted for Pam Bondi to run the Justice Dept and Kash Patel to head the FBI, I realized that Senator Cornyn has a critically serious affliction that has yet to be diagnosed, but that does not exclude him from receiving the official, and greatly needed, "thrown shoe" denunciation. Indeed, I hope he does have a town hall, and I shall attend wearing my hiking boots, clodhoppers that have seen little if no use since purchase, but shall be elevated in status (if I can't find the return receipt) by their pitch toward the Senator. Yes, under the current administration, such a weighty object would be considered assault with a deadly weapon, I would only counter that it's obvious that Cornyn is practicing law without a license, though he would probably get off by pleading insanity, which is patently obvious.
All I can say in exhortation to my fellow travelers: To The Shoe Closet and Freedom!