Sen. John Cornyn of Texas calls Joe Biden ‘president-elect’ in a tweet then tries to take it back
- Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons
- Cornyn speaks during a past appearance at the conservative CPAC conference.
President Donald Trump may have penned The Art of the Deal, but perhaps one of his top enablers, Sen. John Cornyn, should call his own autobiography The Art of the Hedge.
Though it’s been five weeks since Joe Biden locked in enough electoral votes for even Fox News to declare him the next president, the Texas Republican has followed the lead of his boss, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other GOP officials and declined to refer to Biden as president-elect.
Until Wednesday morning.
That’s when Cornyn sent out a tweet referring to Biden for the first time with that nomenclature. The tweet appeared to lift text directly from a Politico article discussing Biden’s selection of U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, for housing secretary.
PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN’S DECISION to put Rep. MARCIA FUDGE (D-Ohio) in the Cabinet as HUD secretary gives Speaker NANCY PELOSI a 220-seat majority — just a five-seat edge over House Republicans, and a two-vote cushion to get bills through the chamber. @playbookplus
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) December 9, 2020
But. Not. So. Fast.
After Twitter users seized on Cornyn’s revised take on Biden, the Senator jumped back on his keyboard in a bid to fend them off. “It’s a quote from the article,” he tweeted. “Not news.” Then he tried to change the subject, doing some partisan math to try to prove the Democrats aren’t as in control of the U.S. House as they think they are.
It is a quote from the article. Not news. More interesting is the thin margin Ds will have in the House and what that means for the type of legislation they pass. Pelosi will have to work with McCarthy on bipartisan bills and will not be able to pass solely on D votes. #TDS https://t.co/39dZvhsoN1
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) December 9, 2020
Cornyn has told the media he’d wait for states to certify their votes before naming either candidate as winner, the Dallas Morning News reports. However, that date has already passed, the paper points out: Tuesday was the “safe harbor” deadline for states to certify votes before the Electoral College meets.
Anyone want to start a pool on when Cornyn will finally string the words “president” and “elect” together? Our guess is it will only happen once Mitch tells him it’s finally OK.
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