Cornyn, Cruz dismiss Dems’ ‘lynch mob’ tactics on Trump

WASHINGTON — Hours after the White House released a summary of President Donald Trump’s call with the president of Ukraine — in which Trump urged the Ukrainian leader to do him a “favor” — Texas Sen. John Cornyn stood on the floor of the Senate and tore into House Democrats for moving forward with an impeachment inquiry based in part on that call.

“They should be embarrassed by what they have done,” said Cornyn, one of the top Republicans in the Senate. “Cooler heads will prevail here in the United States Senate.”

So far the Senate majority has stood by the president. Cornyn — along with many of his Republican colleagues —lambasted House Democrats’ move toward impeachment. Cornyn dismissed it as simply “re-litigating the 2016 election,” while fellow Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called it a “lynch mob.”

Both Texas senators were unmoved by a rough transcript of the 30-minute call that the White House released Wednesday in which Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with the Attorney General William Barr to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

It was one of two critical moments Wednesday in which the Texas senators again sided with Trump — the latest examples of loyalty to the embattled president. Cornyn and Cruz also again defended Trump’s raiding of military funding to build the border wall, voting against a Senate resolution to end the president’s emergency declaration, which allows his administration to divert the money without congressional approval.

The stakes are highest for Cornyn as he heads into what will likely be his toughest re-election battle. Potential Democratic challengers are painting the senator as Trump’s crony, pointing to a recent fundraising pitch in which Donald Trump Jr. called Cornyn his father’s “biggest ally.” That’s a description that Cornyn didn’t exactly shy away from, telling reporters last week that he would leave it to the Trumps to characterize their relationship, but adding, “We do work closely together.”

Several of Cornyn’s would-be opponents went on the attack Wednesday.

“Trump isn’t even attempting to hide his corruption — because he knows he can get away with it,” tweeted Sen. Royce West, one of nearly a dozen Democrats seeking to challenge Cornyn. “It’s time to impeach. And it’s time to elect a Senator who will stand up to Trump and his enablers.”

“That @JohnCornyn will not recognize that using the Presidency to blackmail others into investigating one’s political rivals is the hall-mark of a bought and paid for politician,” tweeted Houston Democrat Chris Bell, a former congressman.

This report contains material from the

Washington Post and the

Associated Press. ben.wermund@chron.com