Congress
Cornyn backed some gun control measures. Massie opposed them all. It may not have helped either.
One of the nation’s leading gun safety groups has a message for Republicans: Tuesday’s results show you don’t have to be scared of the pro-firearm lobby anymore.
Giffords, a gun safety advocacy group cofounded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), is sending a memo to all Republican members of Congress today —first shared with POLITICO — noting that pro-firearm groups largely sat out both Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) primaries, even as the two represent opposite wings of the GOP spectrum on gun control.
The ambivalence toward both one of the gun lobby’s strongest allies and one of its biggest Republican boogeymen shows its waning power, Giffords argues.
“Common logic has always been that the gun lobby can make or break you in a Republican primary,” Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, told Blue Light News. “Both of these primaries demonstrate a very different narrative: they just don’t have the juice anymore.”
Massie is one of the staunchest Second Amendment defenders in Congress. The president of the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that sits to the right of the National Rifle Association, called him “literally the best vote for the 2A in Congressional history” this week. Cornyn, meanwhile, was one of the architects of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a gun safety package passed in response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in Cornyn’s state.
That legislation angered many pro-gun groups — the NRA said it would place “unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom” by gun owners. But they largely sat out of Cornyn’s reelection bid: The National Association for Gun Rights Inc. PAC spent only $5,000 backing Cornyn’s opponent.
“The data shows they can’t take you out if you’ve pissed them off — like John Cornyn — and they also can’t save you if you’ve done all they asked — like Thomas Massie,” Brown said.
Cornyn’s support for gun safety legislation is an issue in his primary, as Attorney General Ken Paxton has slammed him for passing the “worst gun control bill in decades.” But a poll commissioned by Giffords of Texas GOP runoff voters found that attacks on Cornyn’s gun record are far less resonant than other criticisms, such as his change of position on the SAVE America Act and the suggestion he is a “Republican In Name Only” or “fake MAGA.”
The poll, shared first with POLITICO, found Paxton leading Cornyn 52% to 40%. It was conducted by Global Strategy Group between May 6 and May 11, 2026, before Trump endorsed Paxton on Tuesday. The sample included 600 likely Republican runoff voters in Texas.
“I think there are a lot of reasons Texas Republicans may oppose John Cornyn, and he may get his ass kicked, but it’s not going to be because of [the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act],” Brown said.
Republicans are preparing to remove Secret Service funding from their party-line immigration enforcement bill, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private discussions.
Both people stressed that the decision isn’t final — and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday morning that talks are still ongoing. But the expected decision comes as the Trump administration has struggled to sell GOP senators on the money, part of which would go toward President Donald Trump’s ballroom project.
Senate Republicans plan to discuss the matter at a closed-door lunch Wednesday afternoon.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded Senate Republicans fire the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, after she ruled this weekend that Republicans could not include funding for the White House ballroom in an immigration enforcement bill.
Trump accused MacDonough of thwarting his agenda and urged Republicans to “get smart and tough,” escalating his long-running attacks on procedural hurdles inside Congress.
“Shockingly, Republicans have kept the very important position of ‘Parliamentarian’ in the hands of a woman, Elizabeth MacDonough, who was appointed, long ago, by Barack Hussein Obama and a vicious Lunatic known as Senator Harry Reid, who ran the Senate for the Dumocrats with an ‘iron fist,’” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced?”
Obama did not have a say in MacDonough’s appointment in 2012.
The broadside came just days after MacDonough ruled that a provision allowing roughly $1 billion in White House and Secret Service security funding tied to Trump’s ballroom project could not be included in Republicans’ reconciliation package under Senate rules.
The decision was a significant setback for Republicans, who had hoped to pass the funding with a simple majority vote as part of a broader immigration and border security package. MacDonough determined that the provision requires 60 votes in the Senate, all but dooming the idea.
On Monday, Semafor reported that Trump called Senate Majority Leader John Thune, urging him to fire MacDonough.
Trump and his allies have argued the ballroom itself would be funded through private donations, while administration officials sought federal funding for related security upgrades, including hardened infrastructure, drone detection systems and Secret Service facilities.
On Tuesday, Trump defended the project amid mounting criticism from Democrats and skepticism from some Republicans over using taxpayer dollars for a project the president initially framed as privately financed.
During a tour of the construction site, Trump insisted the effort was “a gift to the United States of America” and said donors — not taxpayers — were paying for the ballroom itself.
Speaker Mike Johnson refused to rule out whether individuals convicted as part of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol would be eligible to receive money from the Trump administration’s new “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — or say whether he would oppose a scenario where they would qualify.
“We don’t know any of the details of that settlement fund,” Johnson told reporters at a news conference Wednesday morning, pointing to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s testimony before the Senate. “He said they are setting up a fund to compensate all Americans who have been the subject, the target, of lawfare or weaponization of the federal government.”
In a Tuesday hearing intended to cover the president’s budget request for the Justice Department, Blanche also refusedto say whether those who assaulted Capitol Police would be eligible for money in the newly-created account. He said the payouts would be determined by members of a commission overseeing the fund, who are selected by the attorney general and have yet to be named.
“He did not say who will be eligible,” Johnson said of Blanche. “I’m not going to comment on that until it comes up.”
The $1.8 billion account was announced on Monday as part of a settlement with President Donald Trump in his lawsuit against the IRS. Trump had sued for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns. Democrats quickly cast it as a slush fund intended to enrich allies of the president, and even Senate Republicans have signaled skepticism.
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
The Dictatorship8 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words