Ken Paxton Offers Pathetic Defense for Damning Leaked Audio of Him

Texas attorney general and Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton was asked to explain the constant, controversial leaks coming from a September campaign event. He doesn’t think they matter. “There have been now five audio leaks from a private fundraiser you attended on September 24 published by various media outlets,” Fox News host Alica Acuna asked Sunday. “Are you concerned that they all came from the same, and are you figuring out who did it? But then also, it raises some flags … over your thoughts, publicly and privately, over the president and Washington.” “Look, I’m not worried about it at all,” Paxton replied. “You can look at my record, you can look [at] what I’ve done over the last 12 years. I’ve supported President [Donald] Trump, I love President Trump. We’ve worked together on many many issues, he’s been at work extremely hard to help me get elected. And I really appreciate him.”“Just because they were able to clip a few things doesn’t mean that’s actually what I meant. So let’s just go back to the record, not this little game that James Talarico has played the whole time, which is ‘let’s not talk about Ken Paxton’s actual record’…. Let’s muddy the water and try to trick people into believing he’s something that he’s not, which is a real Texan.” FOX: There have been now five audio leaks of you from a private fundraiser you attended. It raises some flags over your thoughts of the president… PAXTON: Just because they were able to clip a few things doesn't mean that's actually what I meant https://t.co/eU7ZYIuY5V— Acyn (@Acyn) October 12, 2026 Paxton is framing direct quotes that he said to his own supporters in confidence as a “little game.” The reason he has to justify his relationship to Trump is because he himself was critical of the president. In previous leaks from the event last month, Paxton called Trump a drag on his campaign and said Trump’s war on Iran was raising prices and making it harder for him to campaign. He also claimed that Washington, D.C. was controlling his campaign from afar, and told people depending on federal benefits programs to “suck it up” and prepare for cuts. All of this makes him sound much more like a Never Trump Republican than the loyalist he claims to be. Talarico—who was born and raised in Texas—is currently virtually tied with Paxton ahead of the November midterm elections. The Trump administration won’t be reimbursing Americans for its $20 million, taxpayer-funded, pro–Donald Trump propaganda ads. The issue was raised to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. “Money that was allocated by Congress to Customs and Border Patrol was used to purchase roughly $20 million in ads that have run on networks.... It’s touting President Trump’s accomplishments and also him personally,” host Margaret Brennan said. “The president has since said his political action committee will pay for future ads.… What about the past spending? Will U.S. taxpayers be reimbursed for the money that was spent on this?”“Any time we can do a public service announcement and brag about America, I’m all about it,” Mullin replied. “You have so much negative media that’s out there … constantly controversy … I think 99 percent of the coverage of President Trump is negative—”“So no reimbursement of the $20 million?” Mullin ignored the question and continued on. “We have the most secure border in our nation’s history. Fentanyl deaths are dropping. Drug apprehension is gaining speed every single day. And we should be bragging about what’s happening inside America,” he said. “I commend the opportunity of President Trump to give us the opportunity to brag about America.”“OK. So no reimbursement. Secretary Mullin, thank you,” Brennan concluded. Markwayne Mullin indicates taxpayers will not be reimbursed for Trump's propaganda ads: "Any time we can do a public service announcement and brag about America, I'm all about it ... I commend the opportunity of President Trump to give us the opportunity to brag about America" https://t.co/Djwy7L16PX— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 11, 2026 That is your money. The president has funded two different hype videos for himself, running them multiple times on multiple channels as a contentious midterm election draws nearer. There’s the strange “Love Me” ad, which debuted late September on Fox News during Jesse Watters Primetime, and the “Final Battle” one in which a voiceover of the president promises to “demolish the deep state,” “expel the warmongers,” “drive out the globalists,” and “cast out the Communists.” The commercials have drawn criticism from even Republican senators for their use of DHS funds. The ads aren’t even convincing the people who paid for them, as 86 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s use of taxpayer funds on the commercials. A federal judge has once again blocked President Donald Trump’s takeover of a public golf course in Washington, D.C.U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered the National Park Service Monday to halt all tree removal on the East Potomac Golf Links, after the agency cut down dozens of trees over the weekend.In a court filing Friday, the Department of the Interior declared its intention to cut down more than 500 trees “that do not contribute to the historic landscape.” Its plans included shearing 169 trees from one “heavily overgrown” area on Saturday alone. Reyes blocked that plan Monday until 7:00 a.m. the following day or until she issues another order. She will also hear an emergency request Monday from a group of preservationists for a 14-day restraining order on tree removal at the course.The tree clearing is part of a plan to transform the public golf course into an exclusive, high-end one. The venture is just one of the many expensive renovation projects the president has set on in the capital region—without receiving any congressional or legal approval. In May, Reyes pumped the brakes on the renovation plans after the D.C. Preservation League intervened to stop tree removal. The group has good reason not to trust the Trump administration after the president demolished the White House’s East Wing and made clear his intentions to destroy the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts because he wasn’t allowed to plaster his name onto it. Read more about the course:Homeland Security Investigations officers raided Representative Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home Monday morning.The raid was part of a criminal investigation into the Minnesota Democrat’s immigration paperwork, according to Fox News Digital, which was filled out by her late father when she was a child. “Today in the Washington, D.C., area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,” a Department of Justice spokesperson told Fox.The first Somali-American lawmaker and one of the first Muslim women in Congress, Omar has been a regular target for Donald Trump. The president has repeatedly accused her of financial fraud without providing any evidence for those claims. Now Trump’s smear campaigns have developed into full-out weaponization—and with just weeks left until the midterm elections. Omar has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s policies, including his massive cuts to social services, blatant voter suppression tactics, support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and sweeping crackdown on immigrants that has killed two U.S. citizens in her state.Trump has previously suggested that Omar is under investigation by Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force aimed at gutting federal programs in blue states. At a midterm campaign rally in Tennessee Saturday, Trump railed against Omar, making it clear he was more interested in attacking her ethnicity than her politics.“She comes from Somalia. They don’t have a government, they don’t have police, they don’t—all they have is crime and squalor. And she comes into our country and she says, ‘My Constitution allows me.’ She’s talking about our Constitution,” he said. “What they’ve done to Minnesota, these people from Somalia, what they’ve done to Minnesota should never be allowed.”Omar is up for reelection in November, and she is favored to win her race. Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance noted on X Monday that, less than a month out from the midterms, “We are within the period before an election where DOJ doesn’t take overt steps in an investigation that might influence its outcome.”“Another hard norm out the window,” Vance said.This story has been updated.Vice President JD Vance just asked Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton out for drinks.Vance’s strange invitation came during a Friday rally in his home state of Ohio for embattled Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.“[Vivek] Ramaswamy is running against a crazy person,” Vance said. “Amy Acton, I have to be honest with you, I don’t know that much about her, other than she was the woman who wanted to mask all of our two-year-olds and keep them from going to school.” Acton served as the head of the Ohio state Health Department from 2019-2020.“Now I did promise Amy that I would meet her at a bar later,” Vance continued. “I understand that she’s into that sort of thing. So I’m gonna try to get to know her a little bit better.”.@VP JD Vance says he promised Ohio Gov. candidate Amy Acton (D) he "would meet her at a bar later" because he knows "she's into that sort of thing," amidst Republican attack ads claiming Acton is an alcoholic, which she denies. https://t.co/fznp433ZCU— CSPAN (@cspan) October 9, 2026 This is yet another shot in a cheap GOP smear campaign to convince Ohio voters that Acton is some raging alcoholic and drug addict. The Ohio Republican Party has run ads calling Acton “unstable” and violent based on a 911 call from 2019 in which her daughter said she was “drinking and throwing things” while on medication, arguing with her stepfather in their home. Police arrived, made a report, and nothing came of it. Seven years later, and it’s the Ohio GOP’s primary dirt on Acton, with Vance even sampling the low-hanging fruit.Acton denies that she has ever had a drug or alcohol problem. She and Ramaswamy, the hedge-fund billionaire and failed pharmaceutical startup founder, are locked in a fairly close midterm race for the governorship.