‘I’ll Be Honest’: Trump Admits ‘People Don’t Like Things’ About Ken Paxton

President Donald Trump joined Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) on his podcast, Lt. Dan, on Wednesday to discuss a range of issues, including the midterm elections and Ken Paxton, the state’s controversial GOP Senate nominee.

Patrick, a former talk radio host and avid Trump supporter, spent much of the very friendly interview praising the president. Trump began by boasting about his upcoming midterm convention in Dallas before discussing Paxton, who Trump acknowledged rubs some people the wrong way.

Trump riled the Texas GOP by backing Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the primary despite Cornyn being viewed as the stronger general election candidate. Paxton, the sitting attorney general, has long been plagued by scandal in the state, which resulted in an impeachment and subsequent acquittal in the state legislature.

“But I see how important it is, and all they talk about is the midterms, the midterms, the midterms. And I’m saying, you know, we have this big convention for the presidential election, but the midterms — people talk about it. It’s very important, but there’s no convention,” Trump said, explaining how he came up with the idea of a midterm convention:

Why aren’t we having — why don’t we have a convention? You could call it a midterm convention.

I — I wouldn’t use the term “mini convention” because it’s really not that mini.

“It’s going to be very important,” Patrick insisted.

“That’s going to be big stuff. So, you could call it a midterm convention. And I did it. And I just came up with the idea, and we raised a lot of money. I put up a lot of money. Basically, it’s — I don’t care, because we’re saving the nation. And it’s going to be fantastic,” Trump continued.

Notably, many in the GOP are miffed by the convention taking place amid the heated campaign cycle. One unnamed House Republican called it a “waste of time” in an interview with Politico. Politico surveyed some 70 House Republicans and found that 45 of those 70 are planning to skip the event, choosing instead to focus on campaigning at home and courting swing voters.

“We’re making it two days, which I think is good. And we’re going to have a lot of speakers,” Trump continued, adding:

And the ones we want to focus on will be, obviously, Ken Paxton. We got to — we got to get him elected. He’s a good man. You know, I know him very well. He really was a great attorney general. And some people, I’ll be honest, some people don’t like an interview that he’ll do or something.

You know, the bottom line is, he was a phenomenal attorney general. He may have been the best attorney general in the whole — in the whole country, without question.

And, you know, so if — if you know that people, some people don’t like things about him, but he was the best there is.

You know, I know guys that are very impressive. Everyone says, “Oh, they’re great. They’re great. Wow.” But they were lousy at their job. This is sort of a little bit the opposite, to be honest with you. Ken was phenomenal at his job, and he was loyal to the Republican Party.

“He was loyal to the state of Texas. He was great. And now you have this weirdo, this freako, uh, trying to get elected, lying all the way down. Now, all of a sudden, he loves me. He didn’t wear masks. There he is, wearing a mask six months ago. He would be a horrible representative. He’s laughed at everywhere he goes. So we got to win that election. And we got to win others. And we basically — this is really a big one in Texas,” Trump continued, jabbing Paxton’s general election opponent James Talarico (D) who is either up or tied in the polls with Paxton.

“To keep control,” Patrick added.

“And yeah, to keep control, to do well. And that would be five senators and 30 congressmen, men and women. And I’m going to really work hard for this,” Trump continued, adding:

You know, I did for my own. I took 120 days, four months, and I never took a day off. There wasn’t a day where I didn’t make — make two or three speeches.

And I had many, many rallies, and, as you know, in the last week of the presidential election, I would have two, three, four rallies a day. That’s not easy. I was just hoping my voice would hold out, which it did — barely.

“All the presidents combined, Mr. President, have not worked that hard,” replied Patrick, adding some additional praise:

Not only for yourself but for other candidates, which you — which you have done. We’ve known each other for 11 years now. And I’ve been proud to be your campaign chairman for all three of your runs for president. No one works harder, and no one works harder for the party.

Watch the clip above.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!