Donald Trump has thrown a jab at Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after the struggling Senate hopeful criticized the Republican midterm convention that the president headlined last month.
Trump went to a truck factory in Denton, Texas, Thursday evening to tout the administration’s work on American manufacturing. But, like in previous speeches, he couldn’t help but insult Paxton in the process.
"He can be a pain in the ass sometimes, I'll be honest,” the president said about the Republican nominee whom he endorsed.
Trump then looked to his left and asked: “Is he here, by the way? Oh, there he is. Good. I didn't even know if he was here! I don't care."
Trump’s comments come a day after Paxton was reportedly caught slamming the Dallas convention that the president used to drum up support for Republican candidates in tight races.
“To be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good,” Paxton said during a private Washington fundraiser, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times.
Paxton and his Democratic opponent James Talarico are neck and neck in the polls.
Talarico was two percentage points ahead of Paxton in a Fox News poll released Thursday, with 51 percent of voter support compared to Paxton’s 49 percent.
The Democrat had an even larger lead over Paxton in a Marist University poll conducted from September 17 to 20. In that poll, 50 percent of Texas voters said they support Talarico and 44 percent said they back Paxton.
Talarico was leading Paxton by three percentage points before the convention.
A University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll released on August 24 found Talarico with 42 percent of voter support compared to Paxton’s 39 percent.
Paxton’s senior adviser Nick Maddux disputed the reporting on Paxton's private conversation with donors, telling the Times, “This is more manipulated nonsense from The New York Times to create a story that doesn’t exist.”
“Our latest poll from the last week has Ken Paxton leading by three points, and every serious pollster will tell you that our numbers have improved since early September.”
During both nights of the GOP convention, Trump insulted Paxton over his fashion sense.
“And I said something yesterday, and I don't know if he'll ever talk to me again…My people said, ‘Please don't say that.’ So I won't say it, but I'll tell you what I was thinking about saying,” Trump said during his closing address on September 10.
“I said, ‘I don't like the way Ken dresses,” the president said. “Although I also said he looked really sharp in that suit yesterday. I thought it was spiffy.”
The night before, Trump told the crowd that Paxton “may not be the best-looking guy I've ever seen, but you know what he is? He's the greatest Attorney General in America, and he deserves to be your next senator.”
After his stop in Texas on Thursday, Trump traveled to Oklahoma and said Paxton would take the Senate seat “whether you love him or not.”
“We're going to send Ken Paxton to the United States Senate because he is whether you love him or don't love him — he's a little controversial, just slightly — but whether you love him or not, he's probably the best or certainly one of the best...attorney generals in the entire United States of America,” Trump told the crowd Thursday night.
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