Cornyn booed 'viciously' after taking gun control deal back to Texas GOP



U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) was loudly booed at the Republican Party of Texas Convention in Houston, where the state GOP adopted a resolution condemning the bipartisan gun control framework he has negotiated in the Senate.

As Cornyn took the stage to speak Friday afternoon, members of the audience chanted "no red flags" and "say no to Cornyn," drowning out his remarks with furious objections to the new gun control measures proposed by a gang of 20 senators in the wake of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas.

\u201cUS Sen John Cornyn gets viciously booed during much of his speech here at the Republican Party of Texas Convention. Here\u2019s his closing remarks and the cascade of boos.\u201d
— Jeremy Wallace (@Jeremy Wallace) 1655492225

According to NPR's the Texas Newsroom, many of the people attending the convention called Cornyn a RINO — Republican in name only — for being the lead Republican negotiator on the gun deal, which would fund mental health programs and incentivize states to pass "red-flag" laws.

Gun rights activists oppose red-flag laws, which permit authorities to seek a court order to take an individual's firearms away if that person is believed to be a danger to themself or others, on the grounds that they have insufficient due process protections to prevent abuse. The bipartisan framework would not enact a federal red-flag law, instead it would provide financial incentives to state governments that choose to enact such laws. It would also expand background checks for gun purchases to include the juvenile and mental health records of people under 21.

Cornyn attempted to defend the bipartisan deal during his speech, telling Texas Republicans it would include "more mental health resources, more support for our schools and making sure that violent criminals and the mentally ill cannot buy a firearm," according to reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. But the crowd was unwilling to listen.

\u201cAs Cornyn talks, folks are rowdy. Chanting \u201cno red flags\u201d and \u201csay no to Cornyn.\u201d\n\nWhen Cornyn talks about electing new leadership, folks scream \u201clike Cornyn!\u201d\u201d
— Sergio Mart\u00ednez-Beltr\u00e1n (@Sergio Mart\u00ednez-Beltr\u00e1n) 1655491050

Pictures posted on Twitter showed convention goers tossing lanyards with Cornyn's name on them into the trash.

\u201cTX GOP convention: red lanyards are @JohnCornyn lanyards. Friend wrote me: "People are throwing them away in droves to get a different one." \n\nNow Texans just need to throw him out of office.\u201d
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@Pedro L. Gonzalez) 1655477901

Earlier on Thursday, the Republican Party of Texas' Platform Committee unanimously approved a resolution that condemned the gun deal Cornyn negotiated with Democrats and the other nine Republicans who are in favor of it, Texas Scorecard reported.

The text of the resolution reads:

Whereas those under 21 are most likely to be victims of violent crime and thus most likely to need to defend themselves.

Whereas “red flag laws” violate one’s right to due process and are a pre-crime punishment of people not adjudicated guilty.

Whereas waiting periods on gun purchases harm those who need to acquire the means of self defense in emergencies such as riots.

Whereas all gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God given rights.

We reject the so called “bipartisan gun agreement”, and we rebuke Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

As of yet, there is no draft bill for the gun control deal. Several Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have expressed reservations about throwing their full support behind the framework before seeing the legislative text.

Lucasfilm fired Gina Carano for a Holocaust comparison. So what will they do with Pedro Pascal's tweet doing the same?



On Wednesday, Lucasfilm fired actress Gina Carano for a social media post referring to the Holocaust that her critics said was anti-Semitic. But she's not the only "The Mandalorian" actor who has posted ill-advised Holocaust comparisons on social media.

Carano, who played Cara Dune on Disney+'s popular Star Wars series was fired ostensibly for making an "abhorrent and unacceptable" social media post citing Jewish oppression at the hands of the Nazis and comparing it to censorship of conservative points of view and cancel culture. Her post triggered a social media campaign by the left on Tuesday to have her fired by Lucasfilm.

did she just compare the holocaust to being a republican .. #FireGinaCarano https://t.co/an3css7Kdr
— janet (@janet)1612976407.0

This was the latest in a series of social media controversies surrounding the actress in which voices on the left demanded that she be canceled for holding unpopular opinions. Last September, when social media demanded Carano add pronouns to her bio to "support trans lives," she jokingly added the words "boop/bop/beep" to her Twitter name.

"They're mad cuz I won't put pronouns in my bio to show my support for trans lives. After months of harassing me in every way. I decided to put 3 VERY controversial words in my bio.. beep/bop/boop," she tweeted in response to the criticism. "I'm not against trans lives at all. They need to find less abusive representation." This was apparently transphobic.

In subsequent social media posts, Carano tweeted a meme questioning COVID-19 mask mandates, made comments calling for laws to increase election security, and liked social media posts making the point that Black Lives Matter probably shouldn't riot if they want people to sympathize with their cause.

Each of these social media posts generated a controversy with people calling for her to be fired. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Lucasfilm finally confirmed that Carano was no longer employed by the company, which is owned by Disney. After news broke that Carano had been canned by Lucasfilm, many of the social media users calling for her firing cheered.

But if Carano's post, in the words of the Lucasfilm spokesperson, is "denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities" and also "abhorrent and unacceptable," what does Lucasfilm make of this 2018 tweet from "The Mandalorian" star Pedro Pascal?

#ThisisAmerica https://t.co/LR3Yjj4JEQ
— Pedro Pascal he/him (@Pedro Pascal he/him)1529535868.0

Here, Pascal is comparing former President Donald Trump's immigration policies to the Holocaust. The tweet leaves out important context. The "kids in cages" narrative surrounding Trump's policies was misleading, given that the Obama administration built the facilities where migrants detained under Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration enforcement policies were held.

There is no comparable outrage over Pascal's tweet. No one on the left calling for him to be fired, or accusing him of anti-Semitism or white supremacy for his Holocaust comparison.