Sen. John Cornyn Thinks Millions of Calls From Concerned Texans Are Part of "Establishment" Conspiracy

In the past few weeks, a flood of phone calls from Texans opposing the nomination of now-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos crashed Sen. John Cornyn's voicemail system.

But instead of considering the genuine concerns of the very people who elected him to represent them in Congress, Cornyn turned the outpouring of alarm into a conspiracy theory.

“You can imagine the volume of phone calls and mail and social media contacts that we get on a daily basis," he told Houston Public Media in a phone interview. "And there’s no doubt that there was a concerted campaign by the establishment to try to sink Ms. DeVos’ nomination.”

Cornyn's website also crashed from so many constituents using the contact form to share their opposition to the nomination. "They...threatened to bring down our website," he said, apparently irritated by the idea the public would want to reach him.

As far as we know, there is no underground campaign by the "establishment" to tie up Cornyn's phone lines. On the contrary, this post-inauguration swarm of democratic protest has been largely lead by independent, localized groups — often coordinated and inspired through friends' social media posts.

But, Cornyn believes his 28 million constituents, whose opinions he's brushed aside, are just sore losers. "I think that this is part of the angry response to the fact that President Trump won," he said.