Ken Paxton Blames Trump's Illegal War for His Political Woes in Yet Another Leaked Recording

Ken Paxton, the Republican Party's nominee for the US Senate in Texas, blamed President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran for his political woes in a leaked recording published by Axios on Wednesday.

In the recording, which was made during a private meeting with donors and lobbyists last month, Paxton was asked by an attendee which issues were "dragging" his campaign.

"It's the war, it's gas prices, it's diesel," the Texas attorney general responded. "When it's over $6 per gallon for diesel... people are feeling the pinch."

Paxton added that concerns about affordability were "by far our biggest problem" and "why we're having a hard time with the numbers."

Later in the recording, an attendee pointed out to Paxton that he "can't stop the war," to which Paxton replied, "Right."

"So many factors in this federal race are uncontrollable," Paxton explained. "I don't make the decisions, and I don't... know what's behind some of the decisions."

If Paxton were elected to the US Senate, he could vote for a war powers resolution to compel Trump to end the war, which was launched in February without congressional authorization.

This is now the third leaked recording of Paxton to emerge in recent weeks. Paxton is facing Democratic nominee James Talarico in November.

In a recording leaked to Politico on Monday, Paxton lamented that he has lost control of his campaign's messaging, which he said was being dictated from Washington, DC.

The New York Times last month published a Paxton recording in which he admitted that Trump's big midterm convention held in Dallas hurt his campaign.

“The numbers—when we did that convention—it dropped our numbers,” Paxton said. “Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.”

Veteran Democratic strategist David Axelrod predicted that Trump would not be pleased by Paxton once again placing blame on the president's decisions for his political misfortunes.

"Next to the war and the tariffs," Axelrod wrote in a Wednesday social media post, "anointing Ken Paxton as the GOP candidate for the US Senate in Texas may turn out to be [Trump's] worst political decision and the one he most regrets."

John Huffman, the former Republican mayor of Southlake, Texas, wrote that, while Trump may not want to hear it, Paxton's assessment of the political environment was correct.

"The war, gas prices, higher cost of living etc., are all making this cycle very difficult for Republicans," Huffman argued. "In a normal year, even a candidate as broken as Paxton could eke out a W in Texas."