Royce West Calls Senator John Cornyn Racist in Campaign Video

DALLAS--The Royce West for United States Senate Campaign on Wednesday afternoon publicly released a video asking John Cornyn what he really intended to say about Royce West when his campaign staff called him, 'Restful Royce," and questioning why the incumbent senator's campaign is using words that play in to longtime racial stereotypes that African Americans are lazy. 

The video highlights, among other things, Cornyn claiming Texans did not care about racism when President Donald Trump told four African American members of Congress to go back to the cities from which they came, and that Cornyn said nothing when Trump called an African American woman a 'dog.' 

The video also highlights Cornyn's remarks concerning Chinese people, eating bats, and COVID-19 which the Austin Chronicle called "ignorant" and "extremely dangerous" for Asian Americans. 

"Nearly every time John Cornyn speaks, you hear the dog whistle," said Vince Leibowitz, Communications Director for West's Senate campaign.  "This is 2020, not 1920, and there is no place in American political discourse for stereotypes that paint African Americans as lazy, stereotypes against Asian Americans, or against Hispanic Americans," Leibowitz said.

Leibowitz pointed out, when the Corpus Christi Caller-Times asked Cornyn's spokesperson about the 'Restful Royce' remark, that the spokesperson had no real excuse for why it was used, and only four days later claimed it was because of how the Cornyn camp perceived West's campaign was running.

"It took Cornyn's people four days to figure out what to say to try to walk this back," Leibowitz said. "To me, that raises important questions. The media must continue to ask John Cornyn what he really intended to say by having his campaign team incorporate that remark in their media relations, and must now ask him why it took his campaign four days to come up with messaging for the 'Restful Royce' comment. Typically, if a political spokesperson makes a remark like that to a reporter, the spokesperson know what it means when they make it, and can explain it right then. Why couldn't his spokesperson come up with any reason for making this comment when speaking to the Caller-Times, but later gave the Dallas Morning News a different story altogether," Leibowitz asked. "If you work in politics and are familiar with politics, there are a lot of dots that seem to be connecting that the Cornyn campaign has no ability to justify," Leibowitz said. 

:60 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5U…

2:00 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gd…

Caller Times coverage: https://www.caller.com/story/news/l…

Dallas News coverage: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/pol…

West Response to DMN Coverage: https://www.roycewest.com/supportin…