‘PLEASE CLAP‘ PT. 2?

Must-Win MAGA Candidate’s Humiliation Goes Even Deeper

Ken Paxton’s comment at a campaign stop drew a lone clap.

Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton drew an embarrassing lack of applause at one point during a campaign stop Wednesday.

The Trump-endorsed attorney general stopped by for breakfast at Mama’s Kitchen in Odessa—the first of three campaign events in West Texas. Paxton, 63, would go on to speak at a restaurant in Abilene and a hotel sports bar in San Angelo, where he addressed onlookers not in a 300-person banquet room, but in a smaller room with only a few dozen present.

SPARSE SHOWING

MAGA Candidate Humiliated as Minuscule Crowd Size Is Exposed

Vic Verbalaitis

At the intimate establishment in Odessa, roughly the same number of people listened as he talked about some of the lawsuits he has led as attorney general, a position he has held since 2015. He highlighted suits against “big tech,” including Google and Facebook.

“We made them pay because they were invading your privacy. They were taking information from you without telling you, and they were monetizing it without telling you. So they were making the money. They weren’t telling you. They were being dishonest. They were not disclosing. Facebook, similar—they were stealing our facial geometry, and so we sued them. We recovered billions of dollars—$3 billion, almost $3 billion between the two,” Paxton said, pausing a moment as one person clapped.

“Thank you. Thank you for that one clap,” he responded, pointing them out. This prompted others to clap too.

“I appreciate that. You’re awake,” he said, before naming the person. “I like Linda.”

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The awkward moment spurred progressive X user Aaron Rupar to compare it to Jeb Bush’s 2016 request that a campaign stop audience “please clap” when his applause line fell flat.

Paxton spoke for about fifteen minutes, then closed by having a pastor lead a group prayer that he be elected, and not Democrat James Talarico, who the pastor said would be “a curse upon our land.”

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Paxton’s speech was about the same length a few hours later at San Angelo’s Arc Light Bar & Grill.

Paxton campaigned with Trump, 80, in front of larger crowds at two rallies on Tuesday. In Corpus Christi, though, he mistakenly called this year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence the nation’s bicentennial. Not only that, but Trump again insulted his appearance by contrasting him with Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, whose physique he can’t seem to get over.

“I made the mistake of studying [Husted’s] anatomy and explaining it to the audience, and the audience loved it,” Trump said. “By the way, he went up 12 points that day. He went from being down to being up.”

He added: “Maybe I should do that with Ken Paxton. But I’m not sure your body is gonna qualify.”

The Paxton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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