This is the May 27, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m an eighth-generation Texan. I’ve been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.”
— Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, responding to false claims from Donald Trump and Ken Paxton that he is a vegan
JOE’S NOTE
When it comes to sheer awfulness as a political candidate, Ken Paxton is a unicorn. His career has been filled by a confederacy of scandals, corruption, and next-level sleaze.
Bloomberg’s David Drucker told me that in 20 years of covering politics, he’s never seen a more scandal-ridden career.
Maybe that’s why Republican voters in Texas like him so much: he reminds them of their party’s leader.
Every Democrat in America woke up feeling lucky.
Texas Republicans may have just cost the GOP tens of millions of dollars — money Republicans could have spent on competitive races in Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Alaska.
Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in Texas since 1994. But they also haven’t had a guy like this to run against.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said it best: “To call Paxton ethically challenged is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder.”
There’s a divine providence — to paraphrase Otto von Bismarck — that protects fools, drunkards, and the Democratic Party.
Texas Republicans just handed Democrats a cash windfall big enough to make Don Jr. proud.
KEN PAXTON, PUBLIC SERVANT: A TIMELINE
ON THIS DATE
On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened in San Francisco. Some 200,000 people turned out — roller skaters, unicyclists, and tuba players among them. As the chief engineer said in that day’s San Francisco Chronicle: “At last — the mighty task is done.”
WHAT THEY SAID
Jon Meacham on America at 250
“We must find someone to tell the compelling story that we are a nation sustained by leaders who win graciously and lose graciously. If we can’t do both, we won’t reach our 260th anniversary.”
Jeffrey Goldberg on Iran
“The United States has shown that it cannot defeat a third-rate power — and that it is so disengaged from the geopolitics of the Middle East that the president did not realize Iran’s first and only move would be to shut the Strait of Hormuz.”
Rev. Al Sharpton on South Carolina voting rights
Recommended
“Someone didn’t wake up one morning and say, ‘Let’s do the Voting Rights Act.’
We had to organize, be on the ground, and have allies. I’ll never forget being told as a kid that if it wasn’t for Republicans like Everett Dirksen, we would not have the civil rights bill.
So sometimes you’ve got to work with unlikely allies to get results good for everybody, and do it without compromising your values.”
Roger Bennett on the World Cup
“We are entering soccer’s American century. But it’s crazy to me as a lover of the game, that while our women kick ass and win everything, our men have won one knockout game in the entire World Cup history.”
David Drucker on Texas
“John Cornyn couldn’t compete with Ken Paxton in one simple way: He wasn’t impeached and didn’t have any scandals. Texas Republican voters saw a candidate like President Trump — who’s been accused of all sorts of misdeeds and was willing to take the brickbats and fight through it — and that translated to them as somebody who would fight for them.”
EXTRA HOT TEA
95.2 F
— The record-breaking May temperature in London’s Kew Gardens as a heat wave engulfs most of western Europe this week. Experts say such unseasonable and unpredictable weather events, brought on by climate change, are becoming more frequent.
ONE MORE SHOT
Young Palestinians laugh together as worshippers gather for morning prayers marking the start of Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, on a damaged street in Khan Yunis, Gaza.
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