❓WHAT HAPPENED: Former Trump campaign chief and Republican National Committee (RNC) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Chris LaCivita, in a text message sent to POLITICO, appeared to inadvertently confirm that the recent push to discredit WarRoom host and former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon is tied to Senator John Cornyn’s (R-TX) primary reelection campaign.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Chris LaCivita, Sen. John Cornyn, and Stephen K. Bannon.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The POLITICO story was published on Friday, February 27, 2026.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Associating with Senator Cornyn is better than being a lacky [sic] for Epstein.” — Chris LaCivita
🎯IMPACT: The text message suggests the recent anti-Bannon push by paid social media influencers is tied not just to LaCivita but to Cornyn’s reelection operation, as first reported by Raheem Kassam here.
Former Trump campaign chief and Republican National Committee (RNC) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Chris LaCivita, in a text message sent to POLITICO, appears to inadvertently confirm that the recent push to discredit WarRoom host and former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon is tied to U.S. Senator John Cornyn‘s (R-TX) primary reelection campaign, as first reported by The National Pulse’s Editor-in-Chief Raheem J. Kassam, here.
“Associating with Senator Cornyn is better than being a lacky [sic] for Epstein,” LaCivita wrote to the leftist corporate media outlet after Bannon admonished former Trump campaign aides for involving themselves in the contentious Senate primary in Texas, despite President Donald J. Trump himself remaining neutral.
LaCivita’s paid social media campaign sought to misrepresent Bannon’s efforts to get Epstein on the record for a documentary titled The Monsters, which he was producing alongside Victory Films. During the filming, Epstein claimed he was a supporter of the “Time’s Up” and “Me Too” movements, which Bannon called – to his face – “a sop” to excuse “all of the depravity you’ve done against young women.”
TEXAS.
“My belief is the Trump team should have stayed out of this race, absolutely,” Bannon said of the Texas primary race, in which Sen. Cornyn—a 24-year incumbent—is locked in a three-way battle with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a staunch Trump ally, and Congressman Wesley Hunt (R-TX). LaCivita serves as a senior advisor to the pro-Cornyn super PAC, Texans for a Conservative Majority, while pollster Tony Fabrizio is also working for the Cornyn campaign.
The text message—which misspells “lackey”—is revealing, suggesting that the recent anti-Bannon push by some pro-Trump social media figures is likely tied not just to LaCivita but to Cornyn’s reelection operation itself. Bannon has been making a strong case for voters to back Paxton over both Cornyn and Hunt, arguing, “The Paxton situation is critical, because he has been the MAGA guy since Day One. He is a symbol of the heart of the grassroots MAGA movement.”
Notably, early voting in the Texas Republican primary ends on February 27, while in-person voting on election day will occur on March 3, 2026. At the start of early voting last week, some polls showed Cornyn had fallen to third place in the race, a position that would eliminate him as a candidate should the primary contest move to a runoff.
The National Pulse reported on Thursday that Idaho Governor Brad Little (R) had announced his reelection campaign is also retaining LaCivita as a senior advisor. Last week, when The National Pulse’s Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam called out the anti-Bannon operation as the machinations of LaCivita, the former Trump campaign chief lashed out, falsely referring to Kassam as an “illegal immigrant,“ in an embarrassing display of uncontrolled anger.
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