Just days after Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) lost his primary in Tuesday’s runoff and vowed to support the “Republican ticket,” he posted several tweets that were widely interpreted as throwing shade at his victorious opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).

To say that the Cornyn v. Paxton primary battle was bitter and brutal is an epic understatement. The incumbent was widely viewed as a stronger candidate in the general election due to Paxton’s series of scandals, lawsuits, and controversies — not to mention a messy and contentious pending divorce — but the attorney general got support from the MAGA wing of the GOP for his combative, far-right stances.

President Donald Trump initially declined to endorse for the primary, and rumors were swirling that he was expected to endorse Cornyn, but in the final days of the runoff (and when polling showed Paxton with a substantial lead), Trump threw his support behind the AG.

The primary was far less fractious on the Democratic side. State Rep. James Talarico (D) surpassed Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) by a comfortable margin and without needing a runoff; she conceded the race the next morning and tweeted a call for her supporters to “remain united” and “rally around our nominees.”

Tuesday evening, as Cornyn spoke to disappointed supporters, he said he’d support the man he had spent the last few years calling a crook.

“I’ve spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican party in Texas and in the U.S. Senate, and I’ve always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend to do so again in this general election,” said Cornyn. “I’ve said throughout this race that I trust the voters of Texas, and they’ve made their decision, and I must respect it.”

On Friday morning, Cornyn posted a tweet with what he called “[a]n old, but apt fable,” the story of the scorpion and the frog that echoes “The Snake” poem Trump habitually shares on the campaign trail.

Wrote Cornyn, tagging Wikipedia as the source:

A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: “I am sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s my character.”

Mediaite reached out to Cornyn for comment about the tweet, and he replied that it was “just a discussion starter for now.”

And start a discussion it did, getting an immediate swarm of replies from commenters intrigued that Cornyn seemed to be throwing shade at someone, with most speculating he meant Paxton, Trump, or perhaps also the Republican voters who had passed him by.

In another tweet shortly after the scorpion and frog one, Cornyn quoted Winston Churchill, the prime minister who led Britain through World War II: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

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