There’s always one, right? And it was Sen. John Cornyn who chose to be the one on the GOP side of the aisle to blindly defend the police response to the Uvalde school shooting.

Cornyn, who is as establishment as it gets in the Republican Party, decided now was a good time to rebuke those who are pointing out how absolutely insane and deadly the police response was, as a mass shooter killed 19 children and their teachers. On the contrary, though, it is Cornyn who deserves the rebuke here.

I quite literally have a desire to punch a wall and use obscenities I don’t normally use after reading this.

The second guessing and finger pointing among state and local law enforcement is destructive, distracting, and unfair. Complex scenarios require split second decisions. Easy to criticize with 20-20 hindsight https://t.co/ssq2FAInDX

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) May 28, 2022

This is why no one trusts our institutions, and I’m not just talking about the “defund the police” nutters in the Democrat Party. I’m talking about the many Republicans who have also grown disillusioned with knee-jerk defenses of law enforcement that belabor belief. Forgetting about Uvalde for a moment, how many in the GOP rushed to defend the FBI during the FISA abuse scandal? The answer is “a lot,” and that is part of the culture on the right that refuses to use nuance–when nuance is absolutely demanded.

Returning to Uvalde, the evidence is overwhelming that the police made horrible, unforgivable decisions that cost lives. The gunman was walking around outside the school, taking random pot-shots for 12 minutes before he walked through an unlocked back door. The police didn’t arrive until four minutes after he entered. How in the world did it take the police 18 minutes in a town that small to respond to an active shooter situation, when the police department itself is only 10 minutes away?

Further, once the police arrived, they entered the building, took some rounds their way, and retreated. Despite having an overwhelming numerical advantage (up to 19 officers, per reports), they decided to wait around outside for over an hour, hassling parents instead of acting. Worse, a Border Patrol tactical team arrived around the 30-minute mark, yet local law enforcement refused to let them enter. It wasn’t until those Border Patrol agents decided to break the chain of command and go it alone that the shooter was finally neutralized.

What possible explanation could be provided that makes any of that acceptable? Yet, Cornyn is going to pretend that we need to wait for more facts? What facts? We have the facts, as admitted to by the Texas DPS. Now is the time to raise hell, not “back the blue” with generic statements of praise. It’s no longer “hindsight” to understand that inexplicable decision were made that cost lives.

Cornyn continues to be one of the worst GOP Senators (from a red state, at least). Enough with the excuses. Stand up and call for accountability, because this situation didn’t happen because of a lack of gun control laws (which Cornyn is now working with Democrats to pass). It happened because a police force that bragged about its tactical capabilities in Facebook posts, posing with their long rifles, yet wouldn’t do exactly what their protocols demanded, which was to confront the shooter no matter the cost. Speak the truth—or stop talking.