The Texas Tribune Festival is an event that celebrates current affairs over a course of days. The festival includes politics, public policy and news.

Senator John Cornyn is the senator for Texas, and has served four terms as a senator of Texas.

On Sept. 21, as part of the Texas Tribune Festival, Senator John Cornyn did a one-on-one interview with Abby Livingston, Washington Bureau Chief for the Texas Tribune. The interview was a general analysis on the politics of today, including President Joe Biden, the new abortion law and the occurences in Afghanistan. Cornyn spoke in detail for 30 minutes about these events during the Texas Tribune Festival. Current affairs were at the center of the discussion, and so there was not as much political talk about the past.

In an interview with Cornyn, he spoke about the abortion law. “I think obviously Roe vs Wade and even Justice Ginsburg questions later in life,” Cornyn said. “Whether the Supreme Court of the United States should have waited into such a controversial and polarizing issue at the national level or rather left this workout, state by state.”

According to an article by AP news, “Texas’ abortion law S.B. 8 follows a model first used in Waskom to ban abortion within its boundaries in 2019.”

So, the idea of state’s choosing for themselves is added onto by the passing of S.B. 8, as Texas has also chosen for itself, recently.

Cornyn also discussed Afghanistan. “President Biden didn’t consult with us, the Congress” Cornyn said. “And I recently was travelling in Europe and NATO allies, they are completely standalone with a factor,” Cornyn continued to discuss the consequences of establishing an arbitrary deadline.

According to a New York Times article, “There was no way to predict how quickly Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said. “And we made the right decision in ending America’s longest war.”

Congress seems to be split on Afghanistan, as is seen by Blinken’s response to Representative Ann Wagner, Republican of Missouri. Cornyn is surely not alone in his thoughts when it comes to Congress not being consulted on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

According to The White House, President Biden discussed “the men and women of the United States military, our intelligence corps, and intelligence professionals did their job and did it well, risking their lives to save others.”

This adds onto Cornyn’s Afghanistan point by touching on the sacrifices that U.S. forces made in going to Afghanistan.