A Republican’s Sex Scandal Could Paralyze the House
Plus: Join me inside the House chamber for the State of the Union.
Join me inside the State of the Union
It’s time for another State of the Union address from President Donald Trump. (Please excuse my over-the-top enthusiasm.) If you’ve taken a high school government class, you’ll know that the State of the Union was submitted in writing for much of American history, but nowadays it’s conducted in a primetime address before a joint session of Congress.1 This gives the president an opportunity to brag about his accomplishments and admonish his political adversaries.
Trump has promised that his speech will be unusually long. If you still want to tune in, please join The Bulwark’s livestream beginning at 8:50 p.m. EST. If you’d prefer not to have to listen to Trump’s voice for that long but do want to stay engaged, then I have another option for you.
At The Bulwark, we like to do things a bit differently. That’s why during tonight’s SOTU I’m going to try something that I don’t think has been done before: host an AMA on Reddit from inside the House chamber. Up in the press gallery, the demands of decorum are fairly strict: You must remain quiet, show no signs of approval or disapproval, and (officially permitted videographers and photographers excepted), you are not allowed to take any photos. But posting to social media or filing an article would be totally within bounds. So tonight, hit me up with your questions, and I’ll give you a perspective from behind the cameras in the most packed room in Washington.
We’ll get started when Trump does. Keep an eye out for our post in the r/politics subreddit to join in.
Majority report
The scandal involving Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) keeps getting worse. The Texas lawmaker is alleged to have had an affair with a congressional staffer who later ended her life by self-immolation. Newly released text messages show the Republican lawmaker repeatedly pressured the staffer to send him explicit photos.
In more normal times, Gonzales’s behavior would prompt a swift resignation and condemnatory statements from party leadership. But the Republican majority in the House is in dire straits: With the balance of power in the chamber resting at 218–214, the GOP can afford only two defections2 with full attendance before they lose their ability to pass legislation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson knows all about the hazards of his shrunken majority; it’s a problem he’s at grips with week in and week out. It’s only natural, then, that he would be reluctant to do anything that could further shrink his majority. In the Capitol Monday, Johnson made a very high-minded–sounding statement to a gaggle of reporters that he wants the investigations into Gonzales to play out before making any kind of judgment.
These are serious accusations, and it must be taken seriously, and I’ve told him he’s got to address that with his constituents and he’s in the process of doing that. My understanding, there’s an investigation in the state of Texas on these matters and has been going for some time, and the Office of Congressional Conduct has also—it’s been reported—they’ve been looking at it. All of that was news to me. But I think, as in every case, that you have to allow the investigations to play out and all the facts to come out. I’ve been intellectually consistent about this, whether you’re talking about Republicans or Democrats. You have to let the system play out.
Johnson added that he opposed the 2023 expulsion of former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) “because he had been accused of a crime, been indicted, but not found guilty.”
“If the accusation of something is going to be a litmus test for someone being able to continue to serve in the House, you’ll have a lot of people who’d have to resign or be removed or expelled from Congress,” Johnson said. “So I think you gotta allow this to play out.”
Johnson’s comparison of Gonzales to Santos isn’t quite fair. Santos had been indicted for fraud and was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 87 months in prison, a sentence he started to serve before a pardon from Trump got him out. His was a classic case of corruption, and appropriate redress ultimately belonged to the courts.
Gonzales is accused of something quite different. His wrongdoing might not be as straightforwardly prosecutable as Santos’s by-the-book crimes, but it does speak profoundly to his character in a way that would normally be summarily disqualifying.
Regardless of these differences, Johnson didn’t believe either lawmaker’s scandal warranted a clear condemnation. But many House Republicans have already called for Gonzales to step aside, their party’s tenuous majority be damned.
Reps. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) posted that Gonzales should forgo his re-election campaign.
“America deserves better,” wrote Gill. “Tony should drop out of the race.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) stopped short of calling for a resignation, but said Gonzales’s behavior “brings dishonor on the House of Representatives.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) went further, writing, “The allegations against Congressman Tony Gonzales are deeply disturbing: a sitting Member of Congress accused of soliciting explicit photos from a staffer and subjecting her to graphic sexual texts. This is an abuse of power.”
“Congressional staff serve their country,” Mace added. “They should never have to endure predatory behavior from the people they work for. Congressman Gonzales must address these allegations and resign.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) called for Gonzales to step down immediately. She also tagged the National Republican Congressional Committee in a tweet with a directive to fund the campaign of Brandon Herrera, one of Gonzales’s challengers in the GOP primary for Texas’s 23rd district.
The House Freedom Caucus’s campaign arm also capitalized on Gonzales’s troubles, endorsing Herrera Monday afternoon. Don’t mistake that for a real moral stand. The Freedom Caucus has plenty of degenerates and bad husbands in their club. But they are keen to back primary challenges to lawmakers they deem insufficiently MAGA, especially when those lawmakers enjoy the backing of House leadership.
Asked by CNN on Tuesday whether he would step down, Gonzales said, “I am not gonna resign. I work every day for the people of Texas.”
“What you’ve seen is not all the facts,” he added.
For now, Gonzales does not feel obligated to step down, and Republican leadership continues to refrain from asking him to do so. This is not just because of the math of the current House majority. It is also a result of the party’s moral decay. In the past, even thin majorities with tough votes ahead have proven capable of ridding themselves of scumbags and criminals when their wrongdoing came to light. Past speakers, including Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, and Kevin McCarthy,3 all dealt with colleagues who had sex scandals, and each pursued resignations and investigations as appropriate. Johnson appears to have laid down that torch.
Bullying works
It’s been well documented here at Press Pass that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has a problem with the computer. He seems to consume an endless amount of online swill while compulsively posting weird, dishonest, or downright cruel takes on whatever catches his attention in his feed. But over the weekend, there was an unexpected development in the Sen. iPad Kid file: Lee seemed to show regret over one of his posts.
Amid the news that cartel members across Mexico went on a murderous rampage in retaliation for a military operation that killed their leader, Lee found a bizarre way to make the conversation about the domestic policy preferences of American Democrats:
I don’t think he thought this one through before posting. It’s almost as though he is criticizing Dems for not behaving the way they might in a political cartoon by Ben Garrison.
Lee’s Democratic colleagues started windmill-dunking on him in the quote-tweets.
“Oh dear Mike. I literally couldn’t make our argument better than you do,” wrote Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn). “The bad guys wear masks. The good guys don’t.”
“Mike, I would like ICE to have the same standards as a local police department, not cartel hitmen,” added Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
Lee ultimately deleted the post. Is he learning something at last? Probably not. But isn’t it nice to think so?
A joint session of Congress, as is held for the State of the Union address, is not to be confused with a joint meeting of Congress; they’re technically different, even if they amount to the same thing. And by tradition, most presidents’ first speeches before Congress after their inaugurations are treated as joint meetings and not counted as State of the Union addresses.
One of those defections is often Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has proven to be the Republican least afraid of the political consequences of angering Trump and the House Republican leadership.
Ryan demanded that Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) resign for attempting to impregnate a staffer. Pelosi said Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) staying in Congress became “untenable” after a sex scandal involving a Capitol Hill staffer. Kevin McCarthy famously lost his speakership in large part because he didn’t quash an ethics investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who retaliated with a motion to vacate.
“Regardless of these differences, Johnson didn’t believe either lawmaker’s scandal warranted a clear condemnation.”
At least Johnson’s consistent; he truly exemplifies the meaning of being a true Christian; gods love and forgiveness!
Especially, if you happen to be a pedophile in good standing in the Republican Party or are a coconspirator in one of the largest criminal crime enterprises ever to exist! Just saying!…:)
Any chance the Dems will walk, if Donny Two-Dolls starts in with a racist/sexist/pro-fascism/lectern-pounding tirade? There's been talk of them not showing at all, but walking out mid-Mussolini-rant would show they're not afraid of him.