It's been two years since
a horrific school shooting in Uvalde
for US Congressman
Tony Gonzalez's sprawling Texas district
into the National spotlight.
His vote for the bipartisan Gun
Safety Act,
a month
after the massacre, is now
at the center of his primary battle,
where on Tuesday,
he'll compete in a runoff
against gun activist Brandon Herrera.
But the race is more than just policy.
It's also about the vicious battle
for the Republican Party's identity
and the norm defying
trend of House
Republicans trying to oust
their own colleagues.
Herrera touts endorsement from Freedom
Caucus chairman Bob good
Florida hardliner Matt Gaetz.
I sat down with Congressman
Gonzalez ahead of his Tuesday election.
He says the outcome of his race
will send a message to his party.
There's a lot at stake for
the future of the Republican Party.
Are we going to be the party
that governs and gets things
done in a conservative manner?
Are we going to be the party
that has gestures
that come up here
and say wild and crazy, outrageous things
and just try to burn the place down?
That is what's at stake,
not only in this race,
but you see other races
across the country.
This is only the first of many, right,
because there are other primaries
going forward.
You know,
I plan to spend
a lot of time in Pensacola.
I spent
I plan to spend a lot of time in Virginia
and some of these other places.
So I think my race is only the beginning.
You're talking about Matt Gaetz and Bob.
Good going after that.
I'm talking about constituencies
that I think have been forgotten.
It's also the two year
anniversary of Uvalde.
Of course. This is your district, sir.
this is,
you were involved in the effort
to pass gun legislation
and the aftermath of it.
It's also one of the reasons
that's inspired
this primary challenge against you.
Do you regret that vote at all
in any way?
What I've learned is this
you can do
all the things that they want you to do,
and it will never be enough.
I will never bow down to these people.
I will always do what I think is right.
The Safer Community Act
has prevented over 500 school shootings
from occurring.
My kids go to school
with a bulletproof backpacks.
It's unfair.
They're growing up
in a completely different environment
that you and I grew up in.
Something has to change.
I don't regret any of my votes.
And there are clamoring for action.
Your constituents 1,000%.
I was getting calls from.
I was getting calls from people nonstop.
And this was
this was essentially the polls is.
Tony,
you have to do something,
but don't take my guns away.
It increased the number of
background checks for minors.
I'm okay with that.
I mean, crazy people want to.
Crazy people should not have access
to guns. Period.
Especially not to kill our children.
And one of the things
I've been looking at your ads is that you
criticize your opponent
for not support the former president
and not being sufficiently Trump.
How important
is that a driving issue in your race?
Some of these people
that are running throughout the country,
they're not MAGA folks.
Bob. Good. He's not a Maga guy.
That's supporting my opponent
and some other people.
They're not MAGA people, right?
They're basically libertarian
or anarchist,
or they just want to
see the place burned down.
You're not a Maga guy either.
I mean,
you voted to certify the election.
I'm a governing conservative.
That's how I view myself right?
I'm a governing conservative,
and I'm going to find ways to govern.
I voted against impeaching
President Trump twice.
I voted against Nancy Pelosi's,
January 6th commission.
I mean, I've been very conservative
in my votes, in my values.
Matt Gaetz and Bob, good.
You call them scumbags.
You still stand by that?
I think you more than anyone know the the
the type of people
that we are dealing
with here in Washington
and some of them are scumbags.
I mentioned a couple of them.
There's probably a laundry list of folks
you care to mention anymore.
Yes, yes I do, but not today.
now, I also reach out to Brandon
Herrera's campaign for comment.
They declined to make him available
for an interview.
My panel is back.
Bresnahan, you walk the halls with me
every day in the Capitol.
You're seeing this
Republican conference
devolve the way it has.
What do you make about this race?
The significance of Tuesday's race
with Tony Gonzalez in this fight
from the far from the hard right?
It's a great interview.
I think the interesting thing,
a couple of interesting things
good has is,
Bob good has his own primary challenger
because the exact same thing
except the opposite,
the opposite direction.
The moderates are attacking Bob.
Good. Who's attacking Gonzalez?
I think Texas is fascinating.
I think it's Alice has a good point here.
The Texas
Republican Party
is fighting over their platform,
and they're talking about, you know,
biblical instruction in schools.
They're talking about,
you know, just going
further and further to the right,
the party, they censured him.
One of the things they censured him for
was voting against the rules package.
I mean, that was like it was
I mean, if you read this inside, it's
so it's kind of crazy.
So now he has a huge monetary advantage.
But it is
this is the future of the party.
You have
these online
social media personalities
supporting him.
He's got Abbott supporting him.
Mike Johnson, speaker
Mike Johnson is supporting Gonzalez.
I mean, it's
kind of the establishment versus
the YouTube social media wing.
And it's just it's
really a fascinating fight. Yeah.
And it it's really just dominated
the discussion.
Inside the House Republican Conference.
I asked a bunch of members
last week about this runoff.
What do you say to just
Tony Gonzalez
insult against you calling you a scumbag?
I think that the primaries are
best decided on the issues.
Tony Gonzalez called
the tough border protections
that we were looking for.
unChristian people like Matt
go far
beyond the pale
and act in such a disgusting way that now
they're attacking members
because they have nothing better to do
because Gonzalez
deserved to be reelected.
He's made some comments
that I don't think
were particularly helpful
if Brendan Herrera beats
Tony Gonzalez next week,
but what would be the implications
be for the House GOP?
I don't see him
being a productive member of Congress,
and it'd be a an agent of chaos.
My voters send me up here
to try and change
the way this town works,
and I don't think
we're going to change it
with guys like Tony.
Mario, you cover the white House,
how do they enjoy it?
They must enjoy seeing this
Republican infighting play out
pretty much all year.
Last two years, absolute lutely right.
Because the white House,
his primary message
is essentially
that they can govern, right, that
they're the responsible
adults in the room,
and thus they should have control
of all three chambers as well.
Also,
the fact is, you get the
some of the fighting
between Democrats, right?
The progressive
wing of the Democratic Party
versus the centrist wing,
which has been on display
the last few months as well, particularly
along some of the protests.
So, yes,
they enjoy looking at this
and saying, hey, look at this chaos
that has been wrought
within the GOP and Trump,
of course, is trying to tamp
a lot of this down.
He is staying out of this primary.
He's getting involved
in some other ones as well.
I should note that
Bob good, who
the Virginia Republican, who he was,
Gonzalez called a scumbag.
I asked him to come,
and he called Gonzalez back
a rhino established moderate.
So there you go.
That's a level of back and forth.
But the debate is really over
tactics, right?
The GOP has been involved
in this ongoing feud about compromise
versus not compromise,
and how to govern
in a divided Washington.
Well, look, Republican
primaries are nothing new.
Republican on Republican
violence is nothing new.
We've been seeing,
these, you know, right
wing Republican challenges
play out in primaries
for more than a decade, if not longer.
what's really remarkable now,
and what is different
is the degree to which it is
all downstream
from these personal conflicts
within the House Republican caucus.
This is all downstream
from the ousting of Kevin McCarthy,
and his difficulty
becoming speaker in the first place
by that small, hard core of Matt Gates
led right wingers.
you know,
they're the ones who are involved
in all of these primaries,
and they're going after
their fellow members in some cases
in the same delegation.
It's very personal.
They're trying to kick each other
out of Congress as part of, again,
you know,
the the aftermath
of these personal conflicts
that they're having within the Capitol.
So it's less about policy
or tactics or anything else.
It's just
the personal conflicts between these men
who despise each other in the House
Republican Congress.
How do they
the reason why is also important.
How do you work with a guy
who you're sitting
on, sitting
next to, who's trying to
knock you out of your seat?
they they've found their way
to the Democratic Conference
from time to time.
But this is
the personal issues have made it worse.
This is going beyond that, though.
In Texas, the same day,
the speaker of the House has an opponent
who Donald Trump endorsed,
and both of these people,
I should say the Texas Republican Party,
we're talking about the convention.
One of the rules are talking about
is if you've been censured,
you can't run as a Republican
in the next election.
That would knock out Tony Gonzalez.
No matter what happens in here,
it would knock out
the speaker of the House in Texas.
The Minnesota publican party
just nominated Royce West for Senate.
He still needs to win a primary,
but really everywhere.
Even if you've not crossed Donald Trump,
you've not crossed Matt.
Matt Gates, this this attitude,
is only fixable
if you if you really don't trump,
you know, from the good race
good's problem is that he endorsed
Ron DeSantis for president
and he said all the same stuff
and endorsed Donald Trump.
This wouldn't be happening. Yes.
At the end of the day,
one thing matters Donald Trump.
So we'll see what he's managed
through the Republican primaries.
We'll see what happens on Tuesday.