A Texas Republican struggled to string full sentences together after being asked whether the president “needs to apologize” for sharing a racist video of the Obamas.
Rep. Tony Gonzales stammered on Face the Nation Sunday as he attempted to answer moderator Margaret Brennan’s question on whether President Donald Trump should say sorry for posting a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes on Truth Social.
“There’s... uhh... It’s up to the president. There’s no room in this country for racism, antisemitism, socialism. All the ‘isms’ need to go,” Gonzales, 45, told Brennan.
“And you think it was that?” Brennan, 45, asked, referring to Gonzales’s reference to racism. The video, posted late on Thursday night, was removed from Trump’s Truth Social account after 12 hours and intense backlash from both sides of the aisle.
Gonzales seemed uncomfortable once again, and ground out: “Uh, at the end absol—I mean I think it was very—uhhh, it was very upsetting to a lot of people."
The congressman then attempted to pivot.
“What the—part of the—no one is talking about that video is about election integrity. And so the bulk of it was on election integrity, which is a very important topic,” Gonzales added, diverting attention to the 2020 voter fraud claims made in the vile video.
While Gonzales attempted to lay out plans to make “sure our midterm elections are safe and secure,” Brennan brought the discussion back to the racist element of the clip shared on Trump’s personal social media account.
“I know the president claimed the video was credible, also claimed he had watched it but not seen that part of it with the racist—” she began, before Gonzales interrupted to exclaim: “It was at the very end! It was at the very end for one second. It was really weird!”
“The president of the United States and his staff, wouldn’t you expect that they actually look at what they do before they do it?” Brennan asked.
Gonzales reasoned: “The president of the United States should not be worrying about all the people that are upset with him.”
“If he’s doing that, he’s not keeping our country safe,” Gonzales continued. “I did appreciate them taking it down, I did appreciate him saying, ‘Hey, look, you know, that shouldn’t have been on there.’”
“Should the staff who allegedly did it be fired?” Brennan then asked, further questioning: “Should there be consequences for something like that? Do you think that video is actually credible?”
Gonzales refused to give an opinion on the matter, opting to bat the question away. He instead attempted to divert the conversation to a Democrat cursing about Trump in response to the post.
“The president can make that decision. Look, we just had Hakeem Jeffries get up there and say the F-word to the president. I mean, the direction our politics is going is not the right way,” he said.
Gonzales fought to stay firmly on the fence during Brennan’s questioning, but other Republicans have been more vocal in their disdain for the video.
While MAGA mouthpiece Karoline Leavitt complained of “fake outrage,” Black Republican Senator Tim Scott described the post as “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” New York GOP rep Mike Lawler similarly said that it was “wrong and incredibly offensive,” and stated that there should be an “apology offered.”
