Republican Rep. slams hardliners in his own party: ‘The way you take care of a bully is you bloody their nose’

My panel joins me now. Nice to see you all. And we have a real, live, actual House Republican congressman here, Tony Gonzalez of Texas. So you voted yes on the foreign aid package. Do you have confidence that at this point, given that it is still possible that Marjorie Taylor Green will push to vacate to kick him out of the speaker’s chair, that he can survive? He will survive. Look, the house is a rough and rowdy place, but Mike Johnson is going to be just fine. I served 20 years in the military. It’s my absolute honor to be in Congress. But I served with some real scumbags. Look, Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties. Bob Good endorsed my opponent, a no neo Nazi. These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now they’re walking around with white hoods in the daytime. Look what didn’t surprise me that some of these folks voted against aid to Israel, but I was encouraged to see by a nearly 12:50 mark that Republicans supported our allies on the battlefield. Wow. OK, I should say that the federal government did look into Matt Gaetz and those allegations and they decided not to prosecute. I well, unlike Joe Biden’s poor Uncle Bosey, I think Mike Johnson’s going to avoid the cannibals in his own party here. He stood up to him this weekend and, and the adults retook control of the US Congress. And I think people got sick and tired. He’s one of them, of Marjorie Taylor Green being in charge of their life. And they just finally said no. And so I think and I hope that the Democrats will continue to stand with Mike Johnson here for a functional Congress. That strikes me. Johnson’s trying to, you know, there’s a wide middle in this country. He’s trying to drag our politics back into something, away from the dysfunctional fringe and back into this wide middle where Congress can function, parties can have disagreements, but we’re not in this constant turmoil because someone has a policy disagreement. We’re going to toss them out. It’s crazy and it needs to stop. I wish they had changed the rules. I know he’s not going to do it, but maybe he won’t have to. So I think he should absolutely get credit for taking a bold position here. I think he probably decided, you know what, this job isn’t worth having if I’m not actually doing something. And so, and I think it was impressive and I think the way he laid out a values driven argument for the aid money, particularly to Ukraine, was very impressive. And he clearly bucked the hard right of his party. I’m maybe a little less bullish on the idea that this represents a sea change and how Republicans are going to operate on the Hill. I think we’ve seen time and again that if it requires this level of, of, of political courage to get even sort of the most basic, ultimately bipartisan legislation done, that doesn’t bode well for the way Republicans are, are going to operate moving forward. It’s requiring people to take this kind of profile and courage moment is, is generally not the way you get things done. But it I would absolutely say Mike Johnson deserves credit for, for standing up. And if there is a vote, should Democrats back him? I think a lot of Democrats will look to keep him because the alternatives just really aren’t that great. I’m, you know, I’m old enough to remember when Republicans had what they called the hazard rule, right? But you needed to have the majority of the majority in order to pass an E bill. Now, it seems that if you want to govern in the country, you have to find a way to work with Democrats if you’re in the Republican Party because there aren’t enough Republicans who are willing to do the right thing on these big bills. Well, in part, but I would just say in part because Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, right? And so you have the hard, you have the hard right of the party. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no from Donald Trump. So until that dynamic, MM Johnson went to see Donald Trump. What, what did Donald Trump say about Ukraine? Their survival is important in the United States. He did not come out against Mike Johnson’s plan. I mean, I think the people who were against Congressman Johnson were sorely disappointed. I mean, I think Donald Trump wants to get to a place where he’s president again so he can can part of solving it can. Can I just bring you in on that because I have never heard. I mean, I’ve heard you say a lot of things. What you just said at the top of this discussion was intense. And is it your sense that, well, I’m just asked from your own opinion and own perspective, You’re you’re trying to put them in a box and put them in a corner. Members, members are tired. We’re exhausted. It has been a brutal Congress, but we’re also dug in. And, you know, for some reason, these fringe people think as if they have the high ground. They do not. I assure you, the rank and file members that normally are kind of easy going, you know, doing the right thing, put their head down. They vote yes or no, but they’re not public about it. Those days are over. The fight is here. And this whole pushing, you know, someone’s going to poke you in the chest the way you, the way you take hear about bully is you, you bloody their nose. And that’s where we’re at. We’re at a point where we’re just trying to govern. And and that’s what Mike Johnson has done govern in a in a, in a honorable way. You do not leave your allies on the battlefield to to bleed out. I know that because I served 20 years in the military and five years in Iraq and Afghanistan. The politics is pretty thick right now, but we have to stand up now more than ever. I think you’re seeing Republicans go, we want to govern, that’s a big deal. Thank you for standing up. Thank you for your service. And Russell, thank you for doing that. I think this we again, are at a point where the Republicans in the Congress can’t be trusted to do the things that are going to actually make the country go well without Democratic help. That says something about the Republican Party today that I think will matter in November when people go to vote. I mean, not to be Pollyanna, but isn’t that kind of the way it’s supposed to work? Mike Johnson said I’m gonna let the will of the House work. I’m gonna let it work its will, but I mean by will, that the will of the House was that Republicans and Democrats, just like they are in the country right now, came together and expressed a viewpoint on helping our allies and defeating these dictators and terrorists and thugs around the world. It worked the way it was supposed to work and it did it under a Republican speaker. 210 Democrats, 101 Republicans.