WASHINGTON — In the two weeks since ten Republicans joined House Democrats in impeaching former President Donald Trump, two have been outspoken on their votes Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) who penned an op-ed Tuesday for the Washington Post and Wyoming’s Liz Cheney. Northeast Ohio Congressman Anthony Gonzalez has been quiet in comparison but spoke at length in a recent podcast with the conservative media outlet The Dispatch.
In the hour-long conversation with The Dispatch in a podcast titled "One of Ten," Gonzalez spoke of being one of 10 Republican Members of Congress to vote for impeachment.
He said he had issues with Trump's actions leading up to January 6, as well as the speech he gave that day but the thing that put him over the top was the president's inaction in the time between the Capitol first being stormed and the National Guard ultimately being called.
“The reality is the Congress and the vice president were under attack by a mob and the president didn't step up in my opinion in nearly the right way to calm it down, to stop it,” Gonzalez told the hosts.
“You know I think I'd probably be a no if he had seen all of this and immediately said 'hey cut this out, here comes the National Guard, we're done, this isn't what I wanted' but instead we had multiple hours go by and the first tweet that went out was actually attacking the vice president while the Capitol was under siege.
“It's frankly the last thing on earth I wanted to do because I celebrated a lot of the policy wins that the president had over the last four years and I think his policies, I said this a million times, I think his policies are spot-on for Northeast Ohio which is where I'm privileged to represent but when you look at the totality of the actions I believe it tipped the scale to impeachable and it's the last thing on earth I wanted to do but I felt like it had to be done,” he said.
Monday the Strongsville GOP passed a resolution calling for the resignation of Gonzalez. He was asked if he considered the political ramifications of his vote and said he did but that's what a representative should do in a matter like this.
“You have to love your country and you have to adhere to your oath more strongly than you do your job and you know I don't know what political fate will play out,” he said. “If my fate is ultimately that I don't get to come back, I will do that at peace.”
“Now there's some personal safety issues that have come up that are less exciting to deal with and frankly we're still trying to navigate that as a family but in terms of the political consequences they are what they are and we'll manage them as they come up.”
Gonzalez said he believes there is a void of principled leadership in the country that can be filled provided our leaders do a handful of things.
"One of which is to simply stop lying to people, it's a very simple concept,” he said. "Sometimes they're not going to like the truth ok that's fine but we have to start there because I don't know how to govern in a world where we believe things that aren't real."
