MAGA Mike Shields Nasty TX Rep Who Harassed Aide Into Self-Immolation
A growing chorus of Republicans are calling on Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales to resign, after text messages surfaced showing him pressuring an aide who later died by suicide to send him sexually explicit photos of herself.
Yet Speaker Mike Johnson is protecting Gonzales, saying Gonzales deserves due process and thus won't make a determination on whether he should resign until an investigation plays out. It's transparently an effort by Johnson to ensure he doesn't lose a reliable GOP vote from his extremely narrow majority.
“It is 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 and all of that was news to me," Johnson told reporters on Monday. "But I … think as in every case like this, you have to allow the investigations to play out and all the facts to come out.”
Of course, there's little doubt that what Gonzales did was wrong.
Congressional ethics rules clearly state that members of Congress are not permitted to have sexual relationships with their staff.