Surprised Republicans air frustration with Gonzales prediction of GOP losing House

Source: The Hill

09/07/24 6:00 AM ET


Rep. Tony Gonzales’s (R-Texas) pessimistic prediction that the House GOP conference will lose its majority in November is sparking frustrations among Republican lawmakers, while underscoring just how competitive the race for the lower chamber will be this fall. The surprise comments from Gonzales at the Texas Tribune Festival on Thursday drew widespread attention, breaking from the positive expectations other GOP lawmakers have publicly hammered home.

Privately, the remarks are making waves among House Republicans, who believe Gonzales’s surprise forecast is simply untrue, better kept to himself, and unproductive as rank-and-file members fight furiously to hang on to their edge in the chamber. “Entirely unnecessary and not at all what we feel on the ground,” one Republican who represents a district President Biden won in 2020 told The Hill.

A second Biden-district Republican echoed that sentiment — “I think he’s wrong” — before tearing into Gonzales for airing his reservations publicly. “Even if you believe that, it’s extremely unhelpful and counterproductive to the cause,” the GOP lawmaker wrote. “[T]he Members and seats that will decide the outcomes, are not going to be determined by the handful of folks who have undermined the majority. It’ll be determined by the members and the work they have done in their own district.”

“Well that’s a team player???” a third House Republican told The Hill in a text message. “Have you ever heard someone on a sports TEAM say that about their TEAM. Just disappointing.” The cynicism from Gonzales, a border-district Republican, is fueled in part by irritation with the chaos that has been the 118th Congress, which began with a drawn-out Speaker’s race, came close to allowing a default on U.S. debts, and experienced the first-ever successful move to oust the House Speaker.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4866671-republicans-frustration-tony-gonzales-house-prediction/

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The media playbook has been established where they must always characterize Democrats in the negative as "worried", "concerned", "frustrated", "distraught", and "fearful", while avoiding doing the same for the GOP. So capturing a very very rare story that flips their script is a score.

And with respect to the spectacular failure of the GOP House Leadership and the 118th Congress (House side) -



- they forgot to add the expulsion of one of their own who was indicted for being a fraudulent criminal, and eventually plead guilty to being just that.