GOP Congressman Abruptly Pivots When Asked if Trump Should Apologize For Racist Post

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) made an abrupt pivot when asked Sunday whether President Donald Trump should apologize for the racist post that appeared on his social media account targeting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.

The video, posted late Thursday night, depicted the Obamas with their heads superimposed on the bodies of apes. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called out the racist trope for what it was, before the White House finally took it down some 12 hours later. Trump blamed a White House staffer for posting the offensive content.

Gonzales told Margaret Brennan with CBS News’s Face The Nation that it was “up to the president” to decide how to handle the fallout — after she asked “Do you think he needs to apologize?”

Gonzales added, “There’s no room in this country for racism, anti semitism, socialism — all the ‘isms’ need to go.”

“And you think it was that?” Brennan asked.

“I think it was very upsetting to a lot of people,” Gonzales managed before pivoting.”The part … no one’s talking about in that video, is about election integrity. And so the bulk of it was on election integrity, which is a very important topic. What I suspect is going to happen is the White House is going to, in the coming days, issue a memo on their their policy for this upcoming election, and I suspect the Director of National Intelligence is going to be at the center part of building that out and making sure our mid-term elections are safe and secure.”

Brennan tried to redirect the interview back to the video.

“Yeah, and I know the president claimed the video was credible. Also claimed he had watched it but then not seen that part of it with the race —”

“It was at the very end, it was at the very end for one second, it was really weird —” Gonzales interjected.

Brennan pressed on, saying, “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?”

“The president of the United States should not be worrying about all the people that are upset with him,” Gonzales declared. “If he’s doing that, he’s not keeping is safe.”

He added, “I did appreciate them taking it down. I did appreciate him saying ‘Hey, look, you know that should not have been on there.'”

Watch the clip above via CBS News’s Face The Nation.

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