Welcome to Texas Talk.

I'm Gilbert Garcia, metro columnist with the San Antonio Express-News.

On this show, we bring you in-depth one on one conversations with some of the most fascinating figures in Texas politics, business, sports and culture.

Congressional districts don't get any more sprawling than the one represented by tonight's guest.

District 23 Covers more than 800 miles of US-Mexico border territory and stretches across 29 counties from San Antonio to El Paso.

Tony Gonzales has tirelessly traveled across district during his two successful congressional campaigns.

The 20 year Navy veteran is a loyal Republican who has nonetheless shown a willingness to join forces with Democrats on issues such as gun safety and same sex marriage.

On tonight's show, Gonzales talks about the Uvalde School shooting, immigration reform and what he and his fellow Republicans plan to do with their newly acquired House majority.

Let's get started.

Congressman, thanks for being in Texas Talk.

Yeah, happy to.

Happy to be here.

Thanks for having me.

Well, we're a little more than a month past the midterm elections.

It was a great midterm for you.

You won by 17 points in a district that has long been seen as like a swing district in Texas.

And your fellow Republicans did continue their domination in the state.

On a national level, it was a disappointing cycle, I think, for Republicans.

You had I think there was a lot of thought because Joe Biden's poll numbers were low and president's the party of the president generally does not do that well in midterms, that there would be a red wave election.

Republicans are gaining nine seats in the U.S. House, a lost one seat in the Senate and two governor seats.

What happened there with on the national level?

Yeah, I think a lot of it starts with candidates.

Candidate quality.

That's important.

The messenger matters.

Certainly in my district and I was really, really proud and excited to have won by 17 points.

I mean, no one would have would have guessed that, especially last term when I was running for the first time to see, you know, having taken this seat from a marginal seat, 2 to 17 points and then nationally.

I would I would argue House Republicans did amazing.

You know, having won the House only the fourth time, I think in history that we won the House is great.

There's a lot of wonderful camp.

New, new members elect their candidates.

Now, members alike.

Once a salon in Arizona is going to be wonderful.

Lorie Chavez, a mayor out of Oregon, is going to be wonderful.

Now, when you start talking about the Senate, it's a completely different beast.

What's kind of funny is in the Capitol, you know, you've got the House on one side, you've got the Capitol, and then you've got the Senate on the other side.

Those might as well be two different planets.

No one rarely goes to the Senate side.

The House members rarely go to the Senate side.

Senate members rarely come to the House side.

And that's kind of where the politics are, too.

So, I mean, clearly, House Senate Republicans came up short there.

I think there's there's a little soul searching that needs to happen.

It seemed to me that on the national level that the Republicans who underperform tended to be candidates who were maybe pushing the Donald Trump message that the 2020 election events only had.

Kerry Lake in Arizona.

Doug Mastriano Mastriano in Pennsylvania.

Was that your sense that some of that pushing that message?

Because I think the ones who were generally successful and you're in this category, you all were talking about that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's it was really easy to fall into this trap where you had all these different issues with the Biden administration and what do you choose?

I think the people that went away from the economy failed miserably because the economy is still relevant today as far as inflation.

I think this week we're going to see the Fed increase the interest rate a little bit.

So that was one.

And then and then the issues that are important to you locally.

Like in my district, the border is very important.

I represent 823 miles of it.

Actually just got back from a trip to Monterrey and where I met with the mayor and the mayor there.

America Local is likely will be a presidential candidate for Mexico in 2024.

So it's these kind of things of understanding the district you're running in other than just playing, you know, soundbites that, you know, some some all consultants in in D.C. is putting together for you.

You mentioned the border.

And really, since I first became aware of you as a candidate, 2019, you talked about immigration reform, border security.

Over the past week, we've learned about a collaboration between Senators Kirsten Cinema from Arizona and Arizona, Democrat who has now declared herself an independent.

Yes.

And Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina.

And they've got a blueprint for an immigration reform plan, as I understand it.

It includes a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, more funding for border security, and continuation of Title 42, which was the public health order that Donald Trump put into place to basically during the COVID to prevent migrants from coming across.

What do you make of what you've heard so.

Far this week?

We're we're really close.

Title 42 goes away on December 21st.

So we're there.

And you're already seeing the pressures that are happening in El Paso this week.

I mean, it's record numbers.

I was speaking to the Border Patrol chief the other day and he told me has 5000 people in in detention.

I mean, these are historic numbers.

So the reality is, on the border, it's still very chaotic.

Eagle Pass, very similar.

Those things have not stopped.

Now, when you look at this framework, though, it's and this happens all the time, if you go too fast and especially if you become public about it, everybody will shoot holes in it.

It's the easiest thing to do.

So.

Well, I mean, one of the things that I've tried to do and that I have done is work with senators, cinema and others that are interested in this space to come up with something that is realistic and ultimately can get passed because it's so easy.

Everyone can can create a plan all day long.

It's can you get this plan through the gantlet and signed into law?

That's where I've tried to take a different approach to go.

You know, not let's not just put it on paper.

Let's go to work on it.

And I think this Tillis Cinema plan is in its infancy stages and has a long way to go before it gets.

One of the things that that when I talk with you about asylum seekers, you've talked about processing them faster, having them return to their country of origin.

How do you differentiate between cases?

I mean, there are some cases that are probably that are more valid than others.

And when you have when you have this, I think many people, your party I think the thing that they complain about a lot is people coming in seeking asylum.

And then they're they stay in the country while they're waiting for their case through a process.

Or are there cases like where you think that is an appropriate step for people to be able to stay in the country while their their case is processed?

There are absolutely legitimate asylum places that are that are being that that are taking place.

The whole system is broken, though.

I mean, completely.

It doesn't even exist.

I won't say it's broken.

It doesn't exist.

And so because of that, you've got legitimate asylum seekers, asylum claims seekers, that they get rolled up into all the illegitimate ones.

And that's completely broken, too.

What's interesting is there is there's a way to solve this.

And part of it includes Mexico.

A large part of this includes Mexico.

I mentioned I mentioned I just came from Monterrey.

And guess what Monterrey is?

It's larger than Los Angeles.

So here we are in San Antonio.

Monterrey is five hour drive.

It's an hour flight away.

And it's larger than Los Angeles.

6 million people live in this Illinois, in the state, in this city alone.

They are dying for workers.

So there's a way to solve all this.

Not most people that want to come with it are coming to the United States, are looking for one thing, a an opportunity.

They're not looking to be American citizens.

They're looking for an opportunity.

America just happens to be that opportunity.

Well, guess what?

There are other opportunities along that track as well.

Mexico can be a partner.

These are things that it's frustrating to me.

Is is a lot of politicians don't want to take the time to visit, to create relationships and have a plan that makes sense for everybody.

A strong Mexico is a strong the United States and vice versa.

Instead, it's much easier, especially politically, to get up and blame the other side for open borders on one end or being racist or prejudice on the other.

And the reality is it's completely broken.

We need to come up with something that makes sense.

And I've got some ideas.

I'm looking for other partners, too.

As we talked about, Republicans are going to have a majority in the U.S. House for the first time in four years.

Apart from immigration, what do you see as the big priorities in 2023?

Energy.

Energy independence.

You're going to see that quite a bit.

And this is a large part of my trip to was.

Right now we are exporting Texas is exporting natural gas to Mexico.

The city, Monterrey, 6 million people over half of its natural energy is getting is getting is coming from Texas natural gas.

I think that is that is that is the story.

How do we export some of this and Texas natural gas is clean, clean energy.

So I think this is an opportunity there.

I think you're going to see Republicans really lean in on energy independence.

And I think you can do it in a manner that that moves the ball forward on it, too.

So energy independence comes to mind, certainly.

I mean, I think on day one, you're going to see us repeal the 87,000 IRS agents.

That's something that's that's been talked about quite a bit, too.

I don't think anybody wants to see abuses from the IRS, you know.

But at the same time, if we can have a tax system, we it needs to be enforced.

And people are I don't think anybody wants to see people cheating or getting out or if someone if you're paying your taxes and you and other people are cheating.

I don't think anybody likes that idea.

What what is the problem with having so many people working the IRS in just in just dealing with processing the income tax cases?

Yeah, I represent to about 800,000 people.

And everywhere I go, not one person has ever said, Hey, Tony, can you add more IRS agents to the equation?

I'd love for the IRS to audit me or whatever.

I mean, that is not the equation.

So I think this is where, you know, the administration is answering problems that don't exist.

So it's unnecessary in a lot of ways.

I also say this to the American public right now are very distrustful of government.

They just are.

And it is getting worse and worse.

You can add social media to the equation.

You can add all these different things.

But but the government itself has to it doesn't need to grow.

It needs to answer to some of these different things.

So no one's asking for 87,000 new IRS agents.

A lot of times they use this as numbers to try to sell something else.

One of the questions that that that is has come up in recent weeks is the vote for the speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who's been the minority leader in the House, seem like the obvious choice.

But there have been some in your party who have been resistant to voting for him.

What is your prediction for how that's going to turn out?

Yeah, I think on January 3rd, Kevin McCarthy is going to be the new speaker of the House.

And he's pretty clear.

I mean, politics, especially D.C. politics.

And you got to be it's all a show.

It's all, you know, who can who can yell the loudest and get on TV and and ultimately, you know, get pulled aside to be part of a negotiation?

Like, what do you need?

Oh, I need a parking spot.

I mean, you never know what craziness it is.

A lot of times it's just about a show to kind of pump their chest on it.

It's going to be Kevin McCarthy.

I mean, how long how many ballots we go?

I think that to be part of the show as well.

But at the end of the day, you know, for 18 months, House Republicans have talked about this commitment to America, you know, built by Kevin McCarthy.

And we have to deliver for the American public.

If we can't, you know, why give us a gavels.

One of the things that we've heard the Republicans talk about, some Republicans are about is use of investigatory powers now that Republicans will be in the majority.

And this is something that kind of baffles me.

And I'm kind of curious to get your take on it.

The there's talk about investigating Hunter Biden, the son of the president, and, you know, this is someone who he certainly has had a lot of problems in his life and a lot of bad behavior.

But he's a private citizen.

He's not involved in the administration in policy, and he's not involved in the president's political team in any way.

Is it really the best use given some of the challenges we have?

You've talked about the border.

You've talked about inflation, other things.

Is it really the best use of Congress time or congressional committees time to be investigating a private citizen like this?

You know, I think what we've seen is a great example is Twitter.

You know, here here you had Twitter, which is predominantly used and promoted by liberals that had liberal philosophies.

And a bit of debate about it over the history of it as far as which party has benefited.

But yeah.

I would just say liberals really pushed it and now Elon Musk takes it and all of a sudden it's a bad thing.

What I'm getting at is you see these cycles that kind of come and gone, you know, it's okay to investigate this, but it's not okay to investigate that.

It's okay.

I mean, it just to me, I look at it and the American public elected House Republicans to deliver.

Why?

Economy going back to the economy.

The cost of goods issue is too high.

You know, it's it's difficult.

The supply chain is hurting folks, employment, finding workers, these different things.

Securing the border.

So do you think there is benefit or there's a valid reason to investigate Hunter Biden?

I do.

I mean, I do.

I think there's a lot of different questions.

What questions do you have?

I mean, you start looking at some of the different dealings, some of these different relationships that happened.

I mean, it's sort of the president, you know, so there's not as if he's a yes.

He's a private citizen.

But a lot of times these people use their political influence to get stuff.

Look, I don't want to I don't want House Republicans to go down this rabbit hole.

It's all we're doing is investigating X, Y or Z.

It's very easy to do.

Sorry to interrupt you.

But, you know, we had the former president and his daughter actually worked in the administration.

And there were I don't think there really we didn't see that kind of investigation into into her.

Her son in law was certainly very involved with.

But in business with foreign countries as well as in foreign policy.

I again, I struggle to see it.

I understand that Hunter Biden is, you know, somebody who is you know, he's had a lot of a lot of issues in his life.

I don't really see how that's a big public concern right now.

I that's something I struggle with, understand?

Yeah.

I mean, I look at it and I go, at the end of the day, what do the American public wants?

And you can't you can't get away from the Hunter Biden story as much as you want to.

I mean, it is just constantly there.

And so I think for a lot of a lot of people on the Oversight Committee is they're very tempted to go down this route and go, hey, I'm getting a lot of questions on this.

Let's figure out what the truth is.

I look at it as meanwhile, back at the ranch, there are serious problems, border being one of them.

And it's a way to solve it where you you can have both border security and this immigration reform package.

That makes sense.

But I mean, the trade and commerce between between the two countries.

Well, one thing you talked about inflation, which is a huge issue.

It's the highest rates inflation we've seen in four decades.

And I think one of the arguments that you and other Republicans have made is that Joe Biden, the Democrats, with the all the stimulus money they pumped into the economy, had an inflationary effect.

Now, 2020, when Trump as president, he signed into law two stimulus bills, the CARES Act early 2020, which was about 2 trillion.

And then at the end of the year, there was a stimulus that was about $900 billion.

Do you think those stimulus packages also had an inflationary effect?

I think the spending is out of control and I think the spending has been out of control for a long time.

It didn't just start, but it certainly this has been spending on steroids.

I mean, I'll tell you, Gilbert, no one ever comes to my office and goes, Hey, Tony, can I have less money this year?

Hey, Tony, I can.

You know, I don't can we have less appropriations?

Everyone is always asking for more money, including the city of San Antonio, you know, through the Cares Act and other things, deliver some money.

Where do you.

See areas that because because we always hear about you know certain social programs on the Republican side, maybe some some thoughts about making cuts there.

Are there specific areas where you see the potential for cuts?

Yeah, all of the above.

I think every single department in the United States is overinflated, every single one to include Department of Defense.

And, you know, I'm a I'm a 20 year military guy.

There is waste and abuse in the Department of Defense, just like there's waste and abuse in the Department of Education and all these other things.

The problem is, nobody wants to have that conversation.

No one wants to sit there and go, wait a second, I have to cut back.

The debate is always, we will give you more in defense if you give us more and, you know, domestic social programs.

That's always a debate.

It's never will.

You will give you less in defense and you will get less in that.

What I'm getting at is at some point you've got to have responsible leaders that can be able to go what is our money delivering?

That's what I look at is not how much money you're doing.

What do you do with that money?

I'll give you example.

We're about to.

We're about to pass this omnibus.

I fully expect we get an omnibus going to be ugly, but we'll get this omnibus over the finish line before the end of the year.

In that omnibus is five in that is $5.4 million for new communication radios for New Valley and the surrounding area.

To me, that is something tangible that's real, that the people there ask for, want and need.

So, I mean, you've got to look at and go, what is my money?

What is our money?

Is taxpayers delivering?

And it can't just be adding more and more and more.

It also can't be cutting something that you don't necessarily agree with.

That's what often happens.

Use it politically as a political and.

You mentioned you've all the you represent Nevada.

Obviously they had a horrible, devastating tragedy this year, a mass shooting at Rob Elementary, 19 children and two teachers killed.

When you look at when you talk to people there and you mentioned the radios, what are the biggest needs that you're hearing from people at this point?

I mean, it's a variety of things.

The biggest need, though, is is really to be just heel and left, be left alone to heel.

I mean, it's this wound that folks keep poking at for different reasons, political reasons.

Oftentimes, I'm looking at it and I'm trying to say I've worked really hard to stay above the politics and just deliver in a real, tangible way.

$2 million for this new mental health hospital.

I've been pushing for that for for over a year and a half now.

We got to get that over the finish line.

These radios, those are tangible things that people need if there's an emergency.

I mean, does it make sense to me that you have police on one radio, fire on another, EMTs on another, you know, sheriffs on another, border patrol and another.

These are fundamental things.

If you can't communicate, you can't you know, you can't respond to it to an incident.

And so I'm really, really excited, really proud about about working and delivering that hopefully here in the next week or so.

But these are the type of things.

The other thing, too, is this immigration issue, Title 42 goes away in December 21st.

Guess what's going to happen?

The mayor's already called me.

Border Patrol's already told me that on that day, the Border Patrol is going to be dropping off hundreds of migrants at the stripes.

Seen this play get ran over and over.

How does that impact?

You already have a city with a powder keg.

And how are you going to infuse a lot of folks that are in need?

Guess what's going to happen that is only going to make its way to San Antonio.

So remember when you saw the the the lots of migrants at the at the airport, they called all these complaints.

What I'm getting at is this is where something where politicians should come together and get ahead of a problem.

You can see it coming a mile away.

Instead of blaming each other and and just waiting for the problem to come.

After anybody shooting.

You voted for supported the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which made a major investment in mental health funding.

It also expanded the, I guess, the background checks for those under 21 and provided some funding for states that might choose to to create red flag laws.

Obviously, there are people who have asked for more to be done on gun reform.

Is there anything that you're willing to consider?

I know that you talked about in your strong support for the Second Amendment, is there anything that you you're open to considering?

You know, Gilbert, I served 20 years in the military.

I love this country.

And one of the proudest things that I have is I have a voting card is my voting card.

And, you know, with this card, it gives me a seat at the table and carrying it around.

I take it very serious.

And I'm only one of 435 members, but I'm one of 435 members.

And it's my job to make sure that we don't just talk.

I'm not for a politician.

I've been in office two years.

It's delivering for people.

And I'm very proud of the safest community act.

It's a real, tangible piece of legislation that that changes things.

I'll give an example and I'll get to your question is I'll give you an example.

As you know, part of part of that legislation was to increase background checks for minors.

Everyone will tell you there's no way that that individual should have got a hold of that firearm, not because he was 18, because he was mentally unstable.

This safer community act now passed into law, has prevented about a dozen or so minors that should not should not have gotten a firearm very similar to the individual your valley.

That's already that's in six months.

It's prevented a dozen people from doing what I tell you that because I tell you it's working.

Now, to me, I don't think that's enough.

We have to do more, right?

Our kids have to be safe at a minimum.

Our kids have to be safe, whether it's school, church, you know, anywhere.

They need to be safe.

Part of it is coming together and figuring out what can pass.

I'll tell you right now.

Assault weapons ban has a 0% chance of passing.

Last week, the House passed and President Biden will be signing the Respect for Marriage Act, which enshrined protections for same sex and interracial marriage.

You were one of only 39 House Republicans to vote for it.

I believe you're the only Texas Republican.

Yes.

To vote for it.

Can you talk a little bit about your thought process in supporting that bill?

Yeah.

One, it's never fun to be on an island by yourself.

But two, I've never been afraid to be on an island by myself.

I always, you know, my job is represent my district, the state and the country and do these different things and and do it's what I feel is right.

And to me, the safer I mean, the to me the respect the Marriage Act made a lot of sense and, you know, it only got better.

I voted for it the first time it went in the Senate and the Senate improved some religious aspects on it that had a lot of a lot of the religious community had some some issues with, and they added some of these on it.

So it only got better.

So I was a little disappointed to see it go from 47 to 39.

But, you know, my vote stayed the same.

I think the biggest thing is I the way I tell folks is imagine you have a couple that gets married, a gay couple or a get gets married in California.

And they've been together 40 years and they're going to Florida for vacation, for their honeymoon, and they're traveling through Texas and they get in a car accident.

And, you know, that's that partner.

And they've been known each other 40 years, you know, isn't allowed in the ICU.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

And let's say it passes away.

You're not allowed death benefits and some of these other government issue things just doesn't make any sense to me.

So I think we're all be on that.

We have a little bit of time.

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your your early days.

I remember when you the person that you're running tonight and we talked a little bit about this, as you said, you were in the Navy for 20 years.

You enlisted at a really young age.

And when I first met you when we first talked, you said that, you know, you'd kind of as a teenager, you kind of lost your way.

And my memory is that you said the Navy kind of saved you, kind of gave you direction.

And you were I think you said you dropped out of Edison High School just before graduating.

And you've gone on to, you know, gotten a lot of education since then.

Can you talk about what you were going through at that time and how the military experience turned that around for you?

Yeah, I've looked, Gilbert.

I've lived on my own since I was 15 years old.

And that's tough.

And but I had to grow up real fast.

I also had to deliver fast, you know, pay bills.

I had rent.

I had I had food, a car payment, all these.

Your father was was not able to.

No, I've maybe see my father four or five times in my life, and he's just never part of my life.

So at a young age, here I am living on my own.

And I always knew education was my ticket out, if you will, my ticket to a different opportunity.

So, you know, I make my way through high school.

I drop out.

I'm actually a half credit away from graduating.

I mean, literally a half credit away.

You're there.

You're there.

But my grandfather passes away.

Life just it's me like a two by four.

And and I go down this spiral and drop in.

I dropped out of Edison.

I'm working at this glass factory.

You know, I'm just.

Just not really going anywhere fast.

And it was a moment, you know, I'm religious.

I have six children.

All my children are biblical names.

And there was a moment where God kind of intervened, if you will, and the foreman pulls me aside and goes, Tony, I know why they're all here.

I'm working with conviction.

It's third shift.

And, you know, it's just it's just it's kind of difficult.

But he goes, Why are you here?

You need to do something else.

And I go home that night and, you know, fast forward, I joined the Navy.

I get my high school diploma while I'm in the Navy.

And I was I was halfway doing my Ph.D. before before getting elected.

I need to finish that.

Actually, my wife.

And and that's how I knew you were close.

Well, my wife and I were talking about that the other night, actually.

My daughter and I were talking about my daughter.

Great.

My daughter graduates from UTSA here here soon and very proud of her.

And she goes, When are you going to go back to school?

And so that's something we need to work on.

I say that to go then, no matter where you start in life.

Gilbert we live in the greatest country on earth.

People forget that there's all this division, but we live in the greatest country on earth.

We have more in common than we don't.

We need to come together and solve some of these problems.

So I think results.

Thanks for being Texas Talk.

I really appreciate it.

Thanks, Gilbert.

That's all for this edition of Texas Talk.

Thanks for tuning in.

Feel free to share your thoughts with us at Texas.

Talk at KLRN.org We'll be back next month with a new guest.

Until then, take care.