Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) speaks to Jake Tapper in a new CNN documentary, “Trumping Democracy: An American Coup,” out on Friday and warns that former President Donald Trump is likely to try to steal the 2024 presidential election.
“I think it’s all pushing towards one of two outcomes: He [Trump] either wins legitimately, which he may do, or if he loses again, you just try to steal it,” Gonzalez, assuming Trump runs again, told CNN.
Tapper joined CNN’s New Day on Friday to promote the documentary, mentioning that Gonzalez “hasn’t done any TV interviews to talk about this yet.” Tapper also explained that “the documentary is about the entire campaign, months-long campaign [to overturn the election], and we only interviewed journalists and Republican officials.”
Gonzalez, a former NFL player with an MBA from Stanford, was one of only ten Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Gonzalez, under an avalanche of attacks from Trump and his followers — including facing a Trump-backed primary challenger — decided not to seek reelection in 2022.
Discussing the impeachment vote, which put the conservative Congressman on the outs with his party, Gonzalez said:
January 6 was an unconstitutional attempt led by the President of the United States to overturn an American election and reinstall himself in power illegitimately. That’s fallen nation territory, that’s third world country
territory. My family left Cuba to avoid that fate. I will not let it happen here.
Tapper also interviewed former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah, who described Trump getting back into power as “the nightmare scenario.”
“You think he will try to impose some form of autocracy?” asked Tapper.
“I think that he absolutely would,” responded Farah. “There were things that he wanted to do when he was in power the first time that went well beyond the scope of what the U.S. President should be able to do, but oftentimes it was the hope of winning re-election that kept him from doing those things.”
Tapper followed up, “Can you give me an example?”
“Whether it’s weaponizing the Justice Department against political opponents, whether it’s, you know, going after the free press, he would certainly be open to using the military for political reasons as well,” Farah warned.