Anthony Gonzalez, a retiring GOP congressman from Ohio, is among several Republicans who warn that if former President Donald Trump attempts to run for president again in 2024, He may “just try to steal it” if he doesn’t win legitimately.
Gonzalez spoke with Jake Tapper as part of a CNN documentary special that aired Friday night titled “Trumping Democracy: An American Coup,” and he did not mince words about how shocked he was by the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
“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,” Gonzalez told CNN. “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.”
He continued: “I think it’s all pushing towards one of two outcomes: He either wins legitimately, which he may do, or if he loses again, you just try to steal it.”
Gonzalez was not alone in speaking out against fears for what Trump could do in 2024 if given the chance. Tapper also spoke with one of Trump’s former communications director Alyssa Farah, who called a Trump victory in the next election a “nightmare scenario,” and with Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican representative and the daughter of the former vice president who was pushed out from GOP leadership for her criticism of Trump.
As for Gonzalez, he’s one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 attacks, and he’s also a Cuban American who was a football star at Ohio State and even played for several years in the NFL. He said the reason Trump wasn’t successful in overturning the 2020 election results is because there were enough election officials who held firm, but that may not be true the next time if they’re replaced by people who are “more beholden to him than their oath.”
“As much as I despise almost every policy of the Biden administration, the country can survive a bad policy. The country can’t survive a torching of the Constitution. That’s the one thing the country can’t survive,” Gonzalez added.
Trump has yet to formally announce plans to run for re-election in 2024, but he’s held rallies and has even teased a campaign slogan when appearing in Iowa last month.
Tapper appeared on CNN throughout the day Friday to promote the documentary and explain why politicians and the media should take some of Trump’s actions today seriously.
“This wasn’t just about January 6. This was a months long process of Donald Trump trying to flip the results of the election because he did not like them. Because he lost. It was a very methodical approach to trying to overturn the election. January 6 was just the most visible shocking part of it,” Tapper said Friday. “The warning is, Donald Trump is going to try and do it again. And this time, he might be successful.”
“Trumping Democracy: An American Coup” will re-air on CNN on Saturday. See more from Gonzalez’s interview here.