Sara Pequeño: GOP ousts Gonzales for affair but lets Trump’s sexual abuse slide

A Republican U.S. representative dropped his re-election bid after revelations about a sexual relationship he had with a staffer, but the GOP still cannot address the real elephant in the room.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, announced on March 5 that he would not participate in a primary runoff for his seat after members of his own party, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, called on him to resign. It came a day after Gonzales admitted to having an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, his former aide.

While it’s good that Republicans are acting swiftly to condemn Gonzales’ actions, it’s astonishing that the party can take such decisive action while excusing the actions of President Donald Trump, who was found liable of sexual abuse and whose relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein is hardly being called into question by the party. The same man who once bragged about “grabbing women by the (genitals)” yet was elected by a party that claims to be about protecting women.

The same week after Gonzales paused his campaign, Trump was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in files released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of the Epstein probe. Yet there has been very little outrage over the president’s potential violent acts. I understand that the Republican Party is indebted to Trump, but the discrepancy is astounding.

I hope conservative women are taking note of this hypocrisy and not letting political fervor cloud their judgment. They deserve all sex pests to be kicked out of their party, not just the ones who are easy to dispose of.

Gonzales’ resignation occurred after reporting from the San Antonio Express-News led the House Ethics Committee to investigate the congressman. But the truth was revealed on a podcast, not in committee: On March 4, Gonzales told conservative radio host Joe Pagliarulo that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with Santos-Aviles.

According to recent reporting from the San Antonio Express-News, Gonzales sent sexually explicit texts to Santos-Aviles, at one point asking her for a “sexy pic.” During this exchange, she said multiple times that the conversation was going “too far.” Santos-Aviles died by suicide in September, telling officials at the time that it was because her husband was having an affair with her best friend.

Regardless of the possible coercive nature of their relationship, Gonzales’ actions violated House rules, which prohibit sexual relationships between elected officials and those who work for them. This led the House Ethics Committee to investigate Gonzales.

According to Politico, the Office of Congressional Conduct separately found that there was “a substantial reason to believe” Gonzales engaged in a sexual relationship with his staffer prior to his admittance.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who claims to champion sexual abuse survivors, even pushed the Ethics Committee to share all records of similar rules violations. The attempt was not successful, as members of both parties said doing so would keep survivors from speaking out.

Republicans came out of the woodwork to condemn Gonzales – and rightfully so. Mace called the texts “disgusting and inexcusable.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told reporters, “I’d expel him if I had the votes to do this tomorrow.”

Yet when it comes to Trump, the same Republicans have dodged rather than acknowledged the president’s possible complicity.

“There is nothing that we are seeing where there is criminal involvement or reason to believe that the president has any wrongdoing,” Luna said during the deposition of the Clintons in the Epstein investigation.

Mace recently told Politico that she considers Trump a “father figure.”

The mental gymnastics are stunning to witness.

I’m not in the business of deciding if someone’s acts are worse than another’s. I am, however, against hypocrisy. It is wild that the Republican Party can condemn any act of sexual indiscretion while still building its entire party around Trump and the MAGA movement.

If they really want to make a lasting statement on sexual violence, they should start with the man in the White House. I hope women within the GOP take note of this and call on their party to be better, or risk losing their support.

Follow USA Today columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social