Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told CBS News on Tuesday that Rep. Tony Gonzales should resign, after a set of newly revealed text messages drew fresh scrutiny to an alleged affair between the Texas Republican and a staffer who later died by suicide.
“If this was in a business, he would’ve been fired,” McCarthy, a California Republican, said on “The Takeout with Major Garrett.”
McCarthy pointed to a May 2024 text exchange between Gonzales and the staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, that was obtained by CBS News and other media outlets this week. In the exchange, Gonzales encouraged Santos-Aviles to send him a “sexy pic” and asked her sexual questions. She responded at one point: “This is going too far boss.”
Santos-Aviles died one day after setting herself on fire in September 2025. She was married with an 8-year-old son.
Asked by reporters about the texts on Tuesday, the congressman said he will not resign, adding, “What you’ve seen are not all the facts.” In the past, Gonzales has denied having an affair.
McCarthy said, “It’s devastating what has transpired here.”
“If you have this knowledge, how do you endorse him? If you didn’t know that knowledge and you do now, how do you stay quiet?” the former House speaker said.
Since the texts became public, several House Republicans have either urged Gonzales to resign or backed hard-right challenger Brandon Herrera in next week’s primary election.
McCarthy’s successor as GOP leader, House Speaker Mike Johnson, also called the allegations against Gonzales “detestable” in an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil. But he didn’t call for Gonzales’ resignation, saying, “We’re trying to sort it out,” and “what we do here is we allow all the facts to play out.”
McCarthy suggested to CBS News that leadership should take action.
“This is unacceptable,” McCarthy said. “This is where the leaders of the conference, we would have to step in. You step in in these situations to protect everybody else.”
