As a 30-year veteran of the Marines who left with the rank of colonel, Leonard says he has the judgment and leadership to ably represent Rhode Islanders in the First Congressional District. But can he overcome the challenge of running as a Republican in a heavily Democratic district? What does Leonard think of the rightward direction of the GOP in Washington and Donald Trump’s attempt to recapture the White House? And what is this combat veteran’s view of the violent conflicts in Israel and Ukraine? I’m Ian Donnis and this week I’m going in depth with the Republican candidate in the First Congressional District, Gerry Leonard.
Ian Donnis: Voters in the first district will decide between you and Democrat Gabe Amo on November 7, what makes you the better candidate?
Gerry Leonard: I think it’s my experience. Absolutely believe it is my experience. I’ve served our country for 30 years, I’ve served in some of the highest places and developed some of the plans and implementing some of the plans that have protected our nation from our enemies and adversaries. I’ve met with foreign foreign leaders. I’ve worked with foreign leaders. I remember being in Afghanistan with Ashraf Ghani, to figure out how we can rebuild Afghanistan and at that time, we were making progress worked with the embassies over there, and around the globe, worked with USAID, a ton of experience. But most importantly, it was taking an oath. Every time I was promoted to support and defend our Constitution against enemies, all enemies foreign and domestic. And it was the leadership that came with it, real leadership.
Ian Donnis: There’s a new poll from the Pell Center at Salve Regina Yniversity that had some good news for you. It showed Amo leading you by 11 points, which is smaller than the number of undecided voters 15%. The not so good news for you, is that a generic Republican would probably get about 35% of the vote, which is where you are so how can you close that difference with Amo in the limited time before November 7,
Gerry Leonard: It’s meeting with people like you, getting our word out, it’s meeting with voters, which is the most important one, we’ve got a short period of time and it’s working our tail off and telling and telling our story. And again, our story is one of a local Rhode Island kid that grew up here, 13th generation Rhode Islander, parents are school teachers. I learned how to put service before self from my parents, I have a backbone. I am going to Washington DC to represent those people that elect me, those are my bosses. It’s not a political party. And it’s not advancing in my own career. It is to make Rhode Island, which I think is the most beautiful state in the country, and one that I’m deeply proud of, a better state.
Ian Donnis: We’re talking in the aftermath of an awful mass shooting in Maine. It looks like an AR-style weapon was used. And the AR-style of gun was created as a weapon of war. It was not really much in the civilian market for many years. But it’s become pretty ubiquitous in America, and it’s become an icon for gun rights supporters. Does it make sense that a weapon of war like that is so freely available?
Gerry Leonard: Well, Ian, you and I have discussed this in the past. I took that oath to support and defend the Constitution. That’s our civil liberties. And I absolutely believe that we need to protect those civil liberties to include the Second Amendment. I am also a parent of four. They’re adults now. But I never want to – would want to be a parent that had to worry about whether or not their kid was coming home. I think we have some of the strongest gun safety laws or gun control laws. I believe in responsible gun ownership. And I will work across both aisles to come up with common sense solutions. And I absolutely believe you can’t talk about these weapons without talking about the mental health crisis in our country right now. And we need to resource what we’re seeing. And I think, you know, the individual that perpetrated these heinous attacks, and my prayers are out to every one of those families, is he was suffering, some form of mental health. To me it looked like somebody that didn’t need a weapon in their hand, whatever weapon it is.
Ian Donnis: Let me stop you there because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. We see how Republicans struggled in Washington for weeks to elect a new speaker, as voters choose between you and Gabe Amo if people are questioning why they should add another Republican to the caucus in the US House in the aftermath of this disarray. What would you say to that?
Gerry Leonard: Well, I’m glad that we have elected a speaker of the house. I think he had some positive – I think he made a positive, couple positive comments yesterday. I liked the actions he took to show our support for Israel. That was very important. But now we get back to the people’s business. And that’s what we need a speaker for. And I think with the house, so close, you know, five more Republicans than Democrats. I think you’ll see much like the last speaker and hopefully all speakers when you have a house that’s that close together by five votes you need to work across party lines and I believe that’s what we’ll see in the speaker. I don’t know him personally, but I think that’s what we’ll get to, have to do.
Ian Donnis: The new house speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana supports a national abortion ban. He opposes same sex marriage rights. And he supported efforts by former President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Do these kinds of stances show that the Republican caucus in the US House has moved too far to the right?
Gerry Leonard: I mean, let’s let – the jury. Let’s let this gentleman again, I don’t know him personally, let’s let him figure out how he’s going to lead and you’re going to have to lead and you’re going to have to work together down there. And then let’s let him have a shot in doing that. Your other topics? The abortion piece, I think you’ve said you’ve heard me say this. I’m a strong believer in the Constitution, strong believer in the 10th amendment. This is – the state of Rhode Island codified it into law. So I am not going to Washington DC to take Rhode Island laws, Rhode Island privileges away from it. And I strongly, strongly believe that what I feel personally, might be a little different. And that is a I do think some states have supported what I would call something fairly extreme on abortion, late term and partial partial birth abortion. And I don’t believe taxpayers ought to be funding abortions.
Ian Donnis: I believe you’ve said that you’re not particularly enthusiastic about Donald Trump as a presidential candidate, but that if he is the Republican nominee, you will support him. Is that about right?
Gerry Leonard: I will support the Republican nominee. That’s in 2024. I’m focused on 2023. But I think it’s important that I elaborate on that. In 1975, there was a senator from Washington State, Scoop Jackson, that was way ahead of Jimmy Carter and no one knew who Jimmy Carter was. A year later, he won the nomination to be the Democratic nominee eventually became the Senator. There’s a lot that’s going to change between now and 2024. Again, I’m focused on 2023 and getting my message out to the Rhode Island voters and that’s one of leadership, service before self and principles above politics.
Ian Donnis: In terms of Donald Trump, he has talked about things like suspending the Constitution, he’s said that former Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley deserves to be executed. He’s talked admiringly about people like Vladimir Putin, how come these things are not disqualifying for you in terms of considering Trump as a presidential candidate?
Gerry Leonard: Well, go to the Constitution. And it’s incredibly important to all of us. I think the one thing that you know, there’s a few things that unite us as a country. We are a nation of immigrants. We’ve all come here one way or another. And what makes us common and it’s those founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, our common culture. We are – the United States is unique in world history. It doesn’t matter who your parents were. It doesn’t matter what your race is, it doesn’t matter what your sex is, it doesn’t matter what your orientation is. We live in the greatest country in the world. And I’m afraid we’re a little bit off track. And I want to go down to Washington to help Rhode Islanders make sure our country, particularly along the economy, stays on track. And we have some things that I think need to be addressed immediately.
Ian Donnis: You’ve seen war up close, as in the course of your career in the Marines you served in Iraq and Afghanistan. So a couple of questions on the current war in Israel. Do you think the approach of Israel which Israel says it’s going after Hamas, but there are many civilians who are being hurt and killed in the process? Do you have any concern that the collateral damage, so to speak, is going to play into the hands of Israel’s enemies and counteract Israel’s goals in this conflict?
Gerry Leonard: Ian, I think we saw last week information war, which is now an element of war, when that hospital was struck by Hamas, whether it was intentionally or was an errant missile, I don’t know. Immediately, the response was, look what Israel is doing. And it wasn’t Israel. I think Israel has shown a ton of restraint. They are trying to provide time to move civilians out of the way. I think the fight in front of them and I absolutely believe it’s Hamas that has their boot on the neck of Palestinians. And they’re a threat to civilian Palestinians that happened to live there. But they have the boot on the neck of them. I think if Hamas is dismantled, particularly the command and control of that organization, the people of – the Palestinians, and the Jews will be in a much better place in a safer place. And never when you go into war are you out there to intentionally hurt civilians. That’s what Hamas did. And I think Israeli IDF, Israeli Defense Force and the government have shown a tremendous amount of restraint.
Ian Donnis: Democrats want to give the IRS more money. They say this would help close a gap of billions of dollars each year in taxes that go uncollected although they are due. You want to undo this additional money for the IRS? Why do you think Democrats are wrong on this issue?
Gerry Leonard: I think if we’re going to spend that type of money, creating a new, more infrastructure, and once you build something in the federal government, it doesn’t go away, which I’m always cautious about expanding the size of our federal government. But if you’re going to, what I think, recklessly spend that type of money when we already have a financial health problem in this country, that those 87,000 individuals ought to be customs or border patrol folks, and we ought to be enforcing our laws along the southwest border.
Ian Donnis: In the time before you ran for Congress, you took a hike along the Appalachian Trail with your son. What were some of your top takeaways from that?
Gerry Leonard: There’s a lot of great people in this country. I hiked that trail, we went from Maine to Georgia, Ian and it was that time of year with college kids and high school kids. So I was the old man out there. I got the nickname Diesel because I went up the hill slower than they did. But just a lot of wonderful people that are out there. Out with nature, which I think it clears the mind, clears the soul. And probably the most important one for myself and my son, I was gone a lot of times, overseas while he was at key moments of his life in high school. I missed two of his four high school years by being in Iraq or Afghanistan. That bonding experience with my son was phenomenal. And along the way we were able to raise a significant amount of money for a nonprofit that supports disabled veterans, particularly those with PTSD.
Ian Donnis: Let me stop you there because we’re out of time. Thank you so much for joining us, Republican candidate in Rhode Island’s first congressional district, Gerry Leonard,
Gerry Leonard: Ian thank you very much. Thanks for your time.
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The dark side of calamari came into view through a story last week in The New York Times Magazine. Reporter Ian Urbina described how Chinese fishing boats trap workers in deplorable conditions while depleting the ocean of squid and other forms of seafood. The story notes how squid was made more palatable for American plates by rebranding it as the more exotic sounding calamari. You can read more about this in my weekly TGIF column, posting around 4 this afternoon on what used to be known as Twitter and at The Public’s Radio dot org.
That’s our show for this week. Our producer is James Baumgartner.
I’m Ian Donnis and I’ll see you on the radio.