Welcome to Off Message. I'm Isaac Dovere. Today's guest, Will Hurd, the Republican Congressman from Texas.

Imagine being a Republican in Congress these days when eight months of not getting anything major done, despite a Republican majority in the House, a Republican

majority in the Senate, and a Republican in the White House, is followed by President Trump

taking a deal last week, in the matter of a few hours, proposed by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer

to raise the debt ceiling for three months and seal up funding, at least for the first round,

for Hurricane Harvey relief.

Okay.

Now imagine on top of that being a Republican in Congress from Texas, who's been part of the

internal debate about signing off on that disaster relief for his state, and who's more inclined

to see government proactively doing things than many in his conference who see their job as stopping

government from doing things.

Here's a guy who brags about how many of his bills were signed by Barack Obama.

He represents a giant border district, but he's against the border wall, and he's for

legalizing status for dreamers.

Throw one more on top of that.

He's a black Republican, one of only two in the House, plus Tim Scott in the Senate,

and still upset about what he says is the doubt on condemning white supremacists that President

Trump let linger after Charlottesville.

So yeah, it's been a weird couple of months for Wilhurt.

I caught up with him in his office in the Cannon Building on on the hill, right as the house is going out of session. You'll hear at one point the official

clock that's in all members' offices buzz to signal that they were done for the week. But it's

been a weird couple of months for a lot of people in Congress, and that's why we're going to kick

...