Representative Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., was censored by the House of Representatives and removed from his commission after posting a violent video on social media of a character with an image of him killing an influential figure. image of New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty
hide captions
switch captions
Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Representative Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., was censored by the House of Representatives and removed from his commission after posting a violent video on social media of a character with an image of him killing an influential figure. image of New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty
The House of Representatives voted to criticize hard-line Republican Representative Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and remove him from two committee duties.
The vote was mainly on the party line, 223-207. Two Republicans, Representative Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. And Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., joined all the Democrats in criticizing Gosar, while Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, voted present.
The official reprimand comes after Gosar posted an anime-style video on Twitter last week depicting him killing a Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, DN.Y, and attacking President Biden. The video, which he deleted after the backlash, shows a character with an image of Gosar wielding a sword to kill a character with an image of Ocasio Cortez.
Gosar sat in the back corner of the floor during Wednesday’s debate and wore an American flag mask. When it was his turn to speak, he again defended the video, saying “no threat was intended” and expressing no regret over the incident. He compared himself to Alexander Hamilton, the first person Congress attempted to censor, when he served in George Washington’s cabinet.
Also present in the room was Ocasio Cortez, who said the issue was “quite tight and dry” – if violence is not tolerated in people’s homes, during school board meetings, then it will not be accepted in Parliament.
According to the censorship resolution passed by the House of Commons, Gosar had to stand in the well and listen to the rebuke as it was read aloud. And he will no longer serve on the Natural Resources or Oversight committees – where Ocasio Cortez is also serving. a member.
Last time House of Representatives censors a lawmaker was in 2010 when the ethics committee found that Rep. Charlie Rangel, DN.Y., had misused official congressional resources and submitted inaccurate financial reports and tax returns.
A partisan debate
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House needed to act now on Gosar “because it’s an emergency.” She said it involved “violence against women, harassment in the workplace, actually I think legal issues related to threatening our members and threatening the president of the United States.” .” She added, “this is outrageous and on the part of Republican leadership it is not advisable to act on this.”
House 2, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said the video could be considered a criminal offense because it is illegal to make threats against federal officials. During the floor debate, Hoyer looked over to the GOP side of the floor and shouted “are you shameless?”
And while some Republicans raised a host of other issues from inflation to immigration, others condemned the violence but opposed the Democratic response had gone too far. Representative Tom Cole, R-Okla., said the matter should have been referred to the House ethics committee. He said the video was “certainly provocative and in my opinion inappropriate” but he said setting a precedent allowing a majority to decide on tasks within the minority party committee would create a “Slippery slope for institutions going down.”
GOP leaders have a history of controlling the behavior of their members.
In his floor speech, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., argued that Democrats were changing the rules of the boardroom and setting a standard they would not accept for comments from their own members. In one personal swipe, he said “the speaker is burning the House on the way out the door”
But in the ring, Rep. May Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., addressed the violence that took place in the room on January 6. “This Congress knows what happens when members of the far-right are persecuted. their leaders rocked,” she said.
Increased violence and intimidation
Congressman Ocasio Cortez told reporters the video was part of a pattern of normalizing violence. She had a security detail for months after the January 6 attack on the Capitol and said the threats had increased recently. She said the House must respond.
“I believe this is part of a coordinated strategy, and I think it’s very important that we draw a tight line on the material consequences,” she said.
It’s not just Democrats who notice an increase in threats.
Some House Republicans have also faced increasing security threats in recent times. After 13 House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill, another hardline Republican, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Called those members are “traitors” and post their office numbers on Twitter. Some Republicans have reported thousands of angry calls flooding their offices. Both Representative Fred Upton, R-MI. And Representative Tom Reed, RN.Y., both reported death threats. Police in Nassau County, NY have arrested a 64-year-old man for threatening to kill Representative Andrew Garbarino, RN.Y.
Representative Jeff Van Drew, RN.J., who also voted for the infrastructure bill, said he has made it clear to GOP leaders and his constituents that he supports the bill and does not face any serious feedback from this vote. But he told reporters that after switching parties In 2019 after being elected a Democrat, he, his wife, daughters and grandchildren faced several death and rape threats.
“It happens a lot,” he said, adding that he reported it to the FBI and a man was arrested a few months ago.
Greene is pushing the 13 members to lose their committee positions and have a resolution stripping Rep. John Katko, DN.Y., from his top position on the House Homeland Security Committee.
Van Drew doesn’t think that effort will succeed. He declined to single out any of his fellow Republicans when he spoke to reporters earlier in the week about the intensified rhetoric. He admits he hasn’t seen the Gosar video. “Both sides need to encourage more of a gentle process because there’s a lack of something better, not even gentle, even normal, and I think in time it will calm down. That’s America, it’s a place. good.”
Gosar defends his point of view
On Tuesday, Gosar explained to his GOP colleagues in a closed-door meeting that his staff created the video and he hadn’t seen it before it was posted and he took it down afterward.
But speaking to a conservative outlet Red Voice Media on Tuesday afternoon, he defended the video as an outreach attempt on the Democratic Party’s agenda. “It’s an anime – we’re trying to reach the newer generations who like these new anime made in Japanese to really let them know what’s harmful. in this bill,” Gosar said, referring to the Democrats’ domestic spending bill that the House is expected to consider this week.
He also said he wasn’t apologetic, saying, “I’m just saying this video has nothing to do with harming anyone.” Ocasio Cortez told reporters she had not received any apology from Gosar and complained about the lack of response from top Republican leaders.
Leader McCarthy said Third, this video is off-stream, adding “we can’t tolerate any violence towards another member or anything else. That’s not appropriate. It can’t be. resistant.”
This is the second time a Republican in the House has faced punishment for his political rhetoric. In February House of Greene among her committee duties for a string of threatening statements she made about Democrats.
Republican leaders at the time warned that calling on lawmakers to make controversial statements would set a bad precedent.
But Ocasio Cortez said if Republicans oppose this resolution it sends the wrong message. “I think that says they believe this behavior is acceptable for women in workplaces around the country.”
Claudia Grisales of NPR contributed to this report.
