Paul Gosar censured by House Democrats, stripped of committee assignments over AOC video
Rep. Paul Gosar was censured by House Democrats and stripped of his committee assignments Wednesday, 10 days after tweeting a video depicting himself as an anime character assassinating progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden.
Just two Republicans, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, joined all House Democrats in supporting the measure, which passed 223-207. One Republican, Dave Joyce of Ohio, voted “present.”
Prior to the vote, Ocasio-Cortez ripped House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on the floor over what she deemed his lack of response to Gosar’s (R-Ariz.) video — which she decried as “racist misogyny.”
“It is a sad day in which a member who leads a political party in the United States of America cannot bring themselves to say that issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong and instead decides to venture off into a tangent about gas prices and inflation,” she said.
“What is so hard, what is so hard about saying that this is wrong? This is not about me. This is not about Rep. Gosar, but this is about what we are willing to accept.”
Gosar, 62, came under fire after tweeting the 90-second clip Nov. 7 showing a character with his face going after the high-profile Democrats with a sword. Top Democrats have accused Gosar of fomenting violence against his colleagues, with some suggesting it may have been a criminal act.
“As leaders in this country, when we incite violence with depictions against our colleagues, that trickles down into violence in this country,” Ocasio-Cortez argued Wednesday. “And that is where we must draw the line, independent of party or belief. It is about a core recognition of human dignity and value and worth.”
“Does anyone in this chamber find this behavior acceptable?” the “Squad” member later asked. “Would you allow depictions of violence against women, against colleagues, would you you allow that in your home? You think this should happen on a school board? In a city council? In a church? And if it’s not acceptable there, why should it be accepted here?”
Gosar and Ocasio-Cortez both sat on the House Oversight Committee. As a result of the vote, Gosar was removed from that panel as well as the House Natural Resources Committee.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Gosar’s “extremely disturbing” actions “demand a response.”
“We cannot have a member joking about murdering each other or threatening the president of the United States,” she said.
McCarthy, meanwhile, accused Pelosi of “burning down the House on her way out the door.”
“We got to this point on the basis of a double standard. Democrats want to change the rules but refuse to apply them to their own caucus,” McCarthy said. “I listened to the speaker talk about the highest standards. Madam Speaker, when a Democratic [committee] chairwoman [Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) flew to Minneapolis and told an angry crowd during a trial to stay on the street, get more active, get more confrontational, we’ve got to make sure they know we mean business … Democrats refused to take action.”
“This side of the aisle didn’t ask that chairwoman to lose her committee, we simply asked for an apology,” added McCarthy, whose speech contained little in the way of a defense of Gosar outside noting that he had apologized.
“This is a dumb waste of the House’s time,” raged Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) later in the debate. “But since the Speaker has designated the floor to discuss members’ inappropriate actions, shall we?”
At that point, Boebert slammed a series of prominent House Democrats, at one point labeling Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) as “the Jihad Squad member from Minnesota.”
“This member is allowed on the Foreign Affairs Committee while praising terrorists,” she said before turning her ire on House Intelligence Committee member Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).
“My colleague and three-month presidential candidate from California, who is on the Intelligence Committee, slept with a Chinese spy,” said Boebert. “Let me say that again: A member of Congress who receives classified briefings was fraternizing with the enemy.”
Democrats did not attempt to have Boebert’s inflammatory remarks stricken from the record.
Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who’s drawn heat from his own party for supporting the $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal, voted no on the censure, later telling CNN: “I just think it’s a mistake to take people off committees because this is a precedent that the Democrats are gonna have to live by when they’re the minority.
“Retribution is not good. I think it’s going to happen.”
Gosar has been embroiled in multiple controversies since taking office in 2011, including fundraising with white nationalist Nick Fuentes earlier this year, though that incident was not mentioned in the censure resolution.
Gosar doubled down on the video in his floor speech and denied that the cartoon was “dangerous or threatening.”
”I voluntarily took the cartoon down not because it was itself a threat, but because some thought it was,” he said. “Out of compassion for those who generally felt offense, I self-censored.”
Gosar then argued that the video “directly contributes to the understanding and discussion of the real-life battle resulting from this administration’s open border policy. This body is considering passage of Mr. Biden’s reckless, Socialist, Marxist $4.9 trillion spending bill that provides $100 million for amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens already in this country.”
During a closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday morning, Gosar explained anime to his GOP colleagues and argued it could be used to broaden their outreach to voters, according to sources in the room.
Multiple Republican House members told The Post that while there is a level of discomfort with the tweet and Gosar’s past controversies, they felt the resolution was too broad to support. Two members said that stripping Gosar from his committees — after the same treatment was given to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) earlier this year — will lead to Republicans removing Democrats who make inflammatory comments from their panels if and when they take back the House majority.
Meanwhile, Joyce explained his “present” vote by citing his role as a member of the House Ethics Committee, which may still investigate Gosar’s actions.
“I have a unique understanding of the Committee’s duty to carry out its investigatory and adjudication responsibilities in an impartial manner,” he said in a statement. “As such, I may deem it appropriate to vote present on legislation related to matters that are or could come before the Committee. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to allow the Ethics Committee to do its job and address any alleged violations of the US House of Representatives’ rules or any related conduct by House Members, officers, or employees.”
Prior to the House vote, Gosar kept his head down and his thoughts to himself, a stars-and-stripes mask on his face. He walked by reporters without saying a word prior to the vote and was pictured sitting all alone on the Capitol complex’s subway system.
Gosar is the 24th House member to be censured. Though censure carries no effect except providing a historical footnote to a lawmaker’s career, it is the strongest punishment the body can issue short of expulsion. That drastic step requires a two-thirds vote.
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) a former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was the most recent House member to be censured before Gosar. Rangel earned the rebuke in 2010 for financial misconduct — including evading taxes on a vacation home — and other ethics violations.
With Post wires
