- The House votes 223-207 to censor Gosar and strip him of his committee duties. There was 1 vote present and 3 abstentions.
- Representative Paul Gosar rebelled against the decision to censor him: “I do not espouse violence against anyone. I never did.”
- “We cannot let an MP joke about killing each other,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during the debate.
- Minority leader Kevin McCarthy called the vote of no confidence an “abuse of power”.
WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives censored GOP Rep Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, for posting an anime video that was edited to show him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., and attack President Joe Biden.
The House voted 223-207 to censor Gosar, with one vote “present” and three abstentions. The vote fell largely depending on the parties, with two Republicans voting alongside all Democrats voting for censorship.
It is the most serious step the House can take to punish a lawmaker, unless he is expelled from Congress. Gosar will be stripped of his committee functions but will remain a member of the Chamber. The last time the House voted to censor one of its members was in 2010, against former Rep. Charlie Rangel, DN.Y., for breach of ethics. It was the 24th time that the House has censured a legislator in its history.
Gosar came under heavy criticism after posting an anime-style video on his social media accounts that appeared to show him killing his colleague, Ocasio-Cortez, and attacking Biden. It mimicked the theme song and introduction to “Attack on Titan,” a popular Japanese animated series. Twitter flagged the video for violating its rules against calls for violence. It was then deleted.
Reaction:Congressmen and sister denounce representative Paul Gosar’s tweet on video targeting Biden, AOC
Gosar refused to be censored: “I do not espouse violence against anyone. I never did,” he said. “There is no threat in the cartoon other than the threat immigration poses to our country.”
He had posted an open letter apologizing to his colleagues, but not to Ocasio-Cortez, stating that his staff posted the video and that “nothing hateful” was intended by the footage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said Tuesday that the House would vote to censor Gosar, “because he made threats, suggestions to harm a congressman.” It is an insult – not only an endangerment of this member of Congress, but an insult to the institution of the House of Representatives. “
At stake for Democrats is a broader concern over growing calls for political violence against the U.S. right that escalated in the months following the Jan.6 riot on Capitol Hill.
“We cannot let a member joke about killing each other or threatening the President of the United States,” Pelosi, D-Calif., Said Wednesday during the debate, warning that calls for violence against Lawmakers are “a danger to everyone” because the example set in this House is one seen across the country.
The two Republicans who voted to censor Gosar, Reps Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., And Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Have become outcasts in their own party for frequent criticism of the GOP’s membership in Trump and perceived political radicalization.
McCarthy claims “abuse of power”; AOC pushes back
Most Republicans ignored Gosar’s actions, accusing Democrats of overreacting to his messages.
Minority parliamentary leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Called the censure vote an “abuse of power,” saying there are double standards on different sides of the aisle.
“House Democrats broke almost every rule and norm in order to silence dissenters and push through their radical agenda,” McCarthy said during the debate, citing comments prompting Reps Maxine Waters, D-Calif. , Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. , and Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., which has drawn criticism from both sides in the past.
McCarthy threatened that Democrats had now set a precedent that any lawmaker making allegedly inflammatory comments would “need the majority vote” to avoid censorship, promising that “a new standard will continue to be applied to the to come up “.
Ocasio-Cortez rebuffed McCarthy’s comments, accusing him of straying from the issue.
“What’s so hard to say that’s wrong?” She asked, continuing that the timing was “about what we accept.”
Republicans denounce censorship
Representative Kelly Armstrong, RN.D., called Gosar’s video “stupid,” “silly” and “mean,” but dismissed the fact that it was a “call for violence.” He accused Democrats of not applying the rules of Congress “equally” between the two parties.
“This will be the fourth member of the minority to be stripped of office by the majority. This has never happened,” Armstrong said.
Democrats are “negatively and permanently changing the way this body works forever,” Armstrong continued, and warned that “when the pendulum swings, and it does, you will all suffer the consequences. And the institution in it. will suffer, and it already is. suffer for it. “
Ohio Republican Jim Jordan compared it to an attack on the First Amendment.
“What scares me the most about it is the attack on the left’s free speech this year,” Jordan said, saying Democrats were “censoring speech” with their vote of no confidence.
Democrats say the blame was behind the vote
Representative Ted Deutch, D-Fla., Was among Democrats who noted that Gosar’s video was created by his staff and therefore used House resources to “represent the murder of one of his colleagues.” He said the no-confidence vote was necessary because Republicans had “not taken responsibility for members of his own caucus.”
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., Who introduced Gosar’s censorship resolution, said the action was regrettable but necessary.
“If a Democrat did the same thing, I would bring forward the same resolution,” Speier said.
“Today we have the opportunity to choose decency over demonization, to choose civility over cynicism, to choose the rule of law over reckless and violent behavior,” urged Jeffries, the Democrat of New York, during the debate. “We cannot normalize violence at any point in our future.”
Representative Teresa Legar Fernandez, DN.M., quoted the scriptures in her ground speech arguing for the need to censor Gosar, saying that “the love of your neighbor calls us to pass this resolution”.
“Is this the state of the Republican Party today? If you vote for a bipartisan bill, your own colleagues will call for retaliation. But if you tweet a video depicting the murder of a colleague and illustrating violence against President of the United States, is that OK? Go on, ”Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said before the vote.
“Rejecting political violence shouldn’t be a partisan effort,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., Said before the vote. “We have to say that political violence is not acceptable in the United States of America.”
Follow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir.
