Trump ally censured for violent video tweet
US lawmaker posted anime of him attacking Biden, slashing colleague
WASHINGTON—US lawmakers censured a Trump loyalist on Wednesday for posting an animated video depicting the legislator killing a colleague and attacking President Joe Biden, in a rare move underlining the enmity between opposing sides of Congress.
Far right congressman Paul Gosar was forced to endure a public shaming by the House of Representatives as he was called to present himself in the “well” of the lower chamber for the “pronouncement of the censure.”
The Arizona Republican was made to listen in silence as Democrats spent more than an hour rebuking him for what they called workplace harassment and encouraging violence against women.
“We cannot have members joking about murdering each other or threatening the president of the United States,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the censure.
“This is both an endangerment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution of the House of Representatives.”
A censure resolution is the most severe form of punishment in the House and just a handful of members have faced the sanction over the last century—most recently 11 years ago.
Gosar also joined fellow Trumpist agitator Marjorie Taylor Greene as the second House Republican to lose their position on House committees this year.
Nationalists, rioters
An outspoken ally of Donald Trump who echoes the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, Gosar has been condemned for his associations with white nationalists and his praise for the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6.
He was rebuked anew after tweeting out a video in the Japanese anime style showing him fatally slashing the neck of New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before attacking Biden with a sword.
Gosar removed the video—which received millions of views—after a backlash but has not expressed any regret in public or apologized to his targets.
In a defiant speech before lawmakers, Gosar argued that he was the victim of censorship, absurdly comparing himself to Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, who was the target of a failed censure vote in the late 18th century.
He denied that the video represented a threat of violence, arguing that he was trying to start a conversation about illegal immigration.
He did not explain why a video about undocumented migrants would single out Ocasio-Cortez, a third generation New Yorker and a lifelong American citizen with roots in Puerto Rico, a US territory.