Gosar: The GOP’s defense of a violent video
In today’s “radicalized” Republican Party, publicly fantasizing about murdering a Democratic member of Congress is no big deal, said Jean Guerrero in the Los Angeles Times. Just two of 213 Republicans joined House Democrats last week in voting to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and strip him of his committee assignments, after he tweeted an anime video that showed him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) with a sword as blood gushes from her neck and then attacking President Biden. Gosar, who urged Trump supporters to “fight like hell” on Jan. 6 just before the Capitol riot, mocked the “faux outrage” over the video, which he insisted was just “entertainment.” Despite becoming only the 24th member of Congress to be censured, said Dana Milbank in The Washington Post, Gosar is being celebrated on the Right, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowing to reinstate him if the GOP takes the House in 2022. By excusing and condoning threats of violence, GOP leaders are “inviting actual violence.”
“This really is the cartoon Congress,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Gosar, who “is 63 years old but acts like a teenager” on social media, is part of a growing group of Congress
members who “behave as if their job is to become social media influencers or cable TV stars, as opposed to actually accomplishing something.” Gosar “deserves ridicule more than censure, which should be reserved for serious offenses.” But Democrats are trying to exploit this episode to support “their 2022 campaign narrative that the GOP is the party of inciting violence.” Should Republicans retake power next year, you’d better believe they will monitor the Twitter feed of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) “24/7 for anti-Semitic outbursts.”
The GOP’s “celebration” of violence isn’t confined to dumb internet videos, said Michelle Cottle in The New York Times. Take Greg Gianforte, the Montana Republican whom then–President Trump praised as “my kind of guy” after he bodyslammed a reporter. Despite being charged with assault, Gianforte was elected governor last year. Trump has backed several Republican senatorial candidates who’ve been accused of threatening or abusing women, including Herschel Walker in Georgia. As Republicans defend thuggish threats of violence and celebrate belligerent misogynists and bullies, the slippery slope is not only becoming more slippery. “It’s getting steeper.”