Expulsion and psychiatric evaluation would be a better option, but --
A group of House Democrats said Wednesday that they plan to introduce a resolution to censure Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., for posting an edited animated video that depicts him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and attacking President Joe Biden.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., a co-chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, was joined by nine other lawmakers in a joint statement announcing their plans to file the censure resolution Friday.
"For a Member of Congress to post a manipulated video on his social media accounts depicting himself killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden is a clear cut case for censure," the lawmakers said. "For that Member to post such a video on his official Instagram account and use his official congressional resources in the House of Representatives to further violence against elected officials goes beyond the pale."
Gosar shared an altered video on his official social media channels Sunday evening in which he and other Republican lawmakers are depicted as heroes from the Japanese anime series "Attack on Titan." The faces of Ocasio-Cortez and Biden were superimposed on the show's villains. Twitter added a warning label to Gosar's tweet later.
Censure is considered the harshest form of punishment in the House after expulsion. It requires a floor vote and a simple majority to pass...
Gosar has provided ample evidence of his unfitness for office, as his own siblings have previously enumerated:
● Falsely blamed the Charlottesville, Virginia, neo-Nazi march on an innocent, old man in a vicious anti-Semitic attack?
● Claimed that Covid-19 was overblown and would miraculously disappear after the election, thereby misleading and harming those who believed you, despite the fact that Arizona had the highest infection rate in the world both before and after the November election?
● Marched in England for convicted criminal Tommy Robinson in support of his hateful attacks against British Muslims?
● Backed the Cliven Bundy insurrection, when Bundy used an armed mob to defy officers attempting to enforce laws Bundy had clearly violated for years? (And doubled down on Bundy’s bigotry by failing to condemn Bundy’s horrible racist rant, although that rant was too much even for Sean Hannity?)
● Were an open and avowed “birther”?
Gosar's shared, violent video should also trigger a visit from the Secret Service and FBI, since it depicts him killing a Member of Congress and attacking the President. He's clearly mentally ill, but he needs to see that his actions and words have consequences. The rotted out Republican House leadership is too craven and cowardly to act, so it's again incumbent on Democrats to maintain basic norms; censure is the very least they can do to register their disgust with this crude crackpot's attack on a fellow Member and the President. Get it done.
(Photo: He seems sane / Gage Skidmore)
