Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked her colleagues Wednesday to advance a resolution condemning Rep. Paul Gosar for tweeting an edited video depicting an animated version of himself murdering her and attacking President Joe Biden.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls out House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy for not condemning Rep. Paul Gosar posting an anime video showing him killing her: “What is so hard about saying that this is wrong?”
She says the censure vote for Gosar is “about what we are willing to accept.” pic.twitter.com/9mz5s0AC7n
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“If you believe this behavior is acceptable, go ahead, vote no,” she said. “But if you believe that this behavior should not be accepted, then vote yes,” the New York Democrat said in remarks on the House floor.
House Democrats introduced a resolution to censure Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments after he tweeted an edited video depicting himself and other GOP lawmakers as characters from the Japanese anime series Attack on Titan, with Ocasio-Cortez and Biden’s faces placed on the show’s villains. Twitter later added a warning label to the tweet, which Gosar posted with the caption: “Any anime fans out there?” It has since been removed.
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy argued that when Republicans hold a majority, they may strip Democrats from their committee assignments over controversial remarks.
Ocasio-Cortez argued the matter is not as complex as McCarthy made it out to be and that “issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong.”
“When the Republican leader rose to talk about how there are all of these double standards and lists a litany of all these different things, not once did he list an example of a member of Congress threatening the life of another,” she said.
She argued the video was not a joke, as Gosar claimed, and “our actions as elected leaders” matter.
“This is not about me, this is not about Rep. Gosar, but this is about what we are willing to accept,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
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In remarks immediately following Ocasio-Cortez, Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski said she did not condone Gosar’s actions but felt that the Ethics Committee, of which she is a ranking member, was bypassed in the censure process.
Censure is the most severe form of disciplinary action in the House short of expulsion, and it can pass with a simple majority in a floor vote. After a censure vote is passed, the member is required to stand at the “well” of the House chamber and receive a verbal rebuke and reading of the resolution by the speaker.
Censure votes are relatively rare, and the last lawmaker to be censured was Rep. Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat, in 2010 for breaking ethics rules.
Though most Republicans are expected to vote against the measure, some such as Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney have signaled they will support the censure.
