The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to censure Rep. Paul Gosar and strip him from his committee assignments by a tally of 223 to 207, with one member voting present, after outrage over an animated cartoon he posted of him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, voted for the resolution, and Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio voted “present.”
“People look up to us. They take our lead. So, when a member posts a video of himself killing a colleague, that’s obviously going to have an impact on the way people approach their politics. So, we cannot dismiss Rep. Gosar’s violent fantasies as a joke,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., said in House debate on the matter. “In this decade, in this America, someone’s going to take him seriously.”
The censure of Gosar marks the 24th time in House history the chamber censured one of its members. It is the first time the House has censured a member since 2010 when it censured Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., for ethics violations relating to campaign fundraising. Before that, two members were censured for sexual misconduct with a House page in 1983.
“Is there a high school or a workplace in America that would do nothing,” in this kind of situation, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md, asked during floor debate on the resolution to censure Gosar.
Gosar, R-Ariz., tweeted the cartoon that started the controversy last week. It used anime-style animation to depict him killing Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and show him attacking President Biden. It was made by his congressional staff.
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Gosar said in a statement last week that the video was a “symbolic cartoon” about immigration policy.
“I do not espouse violence or harm towards any Member of Congress or Mr. Biden,” Gosar said. “The video depicts the fight taking place next week on the House floor and symbolizes the battle for the soul of America when Congress takes up Mr. Biden’s massive $4 trillion spending bill that includes amnesty for millions of illegal aliens already in our country and was not meant to depict any harm or violence against anyone portrayed in the anime.”
The three-page censure resolution cites the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 as evidence that rhetoric like Gosar’s can lead to real threats and argues that woman legislators are more likely to receive threats and violence than men. The House Rules Committee on Wednesday, meanwhile, adopted an amendment to the resolution that will remove Gosar from the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee.
This is an excerpt from Fox News.
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