{"id":18064,"date":"2021-11-15T10:23:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T15:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=18064"},"modified":"2021-11-15T10:33:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T15:33:08","slug":"cronkite-news-republican-lawmaker-faces-censure-over-violent-social-media-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/11\/15\/cronkite-news-republican-lawmaker-faces-censure-over-violent-social-media-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Republican lawmaker faces censure over violent social media post"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Paul<\/a>
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) serves on the House Committee on Natural Resources, the legislative panel with jurisdiction over Indian issues. Photo: Gage Skidmore<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Democrats continue to press for action against Gosar, call for censure<\/div>\r\n
Monday, November 15, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Diannie Chavez<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nWASHINGTON – House Democrats continued to press for action Friday against Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, over a violent cartoon video that appears to show him attacking the president and killing a liberal House Democrat.

<\/P>\r\nClose to 30 Democrats said they plan to introduce<\/a> a censure resolution chiding Gosar for the video, which was posted to his congressional social media accounts, and another 10 wrote the House GOP leader, urging him to call for a House Ethics Committee investigation.

<\/P>\r\nBut House Republicans have yet to move against Gosar, who said in a statement<\/a> Tuesday that he does not “espouse violence or harm” and that the video was merely a “symbolic” statement on the battle between conservatives and liberals over an upcoming immigration proposal.

<\/P>\r\nNeither Gosar nor House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., responded to requests for comment Friday.

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Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) refused to back down after posting a violent cartoon that appeared to show him and other conservatives attacking President Joe Biden and killing a liberal Democratic lawmaker.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\nThe 90-second video, posted over the weekend, is an edited version of the anime show “Attack on Titan,” about humans who have to defend themselves from destructive giants that break into their walled cities and kill or eat the humans inside.

<\/P>\r\nIn Gosar’s version, the face of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has been superimposed on a titan and Gosar’s face has been pasted onto a sword-wielding, jetpack-wearing soldier who slices the back of the titan’s neck, killing it.

<\/P>\r\nThe video also shows the Gosar character flying toward President Joe Biden, swords drawn, but stops before an attack.

<\/P>\r\nFaces of other House conservatives, including GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, are also pasted onto soldiers in the video. It includes what appear to be blood-spattered clips of migrants crossing the border, interspersed with the words “drugs,” “crime” “gangs” and more, and images of Border Patrol agents rounding them up.

<\/P>\r\n\"Anime<\/a>

A screen grab Tuesday morning of the tweet by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, after it was flagged by Twitter for violating its rules about “hateful conduct” but before it was taken down entirely. The video had received more than 3.3 million views by that point. Image by Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe video was flagged by Twitter for violating its “hateful content” guidelines but it was left up because of its potential public interest. It had been taken down by late Tuesday, but not before racking up more than 3.3 million views.

<\/P>\r\nThe video brought swift condemnation from Democrats.

<\/P>\r\n“Fantasizing about killing a colleague is dangerous, deranged, and promotes violence,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, in a tweet<\/a> Tuesday. Tlaib was one of 10 Democrats who wrote McCarthy urging him to call for a House Ethics Committee investigation, as well as one of 29 co-sponsors of the censure resolution.

<\/P>\r\nBut James Wallner, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, questioned whether the House should be censuring members when “there are more important debates to be had.” The video may be disturbing, he said, but that it was still speech for which accommodations should be made.

<\/P>\r\n“Disciplining members for activity, for speech, for action, for using rules and procedures or for doing things that people find distasteful, makes it harder for Congress’ members to debate and compromise, as envisioned in the Constitution,” Wallner said Friday.

<\/P>\r\n“This isn’t a question of whether or not we like what Rep. Gosar has done,” he said. “It’s a question of what the consequences are of the House using its procedures to punish Rep. Gosar and what those consequences are for Congress more broadly and its role in our political system and the health of our politics.”

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