House votes to censure Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona over animated video

The U.S. House of Representatives took the rare step of censuring Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona on Wednesday over a controversial animated video he posted online earlier this month.

Gosar, a six-term congressman from Prescott, was also stripped of his seats on the Natural Resources and the Oversight and Reform committees.

The vote was 223-207, with one “present.” Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger joining the majority Democrats in voting to censure Gosar.

Before the vote, Democrats argued that Gosar’s conduct would not be tolerated in any other workplace — and shouldn’t be in Congress.

Republicans called the vote an abuse of power by the majority Democrats to distract from national problems.

The roughly 90-second video Gosar posted to Twitter on Nov. 7, and later deleted, was an altered version of a Japanese anime clip with faces replaced by political figures interspersed with shots of Border Patrol officers and migrants at the southern U.S. border.

In one scene, Gosar’s character is seen striking the one made to look like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in the neck with a sword. The video also showed him attacking President Joe Biden.

After the video drew strong criticism, Gosar issued a statement saying it wasn’t meant to depict harm or violence, calling it instead “a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy.”

My response on the House Floor addressing the House of Representatives’ censure of me and removal from my Committees due to an anime cartoon Tweet last week. https://t.co/9Wfnh6VfDf

— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) November 17, 2021

“I do not espouse violence towards anyone. I never have,” he said on the House floor Wednesday.

“It was not my purpose to make anyone upset. I voluntarily took the cartoon down, not because it was itself a threat, but because some thought it was. Out of compassion for those who generally felt offense, I self-censored.”

Ocasio-Cortez, whose receipt of repeated death threats has required her to spend thousands on security, said Gosar has not apologized to her.

“What is so hard about saying this is wrong?” Ocasio-Cortez said.

The censure resolution was introduced Nov. 12 by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) with 60 co-sponsors. The number of co-sponsors eventually increased to 116, all Democrats, including Arizona’s Ruben Gallego and Raul Grijalva.

“Voting to censure Paul Gosar and remove him from his committee assignments was one of the easiest votes I’ve ever cast. We cannot allow behavior like Rep. Gosar’s to go unchecked,” Gallego said in statement after the vote.

The decision to move forward with the censure effort was born out of Democratic frustration with the House GOP, which declined to publicly rebuke Gosar.

The resolution states that depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials.

It also cites the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as an example. While Congress was certifying the presidential election results that day, Gosar led an objection to Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes going to Joe Biden shortly before supporters of then-President Donald Trump violently stormed the building and delayed the proceedings.

Gosar later portrayed Ashli Babbitt, the woman fatally shot by police inside the Capitol during the siege, as a martyr, asserting she was “executed.”

Censure is the strongest House punishment short of expulsion. It had only been used 23 previous times, most recently in 2010 against Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat accused of multiple ethics violations.

The punishment was first issued in 1832 against Rep. William Stanbery of Ohio for insulting the House speaker during a floor debate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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