In recent days, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) posted an edited, partly animated video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and swinging weapons at President Joe Biden. There’s been no sign of systematic outrage from Republican leaders over the open display of affinity for violence — which fits right in with recent trends from the party, of course. It’s their standard-bearer and possible 2024 presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who has characterized what took place at the Capitol on January 6 as merely a “protest.” On MSNBC, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) joined those, however, who are calling for action against Gosar. Allred suggested both censure by the House and a law enforcement investigation.
Discussing the video, Allred commented as follows:
‘I’m disgusted by it. But I’ve also kind of lost the ability to be surprised anymore by what we’re seeing coming from this version of the Republican Party. It wasn’t that long ago, really, when they were policing their own caucus — I remember when they stripped Steve King of his committee assignments for his white supremacist views and comments that he’d made. Mr. Gosar has gone much farther than that, appearing with white supremacists, being at the heart of January 6, now posting a video that — I don’t know, maybe that’s supposed to be funny? — of him killing one of his colleagues and attacking the president of the United States.’
Directly asked about whether he’d like to see a law enforcement investigation of the matter, the Congressman added as follows:
‘I certainly think that we in the House should take action. I think that Mr. Gosar has done plenty of things that are deserving of censure, and this is another in a long litany of things. And yes, I do think that when you make threats against the president of the United States, that it should be at least looked into [by law enforcement].’
Check out his comments below:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has also called for a law enforcement investigation into the matter. As she put it on Tuesday:
‘Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated. [House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)] should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate.’
Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated. @GOPLeader should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate. https://t.co/qX8kMbiZ8n
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) November 9, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez herself responded to the video by dragging Gosar, who has since defended the video as merely some kind of joke. (He claimed that he doesn’t “espouse violence or harm towards any Member of Congress or Mr. Biden”… although such violence is exactly what the video that he posted actually depicts!) Ocasio-Cortez observed that “White supremacy is for extremely fragile people & sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior because deep down he knows he couldn’t open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself.”
This dude is a just a collection of wet toothpicks anyway.
White supremacy is for extremely fragile people &sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior because deep down he knows he couldn’t open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 9, 2021
