During an appearance on CNN ahead of a vote by the full House on a resolution to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) for an edited, partly animated video that he posted showing him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. James Clyburn (D-N.Y.) said that he believes that the Arizona Congressman’s original post constituted grounds for expelling him from the House altogether. Clyburn acknowledged, though, that such wasn’t the course of action that the House had opted to pursue. In addition to the censure move that was slated for a Wednesday vote, the resolution against Gosar also contained language that would remove Gosar from his committee roles.
Clyburn pointedly commented as follows:
‘Over the years, I have often referred to the House of Representatives, at least the hall of the House, as America’s classroom. And I feel that very strongly, that we as members of Congress ought to conduct ourselves in that hall and in our duties and responsibilities in such a way that children, schoolchildren all over, can look to us, to emulate the conduct, and that is why we should hold every member to a high standard. And when someone sends out a tweet or any other illustration of him or her murdering somebody on the House floor, that, to me, goes far beyond the pale, and that person should not even be a member of this body.’
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) ahead of vote today on resolution to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) for tweeting anime video depicting him killing Rep. AOC (D-NY):
"… that person should not even be a member of this body." pic.twitter.com/ojqalKGpUa
— The Recount (@therecount) November 17, 2021
Expelling Gosar from the House would require the agreement of two-thirds of the chamber, and the House’s GOP conference is far too sizable for Democrats to be able to obtain that level of agreement on the matter on their own. Still, booting Gosar from his committee roles is a substantive step — it’s the same punishment that was meted out by the full House against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) after past social media activity resurfaced indicating previous support on her part for executing prominent Democrats.
In the meantime, Clyburn added as follows while on CNN:
‘In fact, a lot of his family members are telling the whole world that he should not be a member of Congress. And I think it would have been the right thing to do to move to expel him, but it is not what we have decided to do as a collective body, because we think quite frankly the Republican conference has some responsibility here. They have been totally silent on this. What is that about? I just don’t understand how we can, as members of Congress, expect for the public to respect us when we don’t demonstrate that respect ourselves.’
Just about all that House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has substantively done is say that he discussed the violent video with Gosar privately. McCarthy also said on Tuesday that Gosar had “apologized” for the video… although he did not actually do so. Meanwhile, listen to Clyburn’s comments below:
