During an appearance on MSNBC, Tim Gosar — a brother of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) — called for the Arizona Congressman to be expelled from Congress over an edited, partly animated video that he posted depicting him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). On Wednesday, Gosar was censured by the House and removed from his committee assignments in the chamber in response to the video, but Tim — like others — sees expelling Paul from the chamber entirely as an option that should be pursued. Unfortunately, expelling a member from the House requires the agreement of two-thirds of the chamber, and relying on Republicans to come through on issues of integrity hasn’t exactly proven to be prudent so far.
Asked about the censure vote, Tim said as follows:
‘It’s almost surreal. But [dealing with Paul is] a process that we started quite a few years ago when we realized that we needed to step up and counter some of the dangerous, unhinged things that he was doing… It’s disappointing that we’re in this position, but I believe that it comes down to a choice, and that is: do you support somebody that’s reckless? That’s dangerous? That’s unhinged? Or do you step up and work for the soul of our country and promote our democracy and the future for our kids? I think there is no choice, given those two.’
Asked more directly about whether he believed his brother to be dangerous, Tim added the following:
‘I believe he’s dangerous, unhinged, and is reckless, and is somebody that needs to not only be censured, but he needs to be expelled. And if at the end of that process, if he gets expelled, and criminal charges are warranted, then criminal charges should be brought as well.’
Watch Tim’s comments below:
Predictably, Paul has refused to apologize for posting the original video in question, although a selection of his fellow Republicans including House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) have spoken as though Gosar did, in fact, apologize. In actuality, the Congressman has defended the video — in remarks delivered on the floor of the House this Wednesday, he self-confidently insisted that the video “directly contributes to the understanding and the discussion of the real-life battle resulting from this administration’s open border policies.” Firstly: the Biden administration does not have “open border” policies, and pretending otherwise is mind-numbingly ridiculous. More directly, Gosar’s remarks have got to be one of the most arrogant defenses imaginable for such a harebrained post.
