(Bloomberg) — The U.S. House will vote Wednesday on two resolutions intended to punish Representative Paul Gosar for tweeting an altered anime video that depicted him attacking President Joe Biden and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Democrats, who have a majority in the chamber, will bring a resolution formally censuring Gosar to a vote along with another stripping him of his seats on the Oversight and Natural Resource Committees, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Gosar, an Arizona Republican, serves with Ocasio-Cortez on the Oversight Committee.
He removed the video from social media but only after it garnered millions of views and drew widespread condemnation from Democrats.
“That is simply unacceptable and demeaning and dangerous to the environment of the House,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters. “We are a democracy not a threatening violent Third World country”
Ocasio-Cortez said Gosar is using threats of violence against her for his own political gain and should be expelled from the House.
“I think threatening the life of a colleague is grounds for expulsion. But given that, the Republican Party is, especially the leader, is too cowardly to really enforce any sort of standard of conduct,” Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday. “I believe that given that reality, censure and committee removal is the next most appropriate step.”
Republican leaders oppose the move. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy told CNN Monday that he called Gosar after the tweet was posted but didn’t directly express a view on it.
“He took the video down and he made a statement that he doesn’t support violence to anybody,” McCarthy said. “I called him when I heard about the video, and he made a statement that he doesn’t support violence, and he took the video down.”
At least one Republican, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, will vote to censure Gosar. Kinzinger, who is not running for re-election, has been critical of his party and is one of only two Republicans sitting on the panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
“We have to hold members accountable who incite or glorify violence, who spread and perpetuate dangerous conspiracies,” Kinzinger tweeted. “The failure to do so will take us one step closer to this fantasized violence becoming real.”
Altered Video
The video is an altered version of a popular Japanese television series called “Attack on Titan,” which is about humans hiding behind walls to protect themselves from marauding giants called Titans. In the clip, the title is manipulated to say “Immigrant Attack” in Japanese.
In a statement last week, Gosar said the video was mischaracterized and that he is not advocating violence against Biden or any member of Congress. “This video is truly a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy,” he said in the statement.
Ocasio-Cortez has said she is paying for additional security because she is concerned about her safety.
“If any member of Congress’s life is threatened, they have to fundraise for their own safety,” she said. “I mean, it’s ludicrous.”
A vote to censure is essentially an admonishment that requires a simple majority. Gosar will have to stand in the well of the House while the Speaker or presiding officer reads aloud the censure resolution.
Earlier this year, Democrats stripped Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, of her committee assignments over her violent rhetoric.
(Updates with detail in the second paragraph, Kinzinger in 11th and 12th paragraphs)
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