This Man Is Unwell And Is Unfit To Serve In Congress

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Last week Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was censured by his congressional colleagues for an anime fantasy “snuff video” in which he kills a fellow member of Congress and threatens the life of president Biden (this should earn him a visit from the Secret Service).

In any workplace other than the U.S. Congress, this would result in your termination and a referral to the local police department for investigation as a CYA by the employer.

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Paul Gosar was censured and removed from his committee assignments (as if he was doing any real work) which just freed up more time for him to engage in being an internet troll, which is all that he does with his time in any event.

Which is exactly what he did after leaving the floor of the Congress following his censure. The Daily Beast reports, Paul Gosar Boasts of His ‘Thug Life’ Cred as His Own Family Demands His Ouster Over Violent Murder Video:

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) appears to be relishing the backlash over his decision to share a violent murder fantasy on Twitter even after the move got him formally censured by the House.

Just hours after he was stripped of all committee assignments on Wednesday, the Arizona Republican took to Gettr to share a meme boasting that he’d gained some kind of “thug life” cred. The “Gosar Life” meme featured a photo of the lawmaker with dark sunglasses and an oversize gold chain superimposed over him—along with a supposed joint sticking out of his mouth.

He captioned the meme “can’t keep me down” and in an accompanying video accused Democrats of attempting to “take away my America First agenda.” It was not immediately clear what the “America First agenda” had to do with the anime video he shared that depicted him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

He has refused to apologize for sharing the video and blamed his own staff for posting the violent clip, which he claimed was an innocent depiction of a “policy battle.”

He then retweeted the video late Wednesday, even as his own family condemned him for it—with his brother calling for his expulsion and even suggesting criminal charges.

“I believe he’s dangerous, unhinged, and is reckless,” Tim Gosar told MSNBC in the wake of the House censure. “And is somebody that, as I’ve said before, needs to not only be censured but he needs to be expelled.”

He said criminal charges should be brought if authorities deem them to be warranted.

“To be honest with you, it is about time,” Jennifer Gosar told MSNBC, calling the anime video shared by her brother “sinister” and “bone-chilling.”

She said the video marked an “escalation” in the lawmaker’s incendiary antics, noting that “this is not the first time my brother has threatened the life of representatives.”

Several of Paul Gosar’s siblings have spoken out against him in recent years as he has gone further and further off the rails. Just a month after inciting Trump supporters ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot and reportedly offering a “blanket pardon” to Stop the Steal organizers, Gosarspoke at a far-right, white-nationalist convention.

He was accused directly of orchestrating the attempted Capitol insurrection by three of his siblings, including Jennifer and Tim Gosar, in a video aired on Fox News this year that called for “criminal consequences.”

It’s not just Paul Gosar who is unwell, it’s the whole damn MAGA personality cult of Donald Trump. Trump endorses Gosar as Republicans rally around the lawmaker who posted an altered anime video with himself killing a colleague:

Former president Donald Trump and House Republicans rallied behind Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) Thursday, a day after he was censured for posting an altered anime video of himself killing a colleague, endorsing his reelection and signaling he would be given better committee assignments if Republicans win control of the House in 2022.

Trump praised Gosar, who has served in Congress for a a decade and earlier this year appeared at an event whose organizer has defended racial segregation and minimized the Holocaust, as “a loyal supporter of our America First agenda, and even more importantly, the USA.”

Trump said in a statement, “Paul is a Congressman who is highly respected in Arizona [not!], strong on Crime, Borders, our Military, and our Veterans. He continually fights for Lower Taxes, Less Regulations, and our great, but under siege, Second Amendment. Paul A. Gosar has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

Earlier in the day, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also said that he would probably give Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) better committee assignments if Republicans win the majority in the midterm elections next year, dismissing the lawmakers’ embrace of violent rhetoric and imagery against Democrats.

Gosar and Greene would not only be given committee assignments but might even be rewarded with more highly coveted ones, McCarthy said. “They may have other committee assignments. They may have better committee assignments,” he said. “I think with Gosar, those are the ones he wants. Taylor Greene, she was just a freshman. I know she has requested others. She has the right to serve on committees.”

The comments come one day after the House censured Gosar for tweeting an anime video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and swinging swords toward President Biden. Gosar said that he wasn’t promoting violence and has not apologized for sharing the video. He is also soliciting the names of Democrats who should be stripped of their committee assignments in a Republican-controlled House.

Trump and McCarthy’s remarks underscore that the festering distrust among members of Congress after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is only likely to worsen in the lead-up to next year’s midterm elections.

* * *

Democrats have expressed increasing alarm about violent political rhetoric 10 months after a mob of Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol. But beyond brief mentions of not condoning violence, few Republicans have directed any criticism at Gosar for posting a video last week depicting himself plunging a sword into the back of a colleague’s neck.

Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) said Republicans’ continued support for Gosar is a reflection of a larger issue rooted in their leadership’s fear of being alienated from their party’s base.

“This is crazy stuff because there has never been a time in American history, except maybe the Civil War era, when violence was condoned, whether implicitly or explicitly, from within the United States Congress,” he said in an interview Thursday. “It’s not asking much to simply have the minority leader condemn the actions of one of his own members that risks initiating violence against a colleague, especially given what we saw happen on Jan. 6, which was just earlier this year.”

Jones said he fears the Republican Party is abandoning democracy in an effort to “seize power by any means necessary, including deadly force.”

Jennifer Rubin adds, Republicans define themselves by misogyny and violence (excerpt):

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, Never Trumpers (now largely ex-Republicans) warned that he would corrupt the party in every way imaginable. His misogyny would morph in the party’s toxic masculinity and degradation of women, they cautioned. His infatuation with brutality and violence (boasting he would kill terrorists’ families, exhorting his supporters to slug protesters) would metastasize to the party as a whole. Boy, did those predictions pan out.

You only have to look at the vicious imagery showing the murder of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) deployed by Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), the verbal attack on her from Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) last year — and Republicans’ defense of both — to understand that their refusal to dump Trump after the “Access Hollywood” tape came to light was merely the prelude to an era of normalizing violence (especially against women), culminating in the Jan. 6 violent insurrection, which many Republicans, including Trump, tried to paint as nonviolent.

* * *

Sadly, it is not just politicians who are to blame. Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI, drills down on the views of the GOP’s core base, White evangelicals. He writes:

One quarter of white evangelical Protestants (26%) and three in ten Republicans (30%) agree today that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence if that’s what it takes to save the country.”

Among the three fourths of white evangelicals who believe God has granted America a special place in history, support for violence rises to 30%. And among the two thirds of Republicans who believe the election was stolen from Donald Trump, support for violence rises to 39%.

We saw on Jan. 6 how MAGA fanatics took calls to “stop the steal” literally, launching a violent assault on the electoral vote-counting process. In short, if anyone thinks casual, incessant talk of violence and overt misogyny will not impact the rabid Trump base, think again. (Recall that in the wake of Trump mocking the “Asian flu” or “China flu,” we saw a spate of violent attacks on Asian Americans.) As Jones says, “Today, for an alarming number of white conservative Christians, the mark of Christian faithfulness is not a love that inspires them to lay down their lives for their friends, but a defensiveness that lures them to take the lives of their fellow citizens.”

And even if no one acts upon Republicans’ incendiary language, the specter of a violent mob, of street justice, injures our democracy, which depends on the peaceful resolution of differences and the rule of law. When the threat of violence looms without response, democracy shrivels. For now, Republicans show no sign of letting up.

It’s all fun and games to these GQP thugs, until someone actually gets killed. Then it will be too late. Even then their response will still be “not sorry.”





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