House Democrats on Wednesday called to formally censure GOP Representative Paul Gosar over a controversial anime edit depicting the death of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Joe Biden.
"[...] Depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials, as witnessed in this chamber on January 6, 2021", the resolution calling for censure reads.
The resolution came after Gosar posted a short clip from the anime "Attack on Titan", with images of AOC and Joe Biden edited in to make it look like they are the villain titans that are slaughtered by the main characters.
While the GOP representative defended the now-deleted post as a "symbolic cartoon" that does not "espouse violence" toward any elected official, attributing it to his team's creativity that was "off the hook", his creative take ignited Twitter-wide fury.
Many fellow lawmakers, along with some netizens, blasted the clip as sickening and potentially dangerous. Ocasio-Cortez herself commented on the edit, calling Gosar "creepy" and describing the clip as a "fantasy video of him killing me".
Biden has not commented on the video, but White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a Tuesday press conference that "this should not be happening, and we should be condemning it".
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was apparently also not impressed by the Gosar team's creativity, called for an ethics investigation into the Republican representative.
"Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated", Pelosi stated. "[Kevin McCarthy] should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate".
Censuring is a rare occasion in Congress, although this is not the first time that Democrats call for the censure of a GOP lawmaker. Earlier, they tried to censure Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene after she compared COVID-19 restrictions to the Holocaust, but the effort came to nought after she apologised.
The latest censure, however, was received by a Democratic lawmaker, Representative Charlie Rangel, 11 years ago over ethics violations. At the time, it was the first occasion of censure in 27 years.