The House voted Wednesday to censure and remove Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona from his two committee assignments, marking the second time this year the Democrat-led chamber took punitive action against a Republican member for inflammatory rhetoric or online posts.
The six-term congressman came under fire for sharing a violent animated video on his social media that was edited to depict him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and attacking President Joe Biden. Gosar hasn't apologized for the content but has taken down the video and said he doesn't condone violence. While Republicans sought to handle the matter privately, Democrats quickly coalesced around a rare censure resolution.
In a nearly party-line vote, 223-207, the House adopted the resolution that also strips Gosar of his assignments on the National Resources Committee and the Oversight and Reform Committee – a panel on which Ocasio-Cortez also serves. Only two Republicans supported the resolution: Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. And one Republican, Rep. David Joyce of Ohio, voted present.
Gosar, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, becomes the first lawmaker to be censured in more than a decade, following the 2010 censure of the late Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York for an ethics violation. Censure is a public and formal condemnation but doesn't remove members from office. As is customary with a censure resolution, the member is expected to stand in the "well" or center of the House and listen to the speaker read it aloud.
"When a member uses his or her national platform to encourage violence, tragically people listen to those words and they may act upon them," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said. "This is about workplace harassment and violence against women."
"It is sad that this entire House must take this step because of the refusal of the leadership of the other party," she added.
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Ocasio-Cortez, an outspoken progressive member who is often the subject of national attention, is a frequent rhetorical target for Republicans. Democrats vigorously pushed back against Gosar's post, arguing that it targets a member of Congress and woman of color who already experiences numerous threats.
While most didn't support Wednesday's resolution, Republicans have previously disciplined their own members for incendiary behavior by taking away committee assignments. In 2019, the House GOP Steering Committee unanimously removed then-Rep. Steve King of Iowa from the panels he served on following a racist remark made to a publication.
But in the current Congress, Democrats have taken matters into their own hands when conflict arises and the member in question faces no consequences from his or her own party.
In February, Democrats – along with 11 Republicans – voted to strip GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia of her committee assignments over past incendiary remarks and conspiracy theories. Some Democrats wanted to go further and floated censure resolutions or expulsion of the freshman congresswoman, but no other punitive efforts gained momentum. And nine months later, they voted to censure Gosar with barely any GOP support.
Republicans bemoan what they describe as an overreach and a "dangerous precedent" set by the majority, arguing that this will come back to haunt them if the GOP wins back control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections.
Several GOP members criticized the contents of the post, saying they wouldn't have shared something like that on their own social media accounts. But all of them joined the Republican chorus that the rules aren't applied equally. They argue that Democrats don't reprimand their own members when they make inflammatory comments.
"This continues to set an extremely dangerous precedent for the future of the institution," said Rules Committee Ranking Member Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, continuing that the move gives the majority party "veto power" over committee assignments. He added that Democrats are "setting a standard for the minority that it does not set for itself."
For his part, Gosar released a statement last week addressing the controversy, saying he doesn't condone violence against colleagues or the president. He defended the video his staff posted by arguing that it depicts a "symbolic" fight over Democrats' $1.75 trillion social spending legislation and the party's immigration agenda.
The congressman spoke before a private House GOP conference meeting on Tuesday to explain his intentions. And in public comments prior to Wednesday's vote, Gosar vehemently dismissed the notion that what his office posted was threatening.
"I voluntarily took the cartoon down not because it was itself a threat but because some thought it was. Out of compassion for those who genuinely felt offense, I self-censored," Gosar said from the House floor. "There is no threat in the cartoon other than the threat immigration poses to our country. And no threat was intended by my staff or me."
Some Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, argue the party should go even further than censure and consider expulsion. But the congresswoman herself agreed with the process of censuring Gosar as a way of showing that what members of Congress say carries weight with Americans.
"This is not just about me or this is not about Rep. Gosar, but this is about what we are willing to accept," Ocasio-Cortez said before the vote, arguing that dismissing rhetoric from lawmakers implies "that what we say and what we do does not matter so long as we claim a lack of meaning."
"And I am here to rise to say that it does," she added. "Our work here matters. Our example matters."
