House Speaker Calls for Investigations Into Gosar Over Video

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Tuesday called for multiple investigations into Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., following his tweeting of an animated video that shows him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and threatening President Biden.

“Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated,” Pelosi tweeted Tuesday from Glasgow, Scotland, where she is attending the COP26 climate talks.

She went on to urge House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to join Democrats “in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate.”

Gosar responded to the controversy by tweeting the images of two characters, one a monster, on the left, saying, “Your cartoon anime scares me with your jetpack flying and light sabers,” and a better groomed character on the right, saying, “It’s a cartoon, relax.”

The controversy erupted Sunday, when Gosar tweeted a photoshopped, Japanese anime-style video that depicts him and two other conservative Republicans, Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Margorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., fighting a battle to defend Washington and the nation from Democrats.

The animated scenes are interspersed with footage of migrants approaching the southern U.S. border overlaid with red splatters that look like blood.

Elsewhere in the video, the words “drugs,” “crime,” “poverty,” “money,” “murder,” and “gangs,” flash across the screen. 

In one critical sequence in the 1-minute, 32-second video Gosar kills another character, baring the face of Ocasio-Cortez, by cutting her head off from behind.

The video concludes with Gosar, two swords in hand, taking a flying leap toward an image of President Biden.

The headline above it all in the Twitter post: “Any anime fans out there?”

Twitter placed a message in its space that said, “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct.”

However, the notice went on to say, “Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible,” inviting viewers to click on a link and see the original post.

Ocasio-Cortez responded Monday night after arriving at the climate summit, tweeting, “So while I was en route to Glasgow, a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me.”

She goes on to say she knows Gosar will face no consequences because Republican Leader McCarthy “cheers him on with excuses.”

“Fun Monday!” she said.

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., also weighed in with a tweet that said, “This is sick behavior from Rep. Paul Gosar. He tweeted out the video showing him killing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez from both his official account and personal account. In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue