"Congressman Gosar Cannot Fly"

He doesn't need to; he knows he won't be held accountable for anything

Rep. Paul Gosar was censured by House Democrats and stripped of his committee assignments Wednesday, 10 days after tweeting a video depicting himself as an anime character assassinating progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden.

Just two Republicans, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, joined all House Democrats in supporting the measure, which passed 223-207. One Republican, Dave Joyce of Ohio, voted “present.”

Prior to the vote, Ocasio-Cortez ripped House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on the floor over what she deemed his lack of response to Gosar’s (R-Ariz.) video — which she decried as “racist misogyny.” 

“It is a sad day in which a member who leads a political party in the United States of America cannot bring themselves to say that issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong and instead decides to venture off into a tangent about gas prices and inflation,” she said.

“What is so hard, what is so hard about saying that this is wrong? This is not about me. This is not about Rep. Gosar, but this is about what we are willing to accept.”

There’s no argument that Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is a miserable excuse for a (barely) human being. But, when even his own family has publicly rejected him and, in 2018, endorsed his Democratic opponent, you know you’re dealing with someone in possession of few positive human traits.

So it was no surprise when he posted a video on Twitter that showed him (in anime form) killing Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and President Joe Biden. I haven’t seen the video, though I’ve seen a couple of screenshots from it. That was enough for me. If you or I had done the same thing featuring a coworker, we would’ve been immediately (and justifiably) fired for cause.

Of course, this being Congress we’re talking about, and Gosar being a Republican, consequences are often hard to come by, no matter how egregious or offensive the behavior in question.

For most Republicans in Congress, though, it was just another “boys will be boys moment”: Eh, nothing to see here. No one got hurt. AOC should put on her big girl panties and grow up. Except that posting a video that features you murdering a coworker shouldn’t be considered just another day at the office. Indeed, it would seem the very definition of a hostile work environment.

So convinced was Gosar of his righteousness that he re-shared the video in question after the House voted to censure him, proving once again that the line between “class” and “ass” is exceedingly thin.

Republicans see no reason to get exercised when one of their own acts like a flaming asshole. But should a Democrat, Liberal, or someone associated with them engage in a similar misstep, and it’s “OMIGOD, WE WANT THEIR HEAD ON A PLATTER NOW FOR BEING SUCH A HORRIBLE HUMAN BEING!!! HOW COULD THEY DO SUCH A TERRIBLE, AWFUL, VERY BAD THING???”

In May of 2017, comedian Kathy Griffin posed for a photo holding a mask of Donald Trump’s face made up to look like a severed, bloody head. The image, which was an afterthought at the end of a photoshoot, nearly ended her career. However, the hue and cry and weeping and gnashing of teeth that emanated from the Far-Right were as hypocritical as it was intended to cancel Griffin.

It almost succeeded.

On Tuesday morning, Griffin retweeted Twitter user @flexghost1's tweet which read, "Kathy Griffin got a visit from the secret service over a tasteless joke. Gosar made a video showing him murder AOC and the president. Are there ever repercussions for R's [Republicans]?"

Above @flexghost1's tweet, Griffin wrote that she was "fully investigated" by the Secret Service and the U.S. Attorney's Office for her Trump image. She was also put on the no-fly and Interpol lists, she said. Additionally, she lost all of her professional work and had her comedy tour canceled due to threats of violence, Griffin added.

Griffin wrote that her First Amendment had been "legitimately violated" by the federal government and attorney general.

"Oh, I forgot to mention," Griffin added in a follow-up tweet, "interrogated under oath at the conclusion of the weeks long investigation in which the Feds informed me and my attorneys they were considering charging me with a crime of 'conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States.'"

"But Gosar ..." she concluded.

Lemme clear this up. I was the ONLY one to be

Fully investigated by 2 federal agencies: the Secret Service & the US Attorneys Office.

Put on the No-Fly list & the Interpol list.

Lost all work.Tour canceled due to threats of violence.

1A legitimately violated by TFG & AG. https://t.co/DaJZ1dZpei

— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) November 9, 2021

Gosar, however, got off with the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. Boys will be boys, eh?

Paul Gosar is, of course, a Conservative Republican, and, as we all know, Conservative Republicans are in almost all cases above consequences. If he’d been a Democrat in a Republican-controlled House, it’s a virtual certainty that the Republican majority would’ve expelled him.

Meanwhile, Gosar and his supporters are left to whine and moan about “cancel culture”…because they don’t understand the meaning of “consequence culture.”

In a statement published on Tuesday, Gosar wrote, "This video is truly a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy."

He wrote that he posted the video in protest to Ocasio-Cortez and Biden's alleged support of "open border amnesty," which would "leave the border open while illegal aliens invade from all points."

"I do not espouse violence or harm," Gosar wrote. "The cartoon depicts the symbolic nature of a battle between lawful and unlawful policies and in no way intended to be a targeted attack against Representative Cortez or Mr. Biden."

"It is a symbolic cartoon," his statement continued. "It is not real life. Congressman Gosar cannot fly. The hero of the cartoon goes after the monster, the policy monster of open borders."

Do you see what’s happening? It’s just a misunderstanding over matters of artistic interpretation. Gosar is just into graphic symbolism as a means of illustrating his disgust over what he perceives as the Biden Administration’s “open borders” policy. And as for AOC…well, she represents the hot cheerleaders who wouldn’t schtup Gosar when he was in high school.

(If he was the same creepy sociopath then, who could blame the poor girls for being smart enough to avoid having anything to do with him.)

For a guy who with no sense of irony claims, “I do not espouse violence or harm,” Gosar certainly has an odd way of demonstrating his pacifism.

Of course, it’s not like he’s Kathy Griffin or anything.

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