Pelosi pressures McCarthy to act amid Gosar video backlash
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has weighed in on the scandal surrounding Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who on Sunday evening tweeted an animated video in which he kills Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and attacks President Biden. Twitter has since flagged the post as a violation of the platform's "hateful conduct" rules.
"Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated," Pelosi wrote on Twitter. "[House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)] should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate."
The speaker isn't the only one putting pressure on the minority leader.
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Also on Tuesday, a group of Democratic lawmakers issued a joint statement asking McCarthy to take action over the incident. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) shared his take, as well.
But don't think Gosar hasn't gotten his measure of backlash, as well. On Monday, squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said Gosar's postings have "no place in our political discourse and society."
Former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh called for Gosar to be censured — though the GOP "won't do a damn thing to him," he wrote.
All this arrives amid reports McCarthy wants to "punish" the 13 House Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which the House passed late Friday night.
Only "time will tell" how McCarthy handles the situation, argued MSNBC's Steve Benen, but his "best guess is that the House GOP leadership will say something mild and meaningless about the 'tone' on Capitol Hill, before waiting for the story to fade away."
But of course, added Benen, "the more McCarthy tolerates his members' radicalism, the more radicalism our system will be asked to endure."
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