disturbing
GOP Rep. Paul Gosar posts doctored video depicting him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
One day after Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) posted an altered anime video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and attacking President Biden, Twitter put a label on the post, saying it violated the company's rules "about hateful conduct."
The 90-second video is still up, however, because "Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible." A spokesperson for Twitter told Axios on Monday that users won't be able to like, reply, or retweet the post.
Gosar shared the video on Instagram and Twitter on Sunday night with the caption, "Any anime fans out there?" He also retweeted it from his personal account, saying "the creativity of my team is off the hook." In the video, Gosar, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) are depicted as characters from the anime Attack on Titan. The faces of Ocasio-Cortez and Biden are superimposed over two villains, and Gosar's character kills Ocasio-Cortez and attacks Biden.
In response, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Gosar is "creepy" and predicted that even though he "shared a fantasy video of him killing me," he won't face any consequences because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) "cheers him on with excuses." Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) also called Gosar's behavior "sick," adding, "In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired."
When Gosar was running for office, six of his siblings urged Arizonans to vote against him, and they have since pressed him to leave office. His sister Jennifer Gosar appeared on MSNBC on Monday night to speak out against the doctored video, saying she is "very concerned" about his "sociopathic" and "unacceptable" conduct.