House Votes to Censure Paul Gosar Essentially Along Party Lines

Paul Gosar
(Photo by Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images)

The House voted to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) Wednesday, Nov. 17, stripping him of his positions on the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Natural Resources Committee. The virtually party-line vote came about after nearly 4 hours of debate. Every single Democrat current voted to censure, whereas all Republicans however six voted not to. Two GOP representatives, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, joined the Democrats, whereas a 3rd voted “present.” Another three didn’t vote in any respect.

The remaining rely was 223 to 207 in favor. Censures are uncommon. This was the primary in over a decade and just one of some dozen within the final couple of centuries.

Gosar posted an animated video to varied social media platforms that confirmed him slaying Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) with a sword and shifting on to do battle with President Biden. The backlash was rapid and fierce, and the video was shortly faraway from social media. House Democrats and their supporters referred to as the video a risk – Gosar argued it wasn’t. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated of the incident:

“When a member uses his or her national platform to encourage violence, tragically, people listen to those words and they may act upon them. Word spoken by elected officials weigh a ton. People hear them very differently.”

The glorification of the suggestion of the killing of a colleague is totally unacceptable,” stated Cheney. “And I think that it’s a clear violation of House rules. I think it’s a sad day.”

“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,” the Arizona congressman defined.

Paul Gosar
(Photo by Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images)

His argument that it was an allegory of the legislative battle over unlawful immigration and the Build Back Better Act fell totally on deaf ears, nonetheless. With a strong maintain over the House, the Democrats have been nearly sure to succeed of their try.

This vote doesn’t imply Gosar is out of Congress, but it surely does imply he loses his spot on any committees, which, in fact, means misplaced affect. Censure is taken into account the second most extreme punishment the House can levy in opposition to considered one of its members, and it solely requires a easy majority. While the formal condemnation of a member of Congress is alleged to negatively have an effect on re-election efforts, it appears unlikely Gosar’s constituents will change their opinion of him merely for being referred to as down by Democrats. Actual expulsion is the harshest punishment – and nearly actually Democratic leaders would have most popular this – but it surely requires a two-thirds majority, which Democrats merely couldn’t hope for.

~ Read extra from James Fite.