Paul Gosar Twitter video incident

On November 7, 2021, Paul Gosar, a United States representative from Arizona, posted on Twitter a video clip from the Japanese anime series Attack on Titan, edited to depict a character with Gosar's face killing a character with the superimposed face of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as attacking a character representing President Joe Biden. The video received heavy criticism and was perceived to be a threat on Ocasio-Cortez's and Biden's lives, while Gosar insisted that the video was meant to be "entertaining".
Background
In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic primary for New York's 14th congressional district, unseating the ten-term incumbent Joseph Crowley in an . Ocasio-Cortez, whose policies generally align with those of democratic socialism, has clashed with Republicans on many issues. One of the Republicans with whom she has disagreed most is Gosar, considered by many commentators to be one of the most far-right American politicians.
Incident
On November 7, 2021, Gosar posted a video to his official Twitter account showing the opening sequence from the anime series Attack on Titan, edited to depict the faces of himself, other Republican politicians, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and President Joe Biden superimposed on various characters, including one scene depicting Gosar attacking Ocasio-Cortez and Biden with swords.
Aftermath
Republican members of the House of Representatives did not condemn the video or Gosar's post. Ocasio-Cortez responded that she believed the video was "part of a pattern that normalizes violence". The House voted to censure Gosar, mostly along party lines. The last time the House censured a lawmaker was in 2010, with the censuring of Charles B. Rangel (D-NY). Gosar insisted that the video did not pose a threat and was intended to be "entertaining".
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, called for the House Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate it as a threat. On November 17, 2021, Gosar was censured for the post and removed from committee assignments by a 223-207 vote, making him the 24th House member to be censured in American history, and by the narrowest margin. The vote was mainly along party lines; only two Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, voted with the Democrats, while "about a dozen Republicans stood beside Gosar in a show of support", according to The Washington Post. (One Republican, David P. Joyce, voted "present".) Minutes after being censured, he retweeted the offending video again. The next day, Donald Trump endorsed Gosar for his 2022 reelection bid, while House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said he would likely give Gosar better committee assignments if Republicans won the House in 2022.
Democratic representative Eric Swalwell also criticized Gosar for making the video, stating in a tweet: "Happy Monday in America, where @GOPLeader McCarthy's colleague just posted a video of himself swinging two swords at President Biden. These blood thirsty losers are more comfortable with violence than voting. Keep exposing them." Ted Lieu, a representative from California, also condemned the tweet, stating that "in any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired", and referring to Gosar's conduct as "sick behavior".<ref name"WaPo" /> Twitter placed a notice on the tweet, stating that it violated the platform's rules but could be left up in the interest of the public.<ref name"WaPo" /> Gosar's digital director, however, refused to back down, saying that it was "just an anime video" and that "the left doesn't get meme culture".<ref name"WaPo" /> Gosar later deleted the video.<ref name"LATimes"/>

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