A Republican congressman tweeted a digitally edited video on Sunday that shows him in an anime-style version slaying Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and lunging with two swords at President Joe Biden. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) since has been in the line of fire with netizens slamming him for the insensitive post, which many believe violates social media platform rules of spreading hateful message.
But the video is still visible with a message now affixed to the tweet saying Twitter "determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible." However, Republicans are still mum on what Gosar did.
Unexpected Attack
On Sunday, Gosar took reference from popular Japanese anime Attack on Titan and shared a video on Twitter along with the caption: "Any anime fans out there?" The anime video opens with Gosar's name under Japanese text, which reads "attack of immigrants." It then goes on to show real clips of Gosar and Border Patrol agents spliced alongside scenes from the anime show's opening credits.
The video then shows a collection of clips of migrants walking and wading through water with effects of blood splattering on the screen. The clip then abruptly cuts to an MS13 gang member and the words "drugs, crime, poverty, money, gangs, violence" and "trafficking" appear.
In one scene, Gosar's face is superimposed on an animated figure that jumps in the air and then stabs a larger character that has AOC's face. In another shot, Gosar character is seen jumping at a giant Biden with two swords ready to strike.
A few seconds later, Gosar can be seen in the clip darting across a European-style city alongside House lawmakers Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Not in Good Taste
The 92-second video clip then ends with a mashup that includes migrants at the US border, former president Donald Trump and Gosar with his feet on a desk.
The video has since been slammed by a large section of people. It was also almost immediately flagged by Twitter for violating the social media platforms rules about hateful conduct.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Ca. called the post "sick behavior." "He tweeted out the video showing him killing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez from both his official account and personal account," Lieu posted on Twitter Monday.
"In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired."
It also didn't take long for AOC, a New York Democrat, to blast the video and Gosar. "So while I was en route to Glasgow, a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me. And he'll face no consequences bc @GOPLeader cheers him on with excuses," AOC said. "Fun Monday! Well, back to work bc institutions don't protect woc."
However, the Republicans haven't commented on Gosar's unexpected behavior. Gosar's siblings have worked to tell voters as often as possible that their brother is mentally ill and that he doesn't belong in Congress.
His colleagues are also calling on either censure or expulsion for Gosar. Expelling Gosar from Congress would take all Democratic members to vote for it and 70 Republicans. Thus far only one Republican has been willing to denounce what Gosar did.
On Monday, many have called on Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to act. It's unclear if there will be a vote to censure Gosar for the behavior.
