Pelosi says Gosar’s AOC murder video is ‘emergency’ requiring censure
Arizona representative will be the second Republican House member to lose committee assignments this year
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Your support makes all the difference.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said the decision to act on a resolution to censure Arizona Representative Paul Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments for promoting an animated video depicting him murdering a Democratic congresswoman and threatening the president may have exposed the Republican ex-dentist to criminal liability.
Asked why Democrats were moving so quickly to censure Mr Gosar, Ms Pelosi replied: “Because it’s an emergency”.
The California Democrat said Mr Gosar’s video targeting New York progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised “legal matters in terms of threatening a member and threatening the president of the United States”.
“”We have to address it immediately, and I’m so pleased that our members understand that this is central to our work in Congress that we protect the integrity of the House, of the institution, but also the lives of our members,” Ms Pelosi added.
The speaker’s remarks came shortly before the House began debate on a resolution that, if approved, would make Mr Gosar the 25th member of the House to be officially censured by his or her colleagues.
The last time a member suffered that penalty was 2010, when the House voted to censure New York Representative Charlie Rangel, a Harlem Democrat who had made improper financial disclosures by not reporting income from rental properties and allegedly evaded taxes he should have paid on a parking space and his Washington, DC home.
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