Congressman Paul Gosar is once again at the center of a controversy, this time for tweeting out an edited Attack on Titan video that shows him and other Republicans killing their Democratic rivals, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden.As reported by NBC News, Gosar shared the video on Twitter on Nov. 7. The video superimposes his face, as well the faces of other prominent Conservatives such as Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert, on the heroes of the Kodansha's popular manga and anime series Attack on Titan, as they swing through a city and kill several of the series' titular monsters, who have the faces of several well-known Democratic leaders on them, including AOC and the President. The video replaces the anime's logo with an alternate title, "Attack of the Immigrants." The video has been flagged by Twitter for violating its policies on "hateful conduct," but the social media network has decided to keep the tweet up as a matter of public record.
The video has spurred a strong response from many Democrats within Congress. "In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired," Representative Ted Lieu tweeted. AOC responded to the video herself, tweeting "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." The representative from New York added, "And he’ll face no consequences bc @GOPLeader (Kevin McCarthy) cheers him on with excuses." Missouri representative Cori Bush called for Gossar's expulsion, saying "Every day these white supremacists push the limits further and further to see how far they can go without consequences. This puts lives in danger. Enough with the violent bigotry," adding, "Expel this white supremacist clown."
President Biden has not responded to the video at this time.
Gosar is no stranger to controversy, as he has been characterized as one of the most prominent far-right members of the current Congress. The Arizona representative was a staunch supporter of former President Trump, has known connections to several white nationalist hate groups, and has spent much of 2021 trying to downplay the Jan. 6 insurrection. Gosar was introduced to many Americans outside of Arizona in 2018 when six of his own siblings endorsed the opposing candidate in the election, stating that they believed their brother was unfit for office due to his extremist stances on several issues, with his brother calling the representative a "Traitor to this country... a traitor to his family." Gosar has not responded to the backlash to the video, and has instead tweeted about how he believes the rioters who have been arrested due to their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack are being treated unfairly.