Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) is a right-wing extremist who has hobnobbed with white supremacists, pushed conspiracy theories about the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and, as Rolling Stone reported last month, helped plan the events that turned violent on Jan. 6.
He’s also a deeply strange man who has employed a deeply strange staff that has been producing deeply strange hype videos for the Arizona representative. Gosar shared what may be the strangest — and is certainly the most disgusting — among them on Sunday: a crudely edited anime video of himself and other extremist lawmakers violently thwarting President Biden’s immigration agenda. It also features a quick clip of Gosar killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) with a sword. “The creativity of my team is off the hook,” Gosar wrote.
Ocasio-Cortez responded on Monday night, calling Gosar a “creepy member” who “fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups.” She pointed out that just like after former Rep. Ted Yoho called her a “fucking bitch” on the steps of Congress, and just like after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) harassed her and “stalked [her] office the 1st time w/ insurrectionists & ppl locked inside,” Gosar is unlikely to face any consequences for broadcasting a fantasy video of himself gruesomely maiming a female colleague.
She also called Gosar “a collection of wet toothpicks.”
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.
Fun Monday! Well, back to work bc institutions don’t protect woc https://t.co/XRnMAKsnNO
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 9, 2021
The anime clip wasn’t the only anti-immigration video Gosar posted over the weekend. On Saturday, he tweeted a bizarre video of a compressed version of himself getting up from his desk and waddling down a hallway. “Me omw to end immigration,” he wrote.
Me omw to end immigration. pic.twitter.com/oa78dh3dZV
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) November 6, 2021
Gosar’s office defended the anime video of himself killing Ocasio-Cortez on Monday. “We made an anime video,” his digital director, Jessica Lycos, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Everyone needs to relax. The left doesn’t get meme culture. They have no joy. They are not the future. It’s a cartoon. Gosar can’t fly and he does not own any light sabers. Nor was violence glorified. This is about fighting for truth.”
It’s pretty hard to argue that the video doesn’t glorify violence, though, or that such glorification of violence is a “joke” considering what happened on Jan. 6 and how regularly Ocasio-Cortez’s life is threatened.
The Democrat from New York chalked it up to white supremacy and insecurity in her Twitter thread responding to the video. “White supremacy is for extremely fragile people & sad men like him whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior because deep down he knows he couldn’t open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself,” she concluded.
