Earlier this month, far-right Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona tweeted a bizarrely edited video of the opening sequence of the anime series Attack on Titan.
The video portrayed Gosar and other far-right representatives as warriors, and featured Gosar killing progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York with a blow to the head, as well as brandishing swords at President Joe Biden.
Democrats and some Republicans admonished Gosar, a repeat defender of Capitol insurrectionists, for promoting violence against political opponents.
And on Wednesday, the House of Representatives considered a motion to censure Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments.
As members debated the motion, Republicans chastised Gosar's critics with claims they were being hysterical over a joke.
Ocasio-Cortez rose to counter this idea:
"I have seen other Members of [the GOP] advance the argument, including Representative Gosar himself, the illusion that this was just a joke, that what we say and what we do does not matter so long as we claim a lack of meaning.
This nihilism runs deep, and it conveys and betrays a certain contempt for the meaning and importance of our work here; that what we do, so long as we claim that it is a joke, doesn't matter; that what we say here doesn't matter; that our actions, every day, as elected leaders in the United States of America don't matter; that this Chamber and what happens in it doesn't matter. I am here to rise to say that it does. Our work here matters. Our example matters."
Mostly along party lines, the House voted to pass the resolution, censuring Gosar and tossing him from his congressional committees.
But judging by his social media behavior, the representative is unrepentant.
Only minutes after the vote, Gosar retweeted praise featuring the very video that got him censured.
People were repulsed by Gosar's flippancy.
Some want to see Gosar expelled from Congress altogether.
Expulsion, however, is unlikely.
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