WASHINGTON -- The House voted Wednesday to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword, an extraordinary rebuke that highlighted the political strains testing Washington and the country.
Calling the video a clear threat to a lawmaker's life, Democrats argued that Gosar's conduct would not be tolerated in any other workplace -- and shouldn't be in Congress.
The vote to censure Gosar and remove him from his House committee assignments was approved by a vote of 223-207, almost entirely along party lines, with Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois the only Republicans voting in favor.
Gosar showed no emotion as he stood in the well of the House after the vote, flanked by roughly a dozen Republicans as Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the censure resolution and announced his committee penalty. He shook hands, hugged and patted other members of the GOP conference on the back before leaving the chamber.
This is not the first brush with controversy for Gosar, who was first elected in 2010's tea party wave. He has been repeatedly criticized by his own siblings, six of whom appeared in campaign ads supporting his Democratic opponent in 2018.
Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the vote an "abuse of power" by Democrats to distract from national problems. He said of the censure, a "new standard will continue to be applied in the future," a signal of potential ramifications for Democratic members should Republicans retake a majority.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » arkansasonline.com/1118gosar/]
But Democrats said there was nothing political about it.
"These actions demand a response. We cannot have members joking about murdering each other," said Pelosi. "This is both an endangerment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution."
Ocasio-Cortez said in an impassioned speech, "When we incite violence with depictions against our colleagues, that trickles down to violence in this country. And that is where we must draw the line."
Unrepentant during tense floor debate, Gosar rejected what he called the "mischaracterization" that the cartoon was "dangerous or threatening. It was not."
"I do not espouse violence toward anyone. I never have. It was not my purpose to make anyone upset," Gosar said.
He compared himself to Alexander Hamilton, whose censure vote in the House was defeated: "If I must join Alexander Hamilton, the first person attempted to be censured by this House, so be it, it is done."
The decision to censure Gosar, one of the strongest punishments the House can dole out, was just the fourth in nearly 40 years -- and just the latest example of the raw tensions that have roiled Congress since the 2020 election and the violent Capitol insurrection that followed.
Gosar is the 24th House member to be censured. Though it carries no practical effect, except to provide a historic footnote that marks a lawmaker's career, it is the strongest punishment the House can issue short of expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote.
Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was the last to receive the rebuke in 2010 for financial misconduct.
It would also be the second time this year the House has initiated the removal of a GOP lawmaker from an assigned committee, the first being Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Democrats spoke not only of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, but also the violent attacks that have escalated on both parties, including the 2017 shooting of Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game and the 2011 shooting of former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords as she met with constituents at an event outside a Tucson grocery store.
Republicans largely dismissed Gosar's video as nothing more than a cartoon, a routine form of political expression and hardly the most important issue facing Congress.
The resolution will remove Gosar from two committees: Natural Resources and the Oversight and Reform panel, on which Ocasio-Cortez also serves, limiting his ability to shape legislation and deliver for constituents. It states that depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials, citing the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as an example.
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram and Farnoush Amiri of The Associated Press.