The sister of an Arizona congressman who shared a video depicting him as an anime character battling a monster with the face of Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that her brother needs to face consequences from congressional leadership.
Jennifer Gosar appeared on Monday evening’s broadcast of The Last Word on MSNBC, where she told Lawrence O’Donnell that Mr Gosar was “getting worse” due to a lack of repercussions for his past spread of conspiracy theories and involvement in events preceding the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
“He has not been held accountable in any way, shape or form,” Ms Gosar said on Monday. “He’s not been censured, he’s not been expelled, and he’s not had his seat forfeited.”
“Where are these people?” she continued, referring to members of congressional leadership, as well as Attorney General Merrick Garland, all of whom she said needed to take action against what Ms Gosar characterised as a serious threat to the New York congresswoman. “Does he need to act on his sociopathic fantasy for Representative Ocasio-Cortez?”
Mr Gosar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent regarding the remarks of the congressman’s sister, who along with five of her siblings endorsed their brother’s Democratic challenger, David Brill, in a 2018 campaign ad that made headlines for the unconventional family warfare that was occurring on Arizonans’ televisions.
The video causing the controversy is a short clip shared by the congressman and created by his team in which Mr Gosar’s face along with two other Republicans are edited into the opening credits of the Netflix anime Attack on Titan. In the video, the trio is seen battling (and killing) a giant monster edited with the face of Ms Ocasio-Cortez, as well as another creature bearing the likeness of President Joe Biden.
One of Mr Gosar’s colleagues, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, was removed from her House committee assignments (where the majority of work takes place) earlier this year after a series of videos were uncovered of her espousing wild conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, harassing survivors of a school shooting on the street, and crucially, expressing support for violence against Democrats in Congress including Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She has since apologised for some of her comments.
The congressman’s staff denied to The Independent in an email on Monday evening that the clip promoted violence against Democrats.
“We made an anime video. 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,” said a spokesperson for Mr Gosar, who added that the video was about “fighting for truth”.
Mr Gosar later addressed the outrage on Twitter, sharing a meme urging critics to “relax”.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez responded on her own Twitter, writing that the “creepy” Arizona Republican would likely not face consequences due to resistance from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
“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 [Mr McCarthy] cheers him on with excuses. Fun Monday! Well, back to work [because] institutions don’t protect [women of colour],” tweeted the congresswoman.
