The House of Representatives plans to vote on Wednesday to censor Gosar, which will strip 1 of his committees
Gosar, who later took down the video after facing criticism but not apologizing, sat on the Oversight Committee with Ocasio-Cortez. He also sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Before Wednesday’s vote was announced, Gosar refused to answer any questions about his tweets about the violent video, walking in silence. He wouldn’t say whether he regrets it or explain the complaint he made internally that he didn’t watch the violence in the video before tweeting it out.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she moved forward with the vote because Gosar “made threats or suggestions about harming a member of Congress.”
“It’s an insult – not only endangers that member of Congress, it’s an insult to the institution of the House,” said Pelosi, a Democrat from California. Tuesday on Capitol Hill. “We can’t have members joking about killing each other, nor threatening the President of the United States.”
“He didn’t see it before it was posted. It was not his intention to show any harm,” McCarthy told reporters. “What I told the conference was that (we) cannot accept any act or expression of violence against another member.”
Several Republicans have called on the GOP leadership to inaction, including Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who said McCarthy’s inaction was “unacceptable” – especially when the party Republicans called for sanctions against the 13 GOP lawmakers who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
“Our party needs a leader that will stand for what’s right and uphold the truth, and stop trying to play these games,” Cheney told CNN. “I mean Leader McCarthy isn’t going to fully condemn what Paul Gosar has done over and over again but he seems to be entertaining this move to push 13 people off their committee, I mean, it’s it. undeniably, morally and ethically, and it’s politically insane.”
This story was updated with additional developments on Tuesday.
CNN’s Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju contributed to this report.