“The
media generally cannot get enough of writing about right-wing
nutcases in the House Republican caucuses, yet somehow Arizona Rep.
Paul Gosar, D.D.S., seems to fly under the radar relative to Reps.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, or Lauren Boebert. But Gosar
is probably the most far-gone nativist member in Congress. No one in
Congress was more devoted to the “Stop the Steal” cause, for
which he organized rallies.
“'Once
we conquer the Hill,' Gosar said at a December rally in Arizona,
'Donald Trump is returned to being president.' He got the first part
right, at least, on Jan. 6.
“In
February, Gosar was the only sitting member of Congress to speak at a
white nationalist event, the America First Political Action
Conference, after which the crowd chanted his name.
“And
just recently, Gosar, along with Greene, was busted after an early
platform draft for their proposed 'America First Caucus,' rife with
nativist dog whistles about preserving 'Anglo-Saxon political
traditions' (in the section about immigration) and restoring the
'architectural, engineering and aesthetic value that befits the
progeny of European architecture.' Gosar denied authorship of the
memo, and the proposed caucus fizzled out faster than the soccer
super league.
“If you
think of Greene as the person who reads baffling nativist
conspiracies online and shares them on Facebook, think of Gosar as
the reply guy in the comments saying you didn’t know this? His own
family hates him, and he hates the pope. He maintains his membership
on the Natural Resources Committee, as well as the Oversight and
Reform Committee.”
– Jim
Newell, “The Surge” Paul Gosar, The Worst Member of Congress,”
Slate
Paul Anthony Gosar is an
American politician and former dentist who has served as the U.S.
Representative for Arizona's 4th congressional district since 2013.
The Arizona Republic has
called Gosar "Arizona's most controversial member of Congress."
This distinction may now extend past rural northwestern Arizona to
the nation as a whole.
The fact that Gosar has
been at the center of the national controversy has been very personal
for his siblings – six who had been vocal in urging voters not to
re-elect him to Congress because of his fringe views. Now, some want
him removed from office, and they criticize Democratic leadership for
not acting more quickly.
Two of his estranged
siblings told NBC News in interviews that the congressman's conduct
around the riot should be investigated and that he should face more
serious consequences for his ongoing efforts to delegitimize the
election results and the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"I consider him a
traitor to this country. I consider him a traitor to his family,"
Gosar's brother, Dave, a Wyoming attorney, said. "He doesn't see
it. He's disgraced and dishonored himself."
Dave Gosar, one of the
more outspoken members of the family, said his falling out with his
brother began soon after his brother ran for office in 2010 and
"revealed to me that he was a birther," promoting the false
idea that then-President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.
Family members decided to
speak out in 2017 after Gosar suggested that the white nationalist
rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counterprotester was
killed, was a false flag – that the event was actually the product
of sympathetic actors seeking to hurt conservative causes.
Jennifer Gosar, the
youngest of the congressman's nine siblings, told NBC News she's
confident her brother played a significant role in the effort that
culminated in the Capitol riot.
"I was concerned
before," Jennifer Gosar, a Seattle-based Spanish translator,
said of the riot. "I was horrified during, and I'm shocked that
he's not censured now, that there hasn't been a process for
expulsion. I mean, I think all the elements are clear. And maybe
there's something I'm missing, but they're not acting on it to really
allay any fears of the public."
(Allan
Smith. “Gosar's siblings want their brother kicked out of Congress.
They think Democrats are moving too slow.” NBC News. June 28, 2021)
What About January 6?
Gosar repeatedly spoke at
“Stop the Steal” events, claiming without basis that
then-President-elect Biden was an "illegitimate usurper"
and that Trump was the victim of an attempted coup.
In December after the
election, right-wing political activist and organizer Ali Alexander
said that he, Gosar, Biggs, and Representative Mo Brooks were
"planning something big": a "mob" to pressure
Congress into rejecting the election results.
For Jan. 6, Alexander
claimed in a video, he had some organizing assistance from pro-Trump
Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL).
"We four schemed up
putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,”
Alexander said in a video posted before the Jan. 6 protest.
(Rob Kuznia, Curt
Devine, Scott Bronstei. “Extremists intensify calls for violence
ahead of Inauguration Day.” CNN. January 08, 2021.)
Gosar's office did not
respond to media inquiries about this allegation. News outlets noted
that Gosar's social media accounts had expressed support for
Alexander in the past.
At Trump's rally before
the riot, Gosar tweeted: "Biden should concede. I want his
concession on my desk tomorrow morning. Don’t make me come over
there."
In that tweet, he tagged
the far-right activist Ali Alexander, who organized the "Stop
the Steal" movement and with whom Gosar rallied elsewhere in an
effort to overturn the election.
Weeks before the riot,
Alexander told followers in a since-deleted video on Periscope that
he, Gosar, and along with two other members, "schemed up [the
idea] of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting"
on Jan. 6. to "change the minds of Republicans in that body
hearing our loud roar from outside."
Gosar was one of the 139
representatives who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S.
presidential election in Congress on January 7, 2021, the day after
the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
(Karen Yourish, Larry
Buchanan; Denise Lu. "The 147 Republicans Who Voted to Overturn
Election Results.” The New York Times. January 07, 2021.)
And, hours after the
January 6 storming of the Capitol, during which one police officer
and four marchers eventually died, Gosar was the first federally
elected official to amplify a baseless conspiracy, and it took only
three hours for him to get there.
Gosar said that antifa was
to blame for the violence, a baseless theory also echoed by
representatives Mo Brooks and Matt Gaetz.
(Teo
Armus. “Rep. Matt Gaetz and other GOP politicians baselessly
suggest antifa is to blame for pro-Trump mob rioting into Capitol.”
The Washington Post. January 07, 2021.)
When Congress reconvened
that night, the challenge to the Arizona vote had been rejected 6-93
in the Senate and 121-303 in the House. Gosar, Biggs and Debbie Lesko
of Arizona voted to reject Arizona's vote results.
("Roll Call Vote
117th Congress – 1st Session: On the Objection (Shall the Objection
Submitted by the Gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Gosar, and the Senator
from Texas, Mr. Cruz, and Others Be Sustained? )". www.senate.gov.
United States Senate. January 6, 2021.)
On January 19, 2021, the
last day of the Trump administration, it was reported that Gosar and
Biggs sought pardons from Trump. No pardons were granted to them or
anyone else involved in the storming of the Capitol or the preceding
"Save America" rally.
(Jim
Small. "Biggs and Gosar sought pardons for Capitol riot, but
didn't get them.” Arizona Mirror. January 19, 2021.)
On February 26, 2021,
Gosar delivered the keynote speech at the America First Political
Action Conference, a white nationalist conference whose organizer,
Nick Fuentes, spoke approvingly of the Capitol storming. Gosar was
the only elected official to attend the event, speaking after former
congressman Steve King (R-Iowa), who lost a 2020 primary after party
leaders abandoned him over a string of white-nationalist remarks.
After Gosar’s speech,
Fuentes, who marched in the 2017 white supremacist rally in
Charlottesville and was outside the Capitol with his supporters
during the Jan. 6 riot, took the podium that warned that “white
people are done being bullied.” Fuentes praised the fatal riot as
“awesome,” describing it as “light-hearted mischief.”
Ironically, Gosar said
that he opposed "white racism," hours after speaking at the
far-right conference whose organizer spoke approvingly of the Capitol
insurrection while delivering a white-nationalist speech.
“I want to tell you, I
denounce . . . white racism,” Gosar said during a panel at the
Conservative Political Action Conference. “That’s not
appropriate.”
(David Weigel. “Rep. Gosar criticizes ‘white racism’ after
speaking at event whose organizer called for white supremacy.” The
New York Times. February 27, 2021.)
Long after the Capitol
riot, Gosar has led the defense of those who stormed the Capitol,
calling them "peaceful patriots" at a May 12 hearing. He
has sought to paint Ashli Babbit, the rioter who was shot and killed
by Capitol Police after attempting to breach an entrance near the
House chamber as members and aides were fleeing, as a victim who was
"executed." He added the unnamed officer was "lying in
wait" for her.
Gosar said Babbitt, who
was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer through a window of
the House chamber, was not armed and was wrapped in a U.S. Flag.
“Was the death of Ashli
Babbitt a homicide?” Mr. Gosar said, grilling former Trump
administration officials at a hearing on the riot. “As the death
certificate said, it was a homicide.”
(Alex Swayer. “Paul
Gosar defends ‘executed’ Ashli Babbitt during Capitol riot
hearing.” The Washington Times. May 12, 2021.)
Gosar joined 20 House
Republicans in voting against awarding Congressional Gold Medals to
the officers who defend the Capitol against the mob.
"On January 6, as the
violent mob advanced on the House chamber, I was standing near
@RepGosar and helped him open his gas mask. The Capitol Police led us
to safety. It is disgusting and despicable to see Gosar lie about
that day and smear the men and women who defended us," tweeted
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who was ousted from GOP
leadership in May after she repeatedly rejected Trump's election
lies.
(Annie Grayer and
Kristin Wilson. “21 Republicans vote no on bill to award
Congressional Gold Medal for January 6 police officers.” CNN. June
16, 202.)
Who Is the Real Paul
Gosar?
Despite his claims of
denial, Gosar is a lying, bigoted, racist, conspiracy-spreading White
nationalist. For all of the reasons cited abover, Gosar is a traitor
to the nation who should be expelled from Congress … just ask his
own family.
For good measure of
support, allow me to tack on some more. His long history of
misconduct, spreading misinformation, and misguided leadership
includes the following:
In December 2014,
Gosar drew controversy when he referred to American Indians as
"wards of the federal government.”
On August 12, 2019
Gosar retweeted a QAnon idea – “I have a tip. I think high level
FBI agents may have colluded with British agents and Democrat
operatives to initiate an illegal coup against @realDonaldTrump and
@POTUS. I mean at least this bears a cursory review. Perhaps. Maybe.
On January 6, 2020,
Gosar tweeted a doctored photograph that showed former President
Barack Obama meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, with the
caption: "The world is a better place without these guys in
power.” The encounter never happened; the picture was a
photoshopped version of one showing Obama meeting former Indian
prime minister Manmohan Singh.
On January 29, 2021,
The New York Times detailed Gosar's support for and past ties
with extremist militia groups, including the Proud Boys and the Oath
Keepers, some of whose members participated in the 2021 storming of
the United States Capitol
Rep. Paul Gosar, an
Arizona Republican, told a right-wing militant group that the US was
in a civil war and predicted it would become violent, Jim Arroyo,
the leader of an Arizona chapter of Oath Keepers, said in a Nov.
2020 video. “We asked [Gosar]
flat-out, at that time, do you think we’re heading into a civil
war?” Arroyo said of his exchange with Gosar. “And his response
to the group was just flat-out, ‘We’re in it, we just haven’t
started shooting yet.'”
In June 2021, Gosar
was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against legislation to
establish June 19, or Juneteenth, as a federal holiday.
No one should forget
Gosar's most egregious errors. Consider that Gosar says the riots
were conducted by “peaceful patriots“ and that “outright
propaganda and lies” about the day have been deployed against
“law-abiding U.S. citizens, especially Trump voters” to paint
them as political criminals.
Paul Gosar is without
regret. He practices a philosophy rooted in hatred and violence, and
he is consumed by an obstinate devotion to his own prejudices.
Gosar's deceit belies his representation in Congress. His narrow mind
focuses on extremist views and wild speculation.
Perhaps, Laurie Roberts of
the Arizona Republic says it best …
“Here is Rep. Paul
'who me?' Gosar, who for two months, without so much as a shred of
evidence, has been howling at the moon about election fraud. A guy
who, just before rioters stormed the Capitol, stood on the House
floor on Wednesday afternoon and outright lied as he objected to
Arizona’s vote, declaring, 'Over 400,000 mail-in ballots were
altered, switched from President Trump to Vice President Biden or
completely erased from President Trump's total.'
“Minutes later,
his rhetoric was a bit more muted.
“'Ok. I said let’s
do an audit. Let’s not get carried away here,' he tweeted. 'I don’t
want anyone hurt. We are protesting the violation of our laws. We are
builders not destroyers. BLM burns and loots. We build. If anyone on
the ground reads this and is beyond the line come back' …
“(Who will stand
up now?) To stand up now for the once-Grand Old Party and stare down
the Kelli Wards and Paul Gosars of the world, the zealots and
cultists who have fed lie after lie to their base as they helped
Trump light the spark that ignited an assault not seen since 1814,
when the British invaded the nation’s Capitol?”
(Laurie Roberts. “Hey,
Rep. Gosar, you own Wednesday's insurrection at the nation's Capitol.
Arizona Republic, azcentral.com. January 07, 2021.)
