Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr
August 3, 2021, 10:12 am*
An op-ed published on NBC News’ opinion column by three family members of Representative Paul Gosar utterly tears into the lawmaker for what they believe is a large role in allowing the January 6 assault on the Capitol to happen and make it as bad as it was. They also outline the congressman’s history of unstable behavior and alliances with white supremacists, as well as his efforts to undermine the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to mitigate the damage caused by the virus.
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They start by comparing Gosar to Senator Joseph McCarthy, the father of 1950s era McCarthyism that helped launch the Second Red Scare and led to the imprisonment and/or blacklisting of many people found to be “communist sympathizers.”
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“Although his colleagues in Congress and others in the media seem to only recently be paying attention, we have been aware of his unhinged behavior for years. We are therefore not surprised to see him heading down a very similar path to McCarthy’s.”
“So, have you no sense of decency, Paul?”
Gosar has faced heavy criticism from the U.S. left for his role in planning and fomenting the insurrection, much of which is outlined in the op-ed. Family members Dave, Jennifer, and Tim Gosar ream the congressman for repeatedly lying about the results of the 2020 election, pushing what has come to be called the “big lie” that Democrats conspired to steal votes from Donald Trump. This has been widely considered to be what led to the events on January 6, regardless of whether you will admit that what happened that day was bad.
They further call out Gosar for directly organizing “Stop the Steal” rallies leading up to the attempted coup and employed a lot of rather alarming rhetoric to rile up mobs of Trump supporters.
“Then you helped organize the ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies with Ali Alexander while calling President Joe Biden a ‘usurper’ who stole the election and was engaged in a ‘coup,’ challenging crowds to ‘take the Hill’ and saying ‘sedition and treason for stealing votes is appropriate,’” they wrote. “You ended your ‘Open Letter to Arizona’ by calling on supporters to ‘be ready to defend the Constitution and the White House.’”
Not only do they accuse him of being part of the cause of the riot which left five dead, they say that his actions caused a delay in the process of evacuating congress from the House chambers as rioters stormed the halls, ultimately blaming him for the death of Ashli Babbitt.
“In fact, your lies helped delay the Capitol Police from clearing the chamber, and this delay led at least in part to the officer’s decision to shoot Babbitt to protect you.”
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This is followed up by outlining Gosar’s relationship with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, asking the congressman how it’s possible that “a hateful boy 40 years your junior is able to lead you around by your nose.” Fuentes is known for being kicked off of YouTube for being too hateful and antisemitic, for mocking Turning Point USA for not being conservative enough, and for spreading the “white replacement” conspiracy theory — a favor of neo-Nazis everywhere.
The Gosars end by speculating on who hurt the lawmaker so badly to turn him into such an awful person and call on him to resign, and they’re far from alone. Increasing attention on Gosar’s relationship with the violent hate mob known as the Proud Boys has recently earned him the nickname “#ProudBoyPaul” on Twitter.
Local leader of the Oath Keepers militia that stormed the Capitol says Paul Gosar told them the US was in a “civil war: We just haven’t started shooting yet.” If a congressman declares war on America do we need to wait for him to shoot to DO something? #ProudBoyPaul
— Duty To Warn
(@duty2warn) August 3, 2021
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*First Published: August 3, 2021, 10:11 am
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