The New York Democrat said that threatening the life of a colleague is grounds for expulsion. The leader of the Republican Party is too timid to really enforce any standard of conduct.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team acted quickly after Gosar was criticized for his violent video. Gosar deleted the video and issued a statement that explained his rationale, but did not apologize. Kevin McCarthy called that explanation.
House Democrats returned from recess this week and demanded action against the far-right Republican. When it became apparent that McCarthy wouldn't be pulling Gosar off of his committees, Democratic leaders moved ahead with the censure resolution. McCarthy does not support efforts by Democrats to punish Gosar.
Democrats said the punishment was justified given the violent nature of the video, in which a cartoon version of Gosar killed Ocasio-Cortez and swung swords at Biden.
In his 40 years in the House, the Majority Leader said he had never seen anything like it.
This may be a criminal act as well as an act that brings disrespect to the House of Representatives, said Hoyer. It is unacceptable that we would get to this low level of actions with our colleagues.
It is not clear how many Republicans will back the censure measure, but at least a few are expected to support it.
Kinzinger, a prominent Republican critic of the far-right, said on Tuesday that he supports the censure.
"We have to hold Members accountable who spread and perpetuate dangerous conspiracy," Kinzinger said. The failure to do so will make us one step closer to this fantasized violence becoming real.
Democrats say Gosar should be punished immediately and that action should be taken to set an example for the future as lawmakers in both parties face a lot of violent threats. Many have had to hire security to stay safe.
Relations between the two parties in the House have almost completely broken down after the attack on the Capitol in January. The Republican Conference has become distrustful as some GOP lawmakers publicly blasted their own colleagues for supporting a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The 13 Republicans who backed the infrastructure bill received a wave of violent threats against their lives, many of which were encouraged by some of the most extreme members of their own conference.
This isn't the first tug-of-war between Pelosi and McCarthy. The House voted in February to strip freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her two committee assignments over controversial remarks she made before arriving to Congress. Democrats voted to remove her.
Republicans were quick to argue that the censure resolution against Gosar was an overstep by Democrats, who were punishing a member of the minority party. It's a precedent that they are watching closely if they win the majority next year.
The top Republican on the House Oversight Committee said he didn't understand why the House could vote to remove Republicans from committees for wrongdoing.
The House has voted down Republican attempts to censure Waters and other Democrats in the past. New York Democrat Charles Rangel was censured in 2010 after an ethics investigation concluded that he had committed an array of financial misdeeds.
A total of 23 members have been censured in the House for various misdeeds. Sexual misconduct, financial improprieties and payroll fraud are some of the behaviors that have been censured recently.
McCarthy argued that Republicans are being held to a different standard than Democrats. He told members that they shouldn't vote against Gosar because Pelosi and Democrats haven't policed their own members for comments that have come under scrutiny for being anti-Semitic or seen as encouraging violence.
Some of Gosar's unlikely defenders in the GOP oppose Democrats' move. Centrist members say that he took responsibility for removing the post and issuing a statement that said he didn't intend to encourage violence against the Democrats.
McCarthy said that he apologized when asked about the possibility of a censure vote.
The Arizona Republican has a history of making controversial decisions in an effort to reach out to younger voters. Gosar attended a white nationalist conference in February with an organizers who had pushed racist rhetoric, including calling for protection of the white demographic core.
Gosar tried to distance himself from the group after he denounced white racism, telling The Washington Post that he was trying to connect with new voters. He wouldn't condemn the organizers when asked.
Gosar has spread conspiracy theories about the white-nationalist rally in Virginia and the Capitol attack, calling the rioters "peaceful patriots" and "political prisoners."
Sarah Ferris was involved in the report.
