Gosar's siblings want their brother kicked out of
Congress. They think Democrats are moving too slow.
"I consider him a traitor to this country. I
consider him a traitor to his family," Dave Gosar said. "He doesn't
see it. He's disgraced and dishonored himself."
June 28,
2021, 10:30 AM CEST
By Allan
Smith
Few members
of Congress have been as loud in repeating Donald Trump's false election claims
as Rep. Paul Gosar, the Arizona Republican who rallied supporters of the
president to overturn the election and has been at the forefront of efforts to
downplay the Capitol riot.
Gosar has
been at the center of the national controversy, which has also 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."
The
congressman's family first gained national notoriety when six of his siblings
appeared in an ad endorsing his 2018 Democratic opponent. In a subsequent
tweet, Gosar, whose office did not respond to requests for comment for this
article, deemed those brothers and sisters to be angry, anti-Trump Democrats
(Pete Gosar, the former chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party and one of the
congressman's siblings, did not partake in the ad). Their mother, speaking with
The New York Times, backed the congressman.
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."
"I'm
concerned there are leaders in the Democratic Party, there are leaders across
ideologies who do not speak up," she said. "I just can't fathom
it."
'I have
never instigated violence'
Few elected
officials on the right embraced efforts to overturn last fall's election quite
like Gosar. He told Trump supporters at a December protest at the Arizona
Capitol, "Once we conquer the Hill, Donald Trump is returned to being the
president."
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."
Responding
to a complaint filed with the House Ethics Committee, Gosar said: "I have
never instigated violence," adding, "I have never aided or abetted
violence. I have not urged or supported violence."
Since 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.
He joined
20 House Republicans in voting against awarding Congressional Gold Medals to
the officers who defend the Capitol against the mob.
'Emboldened'
Gosar goes on
Soon after
the riot, three of the congressman's siblings, including Dave and Jennifer
Gosar, contacted Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., asking him to help expel their
brother from Congress over his role in the happenings. Such a step is
exceedingly rare; Congress has only expelled 20 members in its history.
Earlier
this year, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called on the House Ethics Committee
to probe Gosar's and two colleagues' involvement in planning Jan. 6 rallies.
This month, the committee said in a letter it was declining to investigate.
Rep. David
Cicilline, D-R.I., in May asked colleagues to co-sign a resolution calling for
the censure of Gosar and others. Months prior, Grijalva asked House Minority
Leader Kevin McCarthy to suspend Gosar's committee assignments.
None of
those efforts have gained steam.
Grijalva
said Democrats won't be pursuing the kind of reprimand with Gosar as they did
when stripping Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of committee assignments
this year, adding such a move would only serve to create more notoriety for the
Arizona Republican.
"Right
now, I think Mr. Gosar feels emboldened," Grijalva said. "Nothing has
happened. There has been no reaction on the part of his colleagues in Congress,
and, basically, he feels no public reaction. So he proceeds along, every time
increasing the rhetoric in a bad way. In a very bad way."
Dave Gosar
thinks the only reason his brother has yet to face consequences is because of a
lack of political will.
"They're
trying to bury it just like they bury everything in the past," he said.
"And I want to tell you if they think that's going to fly this time,
they're sorely mistaken. ... I think he should be removed from Congress, and
they have the power to do it, no matter what they tell you."
Jennifer
Gosar said she is upset that only Greene has faced formal rebuke after the
riot, arguing the freshman member had little to do with the lead-up the rally.
Democrats cited other nonriot comments Greene made when she was removed from
committees.
"To
say that somehow Marjorie Taylor Greene is like the ringleader makes me want to
barf," Jennifer Gosar said. "It's absolutely not true, and it's more
because they don't want to take a stronger stance."
Republican
lawmakers are in no rush to criticize fellow members like Gosar and Greene, but
increasingly, they are also putting distance between such members and
themselves.
"The
Freedom Caucus has become the Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar caucus,
which has diminished its credibility substantially in the House," one
conservative House member, who declined to be named, said, referring to the
group that was once comprised of tea party-aligned lawmakers. "Many
members who used to be associated won’t go near Freedom Caucus now."
For Gosar's
siblings, they say the rift has caused tension in their family but remaining
silent was not an option.
"I
would not have come out publicly if it were not absolutely necessary,"
Jennifer Gosar said. "But just because he's my brother doesn't mean he
gets a pass."
Allan Smith
Allan Smith
is a political reporter for NBC News.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário