‘Highly respected loyal supporter’: Trump endorses Gosar hours after censure for AOC death video

Arizona Republican has thanked former president for his backing

Rep Paul Gosar was endorsed by Donald Trump hours after House Democrats censured the Arizona Republican for sharing a doctored anime that Nancy Peloisi argued amounted to a “death threat”.

Mr Gosar claimed that a video showing Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being murdered was merely “fictional” and a “truly a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy”.  

In a statement appearing to ignore Mr Gosar’s censuring by the House on Wednesday, Mr Trump described him as “a loyal supporter of our America First agenda” who was “highly respected in Arizona”.

The remarks were issued hours after the resolution against Mr Gosar, who became the first House member to be censured in about a decade, and was also removed from his committee assignments.

Mr Trump went on to say that Mr Gosar had his “Complete and Total Endorsement!”, to which the Republican thanked the former president on Thursday.

“Thank you President Trump for this honor,” Mr Gosar tweeted. “I am humbled to have earned your support, and the support of the American people.”

During the House debate against Mr Gosar, Democrat House speaker Pelosi accused him of depicting imagery that amounted to a “death threat” against President Joe Biden and Ms Ocasio-Cortez. 

The New York Democrat told the House that it was “a sad day in which a member who leads a political party in the United States of America cannot bring themselves to say that issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong”, in remarks aimed at Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader.

Mr McCarthy had called the censure an “abuse of power” by Democrats and signalled that should Republicans retake the House majority after the 2022 midterms, he would return committee assignments to Mr Gosar as well as Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who was removed from her assignments in February.

Mr Gosar has caused controversy before, telling Republicans to promote “Anglo-Saxon political traditions”. The remarks were widely deemed to be racist.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press