I agree but IMO this escalates the kneejerk partisanship. No one in their right mind would think this is an actual death threat. It was a stupid, offensive and juvenile stunt worthy of a junior high school dumbass.
A reprimand would more fit the bill for that at the time, one off event.
We can't even get Gossar or the Republicans to admit that it was "offensive and juvenile". There is no remorse. That increases the severity of the offense. That is certainly one of the factors judges consider when sentencing criminals. Censure is the correct response.
Plus, I disagree with you that the meme can't be conside[r]ed a threat. Am I out of my mind?
I agree with you, so if you're out of your mind, I am too. I am surprised at the other TFTers in the thread — (should we call them Infidels now?) — who think this is a harmless joke that didn't deserve a censure.
It would be nice to return to a pleasanter America where people could make such harmless jokes. But we can't: This is 2021. We live in an America over-run by hate-filled idiots, some of whom will take Gosar's video as a message from Jesus that they should kill AOC.
And Gosar knows this.
Remember the 2012 election where Romney reprimanded Repugnants who'd swallowed lies about Obama? Republicans who emulate Romney today are literally kicked out of their Party.
Unlike the Rittenhouse jury we are not bound by rules of evidence. We know Kyle once said he wished he had a gun so he could shoot him some shoplifters. And we know Gosar is a hate-filled right-winger whose own siblings call him a sociopath; a darling of Sheriff Arpaio, and a big name in the Stop the Steal movement. He attends meetings of racist organizations, at one of which he said 'We are in a Civil War, we just haven’t started shooting yet'... So that is about to change."
Frankly I'm shocked and saddened by the support Gosar has in this thread, from posters I thought of as liberalish. If we wait until Kristallnacht before understanding we're in the midst of fascist take-over, we will have waited too long.