Mary Gay Scanlon: “Yesterday the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 795, providing for consideration of H. Res. 789…”

“Yesterday the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 795, providing for consideration of H. Res. 789, Censuring Representative Paul Gosar, under a closed rule. The rule self-executes a manager's amendment from Chairman Deutch and provides 1 hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Ethics or their respective designees. {time} 1230 Madam Speaker, in any other Congress, the actions of Representative Paul Gosar might be easier to dismiss. After all, every single minute of every single day, 5,000 minutes of content are uploaded onto YouTube. So my colleagues across the aisle or the public might ask, who cares about one YouTube video post by Representative Gosar? He is just one of many Americans posting his fantasies online, even if his involve a violent scene in which he attacks and murders people that he has labeled as enemies of the American people, a colleague in Congress, and the President of the United States. But it is just an anime video, so it is not a big deal, right? Actually, it is a big deal. And here is why: People listen to Paul Gosar. He is an elected official; and that gives him credibility, whether justified or not. So while there are indeed 5,000 minutes of content uploaded every single minute of every single day, Mr. Gosar's video got real attention, just as he intended.…”