U.S. lawmaker under fire for anime video depicting violence against Ocasio-Cortez, Biden

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday called for investigations into an anime video tweeted by Republican congressman Paul Gosar that depicted him swinging swords at President Joe Biden and killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

"Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated," Pelosi said in a statement on Twitter.

She said House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy "should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate."

McCarthy's office did not respond to Reuters to requests for comment.

Twitter Inc. added a warning label to the video on Tuesday. Twitter said the video violated its "hateful conduct" policy and restricted engagement with the tweet, blocking the ability to like, reply or retweet it.

However, the social media giant said in a notification attached above the tweet that it had determined "it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."

"As is standard with this notice, engagements with the Tweet will be limited," Twitter said in an email.

The 90-second video shared by Gosar on Sunday appears to be an altered version of a Japanese animated series and is interspersed with real-life footage of U.S. Border Patrol officers rounding up migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

During one roughly 10-second section of the video, animated characters whose faces have been replaced with Gosar and fellow House Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado are seen fighting other animated characters.

In one scene, Gosar's character is seen striking the one made to look like Ocasio-Cortez in the neck with a sword.

In a tweet Monday night, Ocasio-Cortez, referred to Gosar as "a creepy member I work with" and said he "shared a fantasy video of him killing me." She added that Gosar would face no consequences because Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy "cheers him on with excuses." She also said that institutions "don't protect" women of colour.

On Tuesday morning, Gosar tweeted again, a graphic with text that read, "It's a cartoon, relax."

The doctored video has been widely condemned by prominent politicians and social media users.

A fellow House Democrat, Ted Lieu of California, referred to Gosar's tweet as "sick behaviour" and said in a tweet of his own: "In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired."