Paul Anthony Gosar is an American far-right politician and dentist who has represented in the US House of Representatives since 2023 and represented from 2013 to 2023.
68 Facts About Paul Gosar
2.
Paul Gosar opposes the Affordable Care Act, abortion, gun control, and immigration.
3.
Paul Gosar has been a strong ally of former president Donald Trump, and voted to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election.
4.
Paul Gosar was censured by the US House of Representatives and stripped of his committee assignments in November 2021; it was the first House censure since 2010 and only the 24th in US history.
5.
The censure came after Paul Gosar posted a video on social media depicting himself as an anime character attacking other characters with the superimposed faces of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden.
6.
Paul Gosar was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming, on November 27,1958.
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Paul Gosar is the eldest of the seven sons and three daughters.
8.
Paul Gosar was raised in Pinedale, Wyoming, and graduated from Pinedale High School in 1977.
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Paul Gosar's brother Pete is a former chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party and was a candidate for governor of Wyoming in 2010 and 2014.
10.
From 1989 to 2010, Paul Gosar had a dentistry practice in Flagstaff, Arizona.
11.
In 2001, Paul Gosar was the Arizona Dental Association's "Dentist of the Year".
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Paul Gosar was inducted into the AzDA Hall of Fame and served as its president from 2004 to 2005.
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Paul Gosar was president of the Northern Arizona Dental Society and vice-chair of the AzDA council on governmental affairs.
14.
In 2009, Paul Gosar, who had never run for elected office before, announced that he would challenge Democratic incumbent Ann Kirkpatrick in the 1st district in the 2010 elections.
15.
Paul Gosar was identified as a Tea Party candidate by The New York Times because the Arizona Tea Party featured him on its website.
16.
Paul Gosar was endorsed by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and three Arizona county sheriffs: Maricopa County's Joe Arpaio, Coconino County's Joe Richards, and Pinal County's Paul Babeu.
17.
Paul Gosar released a statement explaining that his decision to withdraw from the debate was based on the long drive to and from the television station, KAET in Phoenix, which had organized the debate, but a producer at KAET said that Gosar's staff had told the station that the candidate could not participate in the debate because he would be attending a fundraiser instead.
18.
Paul Gosar initially planned to seek reelection in the 1st district, which had been made less favorable to Republicans as a result of redistricting, but with Kirkpatrick priming for a rematch, he changed his mind and announced in January 2012 that he would run in the newly created 4th district.
19.
Paul Gosar rented an apartment in Prescott, the largest city in the 4th, which he claims as his official residence.
20.
Paul Gosar initially faced a tough primary fight against Babeu, but Babeu pulled out in May 2012 owing to allegations of abuse of power.
21.
Paul Gosar defeated former state senator Ron Gould and businessman Rick Murphy in the Republican primary, all but assuring him a second term in Congress.
22.
In 2021, Paul Gosar announced that he would run for reelection in Arizona's 9th congressional district after redistricting.
23.
In January 2016, Paul Gosar wrote and proposed legislation to strip Bill Cosby of his Presidential Medal of Freedom after Cosby admitted to drugging women.
24.
Paul Gosar's proposal received the support of Angela Rose and her nonprofit organization, with which Gosar consulted when writing the bill; President Barack Obama stated he would "take a look" at the proposal, but it did not pass.
25.
On January 6,2020, with the caption "The world is a better place without these guys in power", Paul Gosar tweeted a doctored photograph showing Obama meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
26.
On December 9,2020, Paul Gosar co-sponsored Democratic US Representative Tulsi Gabbard's Break Up Big Tech Act of 2020, aiming to remove Section 230 legal immunity for computer service providers who act as publishers and censor their users.
27.
Paul Gosar claimed that Arizona's voting machines were faulty, that Wisconsin intentionally paused counting votes to "dump" 100,000 votes into the count for Joe Biden, and that dead people voted in Pennsylvania.
28.
Paul Gosar strongly objected to counting electoral votes for Biden from certain states.
29.
Paul Gosar repeatedly spoke at Stop the Steal events, claiming without basis that then-President-elect Joe Biden was an "illegitimate usurper" and that Trump was the victim of an attempted coup.
30.
Paul Gosar was the first member of Congress to advance the false conspiracy theory that Antifa was to blame for the violence, echoed by Brooks and Representative Matt Gaetz.
31.
In June 2021, Paul Gosar was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the US Capitol on January 6.
32.
On February 26,2021, Paul Gosar delivered the keynote speech at the America First Political Action Conference hosted by white nationalist and antisemite Nick Fuentes, who had previously supported the 2021 United States Capitol attack, defended racial segregation, and denied aspects of the Holocaust.
33.
Paul Gosar was joined at the event by former Representative Steve King of Iowa, who was taken off his congressional committee seats after defending white nationalism in 2019.
34.
In November 2021, Paul Gosar posted a video on social media that parodied the title sequence of the anime series Attack on Titan that had been edited with the faces of himself, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Joe Biden superimposed on the show's characters, depicting Paul Gosar attacking them with swords.
35.
On November 17,2021, Paul Gosar was censured for the post and removed from committee assignments by a 223-to-207 vote, making him the 24th House member to be censured in American history.
36.
In February 2022, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized Paul Gosar for participating in the America First Political Action Conference hosted by white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, saying there was no place in the party for "white supremacists or anti-Semitism".
37.
Paul Gosar has shown himself completely unfit for office.
38.
Paul Gosar cosponsored the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, a bill that would make permanent restrictions on federal funding of abortions in the US, and the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, an act placing restrictions on abortions in the District of Columbia.
39.
Paul Gosar wrote that he would treat Francis the same way he believes "leftist politicians" should be treated.
40.
Shortly after Francis's visit, Paul Gosar used his opposition to his address as a fundraising tool.
41.
Paul Gosar was criticized for touting funding for Kingman Airport in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act while neglecting to mention that he voted against the final bill.
42.
In 2019, Paul Gosar was one of 60 representatives to vote against condemning Trump's withdrawal from Syria.
43.
In 2020, Paul Gosar voted against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, which would prevent the president from withdrawing soldiers from Afghanistan without congressional approval.
44.
In June 2020, Paul Gosar expressed support for Morocco's position on the Western Sahara conflict, and encouraged the Trump administration to support this position.
45.
In 2021, when the House overwhelmingly passed a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d'etat, Paul Gosar voted present, while 14 other House Republicans voted against it.
46.
In June 2021, Paul Gosar was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the 2002 Congressional authorization of the Iraq War.
47.
In September 2021, Paul Gosar was among 75 House Republicans to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, which contains a provision that would require women to be drafted.
48.
Paul Gosar was among 19 House Republicans to vote against the final passage of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.
49.
In February 2022, Paul Gosar co-sponsored the Secure America's Borders First Act, which would prohibit the expenditure or obligation of military and security assistance to Kyiv over the US border with Mexico.
50.
In October 2022, Paul Gosar invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to Arizona for peace talks over the Russo-Ukrainian War.
51.
Paul Gosar supported water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay in his early career as a dentist, but in 2022 spoke out against water fluoridation, citing concerns that it reduced human intelligence.
52.
Paul Gosar supported the building of the Mexico-US border wall propounded by Trump.
53.
Paul Gosar believes it will help stop MS-13 gang activity in the United States.
54.
Paul Gosar has proposed a 10-year moratorium on all immigration.
55.
Paul Gosar voted against the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants, to increase the per-country numerical limitation for family-sponsored immigrants, and for other purposes.
56.
Paul Gosar voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020.
57.
In December 2014, Paul Gosar drew controversy when he referred to American Indians as "wards of the federal government".
58.
Paul Gosar was responding to concerns from members of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona when he made the comment at the round-table talk in Flagstaff.
59.
Paul Gosar suggested that Jason Kessler, the organizer of the Charlottesville rally, might have been backed by George Soros, who he said "turned in his own people to the Nazis".
60.
In July 2018, Paul Gosar spoke at a rally in London in support of former English Defence League leader and anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, emphasizing the importance of the right to free speech.
61.
In 2019, Paul Gosar sought to reinstate Representative Steve King to the House committees from which King had been removed due to a series of remarks widely seen as racist.
62.
Paul Gosar agreed with King's contention that his words had been taken out of context.
63.
In February 2021, Paul Gosar spoke with King at the second annual America First Political Action Conference, hosted by white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
64.
Since November 2021, Paul Gosar has employed Wade Searle, first as a temporary employee and then as his digital director.
65.
Paul Gosar specifically said conduct by former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and former Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was "not just criminal but constitutes treason".
66.
Paul Gosar has criticized Pope Francis's papacy as "inconsistent with Christianity" and skipped Francis's 2015 address to Congress in protest.
67.
Paul Gosar has arthritis and has had two compressed vertebrae in his back that have required surgery to correct.
68.
Paul Gosar cites years of hunching over for long periods while a dentist as the cause, as well as genetics and a history of playing rugby.