Yahoo Finance Paul Gosar's Siblings Call on Him to Resign in Blistering Op-Ed: 'You Are Immune to Shame'
Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Rep. Paul Gosar
The siblings of Republican lawmaker Paul Gosar are again coming out against him — this time in a blistering new op-ed urging the Arizona representative to resign.
"Although his colleagues in Congress and others in the media seem to only recently be paying attention, we have been aware of his unhinged behavior for years," Paul's siblings Dave Gosar, Jennifer Gosar and Tim Gosar write in the op-ed published Sunday for NBC News.
They go on to list their grievances against Rep. Gosar, 62, pointing to his previous claims that COVID-19 was overblown and his embrace of conspiracy theories regarding the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Writing that he has caused "irreparable damage" to his relationship with his family members, the siblings claim in the op-ed that the Republican has also betrayed his country due to his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
"It seems, in fact, that you are immune to shame. In addition to betraying your family and causing irreparable damage to the relationships within it, you decided to betray your country by helping incite the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol," the Gosar siblings write.
The lawmaker has previously endorsed former President Donald Trump's election fraud lies, and defended those who breached the U.S. Capitol in January, calling them "peaceful patriots" during a House hearing on the events.
The op-ed continues: "Maybe you don't know how you got to this very dark place, Paul. Unfortunately, we have some ideas. Maybe it's because you're in way over your head in Congress and don't have the intellect, character or maturity to be in that leadership role. Maybe your lifelong, insecure need for the approval of others caused you to sacrifice your common decency and integrity to satisfy Trump and his followers in order to keep your seat."
The siblings add that their brother should resign, though they acknowledge that is "unlikely."
"The extremism of your beliefs is finally getting the media attention it deserves. What should happen now is that you resign," the Gosars write. "Sadly, this seems unlikely. This means unless your colleagues step in, you are likely doomed to go down in history as a cautionary tale: a person who betrayed his family, his country and even himself."
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Gosar's siblings have a long history of attacking their brother, who has served as a member of the House of Representatives since 2011 and won re-election in November, with nearly 70 percent of the vote, according to The New York Times.
In a 2018 campaign ad for his then-opponent, six of Paul's brothers and sisters lambasted him for his work as a politician, saying he was "absolutely not working for his district."
One of his sisters, Grace Gosar, said in another ad released around that time for his opponent that "it would be difficult to see my brother as anything but a racist." (In February, the Arizona lawmaker spoke at an event in which organizers espoused white supremacist views.)
And in April, Gosar's siblings were featured in an ad airing on Fox News claiming that the Arizona Rep. helped instigate the deadly Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol.
"There is no one member of Congress more responsible for the attack on the Capitol than Congressman Paul Gosar," Jennifer Gosar says in the ad, which shows the lawmaker's siblings along with scenes from the pro-Donald Trump riot in Washington, D.C.
Gosar did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment regarding the new op-ed, but in 2018, he said in a statement: "Those of my siblings who chose to film ads against me are all liberal Democrats who hate President Trump. These disgruntled Hillary supporters are related by blood to me but like leftists everywhere, they put political ideology before family."
