Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is the quintessential far-right politician, known for his ties to far-right militias such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. A recent anime edit shared by the Republican congressman has Twitter users up in arms for depicting Gosar killing fellow Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and attacking President Joe Biden.
Early Sunday evening, Gosar posted a 1:32-minute long video edit of the first Attack on Titan opening on Twitter. The video opens with the title “Attack on Immigrants” in Japanese and depicts migrants walking through water amid a bloody image filter, Newsweek reports. The clip also features stock footage of Border Patrol agents and the words “drugs, crime, poverty, money, gangs, violence, trafficking” on screen after depicting a member of MS13.
Later on in the video, Gosar, depicted as series protagonist Eren Jaeger, dashes across buildings before striking and killing a Titan photoshopped with Ocasio-Cortez’s face. He then proceeds to jump off a wall, ready to strike at a colossal Titan depicted as Joe Biden.
“Any anime fans out there?” Gosar tweeted along with the video. The clip has over 6,000 retweets, 29 thousand likes, and more than 18,000 quote tweets.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) swung back at Gosar over the edit, pointing out that the video edits targeting Biden and Ocasio-Cortez represent a larger far-right tendency for encouraging violence. “These blood thirsty losers are more comfortable with violence than voting,” Swalwell tweeted. “Keep exposing them.”
Anime Twitter was similarly less than pleased with Gosar’s use of Attack on Titan, pointing out how bizarre and unnerving the clip’s subject matter appeared.
Attack on Titan became a popular parody subject for Trump fans because of its storyline, which involves the last human remnants in a post-apocalyptic world defending a walled city from human-devouring Titans, Newsweek reports. While the series has a large fanbase across the political spectrum, the series’ popularity among right-wing anime fans has sparked a larger conversation about the original manga’s commentary on racism, fascism, and its correlation to politically-motivated violence.