Republican politician’s siblings denounce him in biting op-ed

Paul Gosar, a right-wing Republican representative from the state of Arizona, has been denounced in a biting opinion piece penned by three of his siblings who accuse him of repeatedly lying about the 2020 presidential election results.

“So, have you no sense of decency, Paul?” asked siblings Dave, Jennifer and Tim Gosar, in the opinion piece that was published by NBC News on Sunday.

The siblings, in their op-ed, laid out a bullet-pointed list of Mr Gosar’s actions and comments that they described as “shameful and destructive”.

“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 January 6 domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol,” they said.

The siblings also said Mr Gosar’s “lies” helped delay police action and claimed it was this delay that led to an officer shooting one of the protesters, 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt.

“In fact, your lies helped delay the Capitol Police from clearing the chamber, and this delay led at least in part to the officer’s decision to shoot Babbitt to protect you. And now you have the gall to blame those men and women who protected you for her death,” said the siblings.

Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and a supporter of former president Donald Trump, was shot by police when she tried to climb through a broken window next to a door close to the speaker’s lobby of the Capitol building during the 6 January riots.

“Disgracefully, you even voted against awarding commendations to those who risked their lives to protect yours? You, one of the key Big Lie proponents and key instigators of the insurrection? Have you left no sense of decency?” they questioned.

“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,” they said in the article.

The siblings also accused their brother of promoting false information on Covid-19 and expressed their shock at Mr Gosar doing so, even as his home state Arizona has faced mounting cases.

“Wasn’t it shameful and destructive enough when you... Claimed that Covid-19 was overblown and would miraculously disappear after the election, thereby misleading and harming those who believed you, despite the fact that Arizona had the highest infection rate in the world both before and after the November election?” they wrote.

Mr Gosar, who is serving his sixth term in the US Congress, was first elected in 2010 before which he owned a dental practice and was a small businessman in Arizona’s Flagstaff city for 25 years.

He has nine siblings and this was not the first time they have attacked him publicly. In 2018, six of them appeared in an advertisement endorsing his opponent for a mid-term election.

The siblings said that the “extremism” of Mr Gosar’s beliefs “is finally getting the media attention it deserves”.

“What should happen now is that you resign. Sadly, this seems unlikely.”

The siblings end their op-ed saying Mr Gosar was “likely doomed to go down in history as a cautionary tale: a person who betrayed his family, his country and even himself”, unless his colleagues intervene.

“Ultimately, the first victim of the big lies — the lies you have always told yourself to justify anything you do, always for your benefit and at the expense of others — is really you,” they said.

Mr Gosar has yet to comment on the op-ed from his siblings.