Republican Rep. Paul Gosar Calls for Death to 'Sodomy-Promoting Traitor' Gen. Mark Milley

U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, one of the most MAGA of MAGA Republicans, went on an outrageous and homophobic rant against Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his newsletter, calling Milley “sodomy-promoting” and a traitor, and even urging his execution.

"In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung," Gosar wrote.

Gosar was writing about former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s testimony before Congress last week in which Sund said there was an “intelligence failure” in the response to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and that the Department of Defense initially turned down requests to send in the National Guard because there was concern about the “optics” of a military presence at the Capitol. In the newsletter, which was published on Gosar’s congressional website, Gosar used Sund’s testimony to blame the response on U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who was then speaker of the House, and Milley.

“After the riot was in full swing, the Chief’s request for National Guard was finally approved,” Gosar wrote. “But even after approval was given, General Milley, the homosexual-promoting-BLM-activist Chairman of the military joint chiefs, delayed. Of course, we now know that the deviant Milley was coordinating with Nancy Pelosi to hurt President Trump, and treasonously working behind Trump’s back. In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung. He had one boss: President Trump, and instead he was secretly meeting with Pelosi and coordinating with her to hurt Trump. That is, when he wasn’t also secretly coordinating and sharing intelligence with the Chinese military. How this traitor remains in office is a question we need answered.”

Milley, Joint Chiefs chairman since 2019, is scheduled to retire at the end of this month. He has been largely supportive of LGBTQ+ troops.

Far-right politicians and commentators, including Gosar, have often claimed the January 6 insurrection was a setup by anti-Trump forces to make Trump look bad. The riot temporarily interrupted the joint session of the U.S. House and Senate to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, with Joe Biden prevailing over Trump.

But Gosar has spun other narratives about the events of January 6 that conflict with that version. He has called the participants “peaceful patriots” and claimed that Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was fatally shot by Capitol Police, was “executed.” At other times, he has seemed to take credit for the insurrection; last year he told a Republican club in Arizona, “I started the revolution.”

He has supported Trump’s lies that the presidential election was stolen. He had promoted Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. An organizer of the insurrection has said Gosar assured leaders of the action that they would be pardoned by Trump. It’s also been reported that Gosar sought a preemptive pardon for his role in the January 6 events while Trump was still president, but it was denied.

Gosar’s comment about China apparently referred to calls Milley made to Chinese military leaders late in Trump’s presidency to assure them that Trump was not going to attack the country with nuclear weapons, as had been rumored. Defense Department officials said the calls were routine and in keeping with efforts to ease tensions between the U.S. and China, while Trump and some other Republicans called them a treasonous communication with a hostile nation, warning it of upcoming military action.

Trump also condemned the calls more recently and likewise called for Milley’s execution, posting Friday on his Truth Social platform that “in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”

Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who once commanded U.S. forces in Europe, told CNN’s Jim Acosta that Gosar’s rant was “sexist, racist, vile, and it just shows the extent to which these kinds of things have become commonplace and not condemned in our divided country.” Hertling denounced Trump’s Truth Social post as well and said that Trump and Gosar misunderstand the duties of the Joint Chiefs chairman, who advises other military leaders rather than directly commanding troops.

“Throwing the blame on him for all sorts of things that have occurred in government just seems to be malicious and certainly … vile, and it shows just how deeply disturbed both of these individuals are and how they are disconnected from the role of government officials,” Hertling told Acosta, adding, “To threaten to either hang or to shoot them for being a traitor is just bizarre … and somewhat ridiculous and a little bit sick.”

Gosar has frequently made other bigoted comments – racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ+ –and, as Hertling noted, has posted images of himself killing liberal Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Biden. Even Gosar’s siblings have denounced him for various actions, including his role in the January 6 riot. “There is no one member of Congress more responsible for the attack on the Capitol than Congressman Paul Gosar,” his sister Jennifer Gosar said in an ad in 2021.

The Department of Defense, contacted by The Advocate, had no comment on Gosar's attack on Milley.