The enemy of my enemy is my friend

In November 2021, Arizona representative Paul Gosar was censured and stripped of his committee assignments in the House for posting an anime video that showed him killing New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

He did not apologize:

Here was Ocasio-Cortez’s response:

I don’t know if Gosar apologized privately to Ocasio-Cortez. But they appear to still have a working relationship. Today the cameras caught Gosar chatting with Ocasio-Cortez. They both oppose Kevin McCarthy’s candidacy for Speaker of the House.

Watch:

According to reports, Gosar was concerned that the Democrats would stop showing-up for votes on the speakership, thus making the quorum smaller and giving McCarthy and easier path to victory. Ocasio alleviated Gosar’s fears. The Democrats will continue to show-up and vote for Hakeem Jeffries, keeping the threshold for the election of a Speaker. at 218 votes.

Here is John McCormack at National Review:

So what brought the two together on the House floor today? Ocasio-Cortez told National Review that “apparently Kevin McCarthy was making a claim that there’s a possibility that some Democrats could” not cast votes “in order to lower the threshold” of votes McCarthy needs to win the speakership, “and some of the Republicans who are holding out were wondering if that was true. And I said, ‘Absolutely not. I was not going to walk away.’”