Reprinted with permission from AlterNet

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy came under fire for having disappeared during the entirety of the scandal surrounding Rep. Paul Gosar's (R-AZ) horrific attack on Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and President Joe Biden.

Now, more than a week after Gosar's violent tweet, and the introduction of a resolution to censure Gosar that includes criticism of GOP leadership for not doing anything to manage the Congressman from Arizona, McCarthy is out with a short statement bragging about what little he did do.

"I called him when I heard about the video, and he made a statement that he doesn't support violence, and he took the video down," McCarthy said, according to CNN's Melanie Zanona.

"McCarthy — who had not publicly commented on the episode until Monday — did not directly condemn Gosar's behavior, only noting Gosar had deleted the tweet after their conversation," CNN reports.

"Gosar's statement said he doesn't 'espouse violence or harm towards any member of Congress or Mr. Biden' but defended the video as 'truly a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy,'" CNN adds.Gosar's claims are false.

And he tells a different story than the one McCarthy claimed.

Newsweek reports that in "a Sunday newsletter to constituents, Rep. Gosar called outrage over the anime video 'infantile' and said any accusations that it was dangerous were 'laughable.'"

"After Twitter defamed me and called the cartoon 'hateful' we took it down," Gosar said. "There is nothing 'hateful' in the video, but the Democrats and left-wing media were screaming at Twitter to take action against me."

Meanwhile, McCarthy is getting slammed for his remarks:

"McCarthy did as little as humanly possible in his situation," one Twitter commentator said.