The 82-year-old underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands, and his doctors expect a full recovery.
The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi told police he wanted to hold the speaker hostage and “break her kneecaps,” authorities said Oct.31.
Federal prosecutors have filed two charges against DePape. He is charged with influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threatening or injuring a family member. He also faces one count of attempted kidnapping of a United States official on account of the performance of official duties.
The attack on Paul Pelosi should not be dismissed as simply the act of deranged man.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been demonized for years by Republican lawmakers and conservative media.
The attack should not be separated from the increase in political violence. The attack on Pelosi was an unsettling reminder of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, when rioters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election defeat of Donald Trump stormed the halls yelling “Where’s Nancy?” DePape was also carrying zip ties into the Pelosi home, according to news reports of the incident.
San Francisco’s district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, is right to quickly reject conspiracy theories about the attack, confirming the assailant was targeting the Democratic leader when he broke into the couple’s home.
“At the time that the suspect had entered the Pelosi home that he was in fact, looking for Ms. Pelosi,” Jenkins told reporters.
“The other thing is we want to make it clear that there were only two people in the home at the time that the police arrived, Mr. Pelosi and the suspect, there was no third person present,” she said.
“We have nothing to suggest that these two men knew each other prior to this incident.”
San Francisco’s police chief has also said the attack was targeted.
Still the attack is being mocked and dismissed in conservative, far-right social media, even among some Republicans leaders and those at the highest levels of social power. Elon Musk over the weekend tweeted, then deleted, a fringe website’s far-flung conspiracy theories to his millions of followers, as his purchase of Twitter has raised concerns that the social media platform would no longer seek to limit misinformation and hate speech.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was among those making light of the attack on Paul Pelosi, tweeting out a joke about a Halloween costume of the incident.
In the dangerous political climate, a week before the midterm elections, tensions are high with record security threats against lawmakers and other officials.
The incident sparked new security concerns for lawmakers and other elected officials before the midterms.
There have been nearly 10,000 threats against members of Congress in the last year. U.S. Capitol Police have advised lawmakers to take precautions. Chief Tom Manger, who leads the U.S. Capitol Police, has said the threat from lone-wolf attackers has been growing and the most significant threat the force is facing is the historically high number of threats against lawmakers, thousands more than just a few years before.
Elected officials and those in powers who threaten or suggest the use of violence to settle political differences should be strongly condemned and held accountable.
(Reprinted from The Philadelphia Tribune.)
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