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      Inside the unhinged midterm election conspiracy theories on Truth Social

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      Inside the unhinged midterm election conspiracy theories on Truth Social Stuffed ballot boxes, ‘BlueAnon’, support for Russia and ‘corporate communists’ are catnip on the rightwing platform Ballot boxes being stuffed. “BlueAnon”. Men in underpants. Every Democratic candidate: a “complete weirdo psychopath”.To dive into Truth Social, Donald Trump’s Twitter-but-for-conspiracy-theorists social media platform, is to enter a world where all of the above are real topics of debate, breathlessly discussed by Trump-backing Republicans and anonymous rightwing provocateurs.Twitter sued by former staff as Elon Musk begins mass sackingsRead moreTruth Social has always been a platform for lies and obfuscations; about the 2020 election, the Democratic party, vaccines, Hunter Biden. But with less than a week before the election, the platform and its users have become even more unhinged.The site, formed as Trump’s alternative to Twitter after he was banned from that platform in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, is awash with false theories about how the Democratic party is attempting to manipulate the midterm vote, false claims about the attack on Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and false accusations about Democratic candidates themselves.As one of the most followed Truth Social users, Donald Trump Jr, son of the former US president, has been one of the most prominent agitators.In the run-up to the election, Trump Jr has used the platform to echo rightwing talking points about vaccines, drugs, Ukraine and a host of other issues. His posts are eagerly lapped up by fellow Truthers, and he isn’t the only thought leader on the platform.The unusually named Catturd2 has emerged as one of Truth Social’s tastemakers since the site launched, and with more than 760,000 followers – Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House minority speaker has only 54,000 and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s on-off friend and lawyer, has 89,000 – when Catturd2 speaks, people listen.In recent days Catturd2 has mostly chosen to speak about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Like numerous other Truth Social users, Catturd2 has their doubts and has echoed a rightwing, homophobic, incorrect conspiracy theory about the attack – an idea Trump Jr also peddled on Truth Social.But Catturd2 has other thoughts, too, including on the Democrats running for election in the midterm elections.“Every single Democrat candidate is a complete weirdo psychopath,” Catturd2 wrote recently, in a truth that was liked by more than 6,000 accounts, and which largely captures the attitude of Truth Social users toward Democratic politicians and their supporters.Truth Social launched, chaotically, in February 2022. Billed as “a major new platform” where Republicans and Democrats alike could converse in an environment free from the “censorship” of big tech – an environment with an “ironclad commitment to protecting vigorous debate” – thousands of would-be users were unable to access the service for weeks, and Trump himself was said to be furious with the platform.Trump had planned a $1.3bn merger of Truth Social with Digital World Acquisition Corp, a blank check company, but the deal has been plagued by delays and is under federal investigation. In October it emerged that the co-founder of Trump’s social media company had told the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the company’s efforts to raise $1bn were based on “fraudulent misrepresentations … in violation of federal securities laws”.Still, Truth Social has managed to grow in popularity, with its number of users surging past other rightwing platforms like Gab, Parler and Gettr. Even if Truth Social’s 1.7m US unique visitors a month is dwarfed by Twitter and Facebook, it has become the go-to meeting place for Trump supporters to voice unsubstantiated concerns about voter fraud.As the election looms, ballot “drop boxes” have become the particular bete noire for the rightwing crowd. Introduced so that people can drop off their early voting or absentee ballots, to Truth Social users these drop boxes are nothing more than election fraud in plain sight – flimsy, poorly guarded containers where Democratic backers or members of the deep state regularly stop off to jam hundreds of fraudulent ballots into the counting system.On Truth Social, people have been called to action.“Get out and help patriots. Watch those ballot drop boxes. We can’t let them steal another election,” msannthrope wrote, in a post similar to hundreds of others on the platform.In fact, on Tuesday a judge issued a restraining order against a rightwing group in Arizona which had deployed people to watch over drop boxes, after accusations of voter intimidation, but the obsession with the boxes hasn’t gone away.Thousands of users posted a link this week to a story from a rightwing website which alleged irregularities at ballot drop boxes in Pennsylvania, a state which Trump and his supporters have accused of seeing fraud in 2020. Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking website, reported that people had “successfully inserted 18 ballots into three of the eight ballot drop boxes in Centre County, Pennsylvania, before the official window of time when the boxes were open to receive ballots”.But, Politifact wrote: “The ballots are not evidence of fraud. The voters simply didn’t follow directions,” while Michael Pipe, the county’s commission chair and chair of its election board, told local news station KDKA-TV. The ballots will not count towards the Pennsylvania vote, Pipe said, because they were returned incorrectly.If misinformation is king on Truth Social, then that might explain how Marjorie Taylor Greene, a darling of the Trump-Republican movement who is known for both extremism and incompetence, has become one of the loudest voices in what is a very loud room.Throughout October, her account has been a flurry of vague assertions about the Democratic party: half-baked off ideas and theories tossed off apropos of nothing, without explanation or justification.“There are more Democrat conspiracy theories & theorists on Twitter than Qanon ever produced,” Taylor Greene wrote on October 28.“Most have blue check marks, post their pronouns, support war in Ukraine, are triple vaxxed & boosted, and work in corporate media, Hollywood, or the government.“Blueanon [an apparent play on the rightwing QAnon conspiracy theory] is dangerous.”It wasn’t clear – because she didn’t say – what had set Taylor Greene off. But she clearly enjoyed this foreboding, dystopian style, because the next day, she was back at it.“Corporate communists control the speech of their employees & customers by only allowing Democrat speech and punishing, silencing, and canceling Republican speech,” Taylor Greene said.If it was unclear how the concept of a corporate communist would actually work, then it was also unclear what Taylor Greene meant by her grimly threatening follow up: “But there is a shift beginning,” she wrote. “People are beginning to refuse to be silenced and a Patriot economy is beginning.”Perhaps the real motivation for these posts is simply that people on Truth Social love stuff like this. Truth Social is, according to its bosses, a platform where anyone is free to say whatever they want, but what they mostly want to say is that they don’t have anywhere to speak.“Why are people being censored for misleading or false information and not the biggest offenders, the media?” user mikesonfire pondered obliquely this month.Mikesonfire’s other posts have included a suggestion that the military, not “biased clerks” count votes, and that: “Russia invaded the Ukraine to stop the NWO [New World Order, a conspiracy theory which states a cabal of elites is striving for a world government] for producing more viral weapons”.Russia has been a particular fascination for Truth Social users, many of whom have spoken sympathetically about the country and its invasion of Ukraine. Other users have posted approvingly about a Russian government plan to ban people from suggesting homosexual relationships are “normal”, and the hashtag IStandWithRussia has been used repeatedly over the past month.In recent days, despite users’ apparent satisfaction with Truth Social, the main interest has been Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, and how it might impact the Democratic party in elections and beyond.Musk’s vague promise to overturn Twitter bans has had people giddy with excitement, claiming it could open the door to a glorious era of Republican reign.“Democrats are not going to be able to handle free speech and the corrupt Democratic Party will fall apart after hearing the truth,” one Truth Social user gravely intoned after Musk purchased Twitter.Another posted: “3 PATRIOTS🇺🇸 TRUMP, MUSK, & [Steve] BANNON,” above a photoshopped picture of the three men. Others “truthed” photos of Musk entering the Twitter HQ, and reveled in the departure of Twitter employees.Troublingly for Trump and Truth Social, however, the most striking response from Truth Social users was the large number of them pleading with Musk to be allowed to return to Twitter.For now, Truth Social might be the platform of choice for those loyal to Trump and his election lies, but it seems large numbers of the platform can’t wait to get away.TopicsDonald TrumpElon MuskSteve BannonUS politicsSocial mediaNancy PelosiRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Jokes about Paul Pelosi aren’t just in bad taste. They normalize political violence | Arwa Mahdawi

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      Jokes about Paul Pelosi aren’t just in bad taste. They normalize political violenceArwa MahdawiRightwingers are laughing about an attack that left an 82-year-old in hospital. It’s a watershed moment in politics What do you do when an 82-year-old man is attacked at his home with a hammer? You laugh about it, of course. A number of Republicans – people who like to preach to others about family values and civility – seem to find the recent attack on Paul Pelosi very amusing indeed.Donald Trump Jr, for example, posted a meme on Sunday night showing a pair of underwear and a hammer next to the caption: “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.” On Monday night, the self-proclaimed “Meme Wars General” doubled down on his post, which referenced a baseless conspiracy theory about Pelosi and put up another crude meme mocking the attack.Either Trump Jr is capable of feeling shame or someone talked some sense into him. In any case, the former president’s son has deleted those memes. He’s replaced them with a message cynically politicizing the assault on Pelosi instead. “Imagine how safe the country would be if democrats took all violent crime as seriously as they’re taking the Paul Pelosi situation,” he posted. “They simply don’t care.” Trump Jr, it should be said, can always be relied on to react to a situation in incredibly bad taste.Paul Pelosi attack suspect charged with attempted kidnapping and assaultRead moreThe only reason it’s worth mentioning his disgusting comments is because he wasn’t alone in mocking Pelosi. Far from it. On Monday, Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, drew laughter at a campaign event with a joke about security at the Pelosi residence. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican governor of Virginia, drew criticism from Democrats on Friday after a comment he made while Pelosi was in hospital that appeared to make light of the attack. And on Monday, Claudia Tenney, a Republican who represents a district in central New York, tweeted a picture of a group of men holding hammers for Halloween with the caption “LOL”.I’ll be fair here. Not everyone on the right mocked the attack on Pelosi. Some spread misinformation about it and some minimized it instead. Elon Musk, self-proclaimed “Chief Twit” of Twitter, posted a link to a baseless conspiracy theory about Pelosi, then deleted it. Meanwhile the rightwing commentator Dinesh D’Souza crowed: “The Left is going crazy because not only are we not BUYING the wacky, implausible Paul Pelosi story but we are even LAUGHING over how ridiculous it is.” On Monday, Charlie Kirk, a rightwing pundit, called for an “amazing patriot” to bail out 42-year-old David DePape, who is accused of perpetrating the attack on Pelosi. It seems, alarmingly, that there may be an appetite on the right to turn DePape into the next Kyle Rittenhouse and make him a hero.You wouldn’t think it from looking at the Republican reaction but it can’t be stressed enough how serious the attack on Pelosi was. Were it not for the fact that he managed to make a secret 911 call from the bathroom, the House speaker’s husband, who suffered skull injuries, might have fared a lot worse.It has also been reported that DePape was looking for Nancy Pelosi and was planning to hold her hostage and break her kneecaps because he saw her as “the leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic party. There’s nothing remotely funny about any of this. Republicans should be united in their condemnation of politically motivated violence and pledge to find ways to turn down America’s political temperature.It goes without saying that, had a Republican politician been the subject of the attack, they’d be demanding that Democrats do just that. There was more Republican outrage about the time the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had his steak dinner interrupted by protesters than there was about the attack on Pelosi. And there was certainly a lot more outrage when Kavanaugh was the subject of an unsuccessful assassination attempt earlier this year.Kavanaugh, by the way, has been brought up a lot by Republican politicians who are pushing the talking point that “both sides” are to blame for political violence. Senator Tom Cotton, for instance, condemned the attack on Pelosi but also said: “You see deranged lunatics attack both Democrats and Republicans alike,” mentioning the alleged attempt in June by 26-year-old Nicholas John Roske to assassinate Kavanaugh.It’s certainly true that there are unhinged people across the political spectrum and politicians from both sides have been targeted for violence. However, “both-sidesing” this issue is dangerously dishonest. Both sides aren’t engaging in inflammatory rhetoric: that’s very much the Republicans’ area of expertise. Both sides don’t have a history of encouraging their supporters to storm the Capitol. Both sides aren’t pushing lies that the 2020 election was stolen. Both sides don’t turn people like Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two protesters, into folk heroes. Both sides don’t glorify political violence. Both sides aren’t using an attack on an 82-year-old to generate laughs on the campaign trail.The Republican reaction to the attack on Pelosi feels like a watershed moment in US politics. The fact that so many on the right felt comfortable joking about the attack demonstrates the extent to which extremism has become accepted and political violence has been normalized. Pelosi may be on the road to recovery, but American democracy is going down a very dark path.TopicsNancy PelosiOpinionUS politicscommentReuse this content More

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      January 6 committee ‘in discussions’ with Trump over testifying, Cheney says – as it happened

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      The January 6 committee is “in discussions” with lawyers for Donald Trump about whether the former president will comply with the lawmakers’ subpoena for his testimony about the attack on the Capitol, CNN reports vice-chair Liz Cheney said today.At what was expected to be its last public hearing, the January 6 committee last month voted to issue a subpoena to Trump for documents related to the attack and for him to testify under oath. He has not yet said whether he would comply with their summons, but in the past has cheered instances where his allies have defied the committee, and fought aggressively against other investigations into his conduct.According to CNN, Cheney said Trump “has an obligation to comply” with the panel. She said the format of his testimony has not yet been decided but, “It’ll be done under oath. It’ll be done, potentially, over multiple days,” and the committee is not at the “mercy of Donald Trump.” She was speaking in Cleveland, Ohio at an event about the threat of political violence.Trump faces a Friday deadline to turn over documents requested in the subpoena, and a 14 November deadline for his testimony.The supreme court issued two consequential orders in cases concerning Donald Trump today, first by temporarily blocking a House committee from receiving his tax returns until it could consider an emergency petition from the ex-president. However, it turned down an attempt by Republican senator Lindsey Graham to quash a subpoena from a special grand jury in Georgia – meaning the Trump loyalist will soon have to answer questions about efforts to meddle in the state’s 2020 election results. Vice-chair of the January 6 committee Liz Cheney meanwhile revealed the committee was still negotiating with the ex-president’s lawyers over whether he would testify as part of their inquiry into the attack on the Capitol.Here’s what else happened today:
      A historian warned the attack against Paul Pelosi last week could be the latest sign of an increase in political violence in the United States. Another likened it to the 1850s, a period when tensions that led to the civil war hit a boiling point.
      Trump promoted conspiracy theories about the attack on Pelosi in a podcast interview today.
      California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom blamed Fox News for creating the atmosphere that fueled the violence against Pelosi.
      Meanwhile in Arizona, the GOP nominee for governor has decided to turn the attack on Paul Pelosi into a punchline, Martin Pengelly reports:The Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, drew laughter at a campaign event in Scottsdale on Monday with a remark about the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the Democratic US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.“Nancy Pelosi, well, she’s got protection when she’s in DC,” Lake said. “Apparently her house doesn’t have a lot of protection.”Paul Pelosi, 82, was attacked with a hammer at his home in San Francisco on Friday. He remained in intensive care on Monday but was expected to recover.His attacker, David DePape, 42, reportedly shouted “Where is Nancy?” On Monday, he was charged with attempted murder, assault and other crimes. Authorities said he told police he wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and “break her kneecaps”. DePape is also reported to have posted conspiracy-laced screeds online.Republican and rightwing responses to the attack – many seeking to advance the GOP’s law-and-order midterm elections message – have drawn controversy. Democrats and media observers have warned of the danger of stoking politically inspired violence.Republican candidate draws laughter with mockery of attack on Paul PelosiRead moreDavid DePape, who is accused of breaking into Nancy Pelosi’s home and assaulting her husband, Paul, is expected to make his first court appearance today, KTVU reports:JUST IN: Just confirmed David Depape is now being held in County Jail and is no longer in the hospital, as of yesterday. @SheriffSF confirms he was booked in absentia while under Sheriff’s Office protection in the hospital. He’s expected in court at 1:30p @KTVU— James Torrez (@JamesTorrezNews) November 1, 2022
      Federal prosecutors yesterday announced charges of attempted kidnapping and assault against DePape over the Friday attack. San Francisco police said after his arrest DePape was held on suspicion of attempted murder and elder abuse, among other charges.Liz Cheney has endorsed another Democrat facing a tight race in next Tuesday’s midterm elections: Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan.During an appearance in the state today, Cheney, a Republican congresswoman who is in her last weeks in office after losing her primary earlier this year, said she would not vote for JD Vance, the GOP’s nominee for Ohio’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.Appearing in Ohio, outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) endorses a second Democratic candidate, Rep. Tim Ryan, who is locked in a tight Senate race with GOP nominee J.D. Vance.Judy Woodruff: “So if you were a Buckeye State voter, you’d be voting for Tim Ryan?”Cheney: “I would.” pic.twitter.com/BPoRlTqcdh— The Recount (@therecount) November 1, 2022
      Last month, she endorsed Democratic congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, who is up for re-election in Michigan. The daughter of former Republican vice-president Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney was among the most conservative members of the House, but fell out with the GOP over her opposition to Donald Trump.Republican and Trump critic Liz Cheney to campaign for Michigan DemocratRead moreThe supreme court has turned down a challenge from Republican senator Lindsey Graham to a subpoena from a special grand jury in Georgia that is investigating attempts by Donald Trump’s allies to meddle in the state’s 2020 election results.The court’s order clears the way for Graham to appear before the jurors empaneled by Fulton county district attorney Fanni Willis, which issued the subpoena to the South Carolina lawmaker earlier this year. Graham challenged the summons in federal court, but was unsuccessful.Willis has summoned a number of allies of the former president to a courthouse in Atlanta to answer questions about attempts to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the state. These include Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has also been told he was a target in the investigation. Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has said Graham suggested throwing out legally cast ballots in the state.Georgia’s secretary of state says Lindsey Graham suggested he throw out legal ballotsRead moreThe January 6 committee is “in discussions” with lawyers for Donald Trump about whether the former president will comply with the lawmakers’ subpoena for his testimony about the attack on the Capitol, CNN reports vice-chair Liz Cheney said today.At what was expected to be its last public hearing, the January 6 committee last month voted to issue a subpoena to Trump for documents related to the attack and for him to testify under oath. He has not yet said whether he would comply with their summons, but in the past has cheered instances where his allies have defied the committee, and fought aggressively against other investigations into his conduct.According to CNN, Cheney said Trump “has an obligation to comply” with the panel. She said the format of his testimony has not yet been decided but, “It’ll be done under oath. It’ll be done, potentially, over multiple days,” and the committee is not at the “mercy of Donald Trump.” She was speaking in Cleveland, Ohio at an event about the threat of political violence.Trump faces a Friday deadline to turn over documents requested in the subpoena, and a 14 November deadline for his testimony.Federal prosecutors have asked for a three-month prison sentence for a US army veteran from Tennessee who pleaded guilty to invading the US Capitol on the day of the January 6 attack.According to documents filed by the US justice department, James Brooks admitted he spent more than two hours in the Capitol during the insurrection while equipped with tear gas, body armor and a two-way radio. He also acknowledged yelling at officers trying to defend the building: “You took an oath like I did… every one of you!”Brooks’s sentencing is tentatively set for Thursday.He is among more than 900 Capitol rioters who have been charged in connection with an attack to which officials have linked nine deaths, including suicides among law enforcement officers left traumatized by that day. Supporters of Donald Trump staged the attack as an unsuccessful attempt to keep the former president in the Oval Office after his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.Democrats are banking that outrage over the supreme court’s upending of abortion rights will help their candidates in the midterms. The Guardian’s Poppy Noor reports from one district in Michigan, where the dynamic appears to be real for an embattled Democrat:Elissa Slotkin is a straight shooter. She doesn’t miss a beat when asked a tough question. She speaks up often, and forcefully, against things she perceives as unjust – whether perpetrated by her opponents or her own Democratic party. But when asked what she’ll think if the proposal to enshrine abortion rights in Michigan’s state constitution doesn’t pass this November, she clams up.Slotkin fidgets, stroking one thumb over the other, in a repetitive, soothing motion.Is she discombobulated?“Yes,” she answers, back to her usual, rapid-fire pace.Why?“I’ll tell you this,” Slotkin begins. “If it fails to pass, I won’t be re-elected. Because it means I’m fundamentally out of touch.”She pauses, cautiously, and adds: “But I don’t believe that to be the case. I think I’m going to win.”That’s a big statement. Slotkin is running in one of the country’s most tightly contested seats, as a Democrat who won Trump voters back from the Republican party in both 2018 and 2020.She is also running in a midterm election full of twists and turns – one that has seen Democrats’ hopes to avoid the typically poor showing of the party in power begin to rise, only to plummet again. But even with a mixed economy, rising inflation and unfavourable polling for the president, people are putting their money on Slotkin in huge numbers: the race for Michigan’s seventh, a newly drawn district pitting Slotkin against state senator Tom Barrett, has become the most expensive race in the country in terms of outside spending. Outside spending, generally, is a good barometer for how important a race is, with the largest amounts coming from the national parties – and in the case of the seventh, $27m has been poured into the race.Michigan Democrat’s lead shows abortion may be the issue that decides midterm racesRead moreConcerns about political violence across the US as the 8 November midterm elections loom won’t subside after a candidate for a seat in the Pennsylvania state house of representatives was reportedly attacked at his home Monday.Richard Ringer, a 69-year-old Democrat, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that an attacker blooded him and knocked him unconscious in his backyard about 5am.“A guy was standing with his back to me – I went and bear-hugged him, wrestled, ended up on the ground,” Ringer said of the violent encounter. “He was larger than I am and he pinned me down on my left side.”Ringer also said: “He hit me 10 to 12 times in the head, in the face and by the eye and he knocked me out” and fled.The description of the attack to the Post-Gazette doesn’t suggest an overtly political motive. But the newspaper noted that the confrontation marked the third time in two weeks he has had to call 911 as his run for an open state House seat against a Republican, Charity Grimm Krupa, comes to a close.Meanwhile, though police investigators haven’t publicly identified any potential suspects, Ringer said he couldn’t help but wonder if the attack on him at this stage of his campaign pertained to his candidacy.Ringer’s attack Monday happened hours before federal authorities charged the man accused of breaking into the home of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and battering her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer last week was charged with attempted kidnapping and assault.Authorities allege that the intruder, 42-year-old David DePape, wanted to break Nancy Pelosi’s kneecaps so that she would have to be brought into Congress in a wheelchair as a warning to lawmakers that actions have consequences.It was the second time in less than two years that the House Speaker was targeted by a violent attack. Her office was vandalized on the day that far-right extremists supporting former president Donald Trump staged the US Capitol attack on January 6 2021.DePape’s arrest prompted Pelosi’s fellow Democrats to ramp up their warnings of escalating political violence in America.Joe Biden is on his way to Florida today to campaign for the Democratic candidates for governor and senator, both of whom are seen as trailing their Republican opponents. Part of the reason for that is discontent with Democrats’ handling of the economy, and in a speech Monday afternoon, the president tried to regain the initiative from Republicans, according to the Associated Press:Joe Biden has accused oil companies of “war profiteering” as the president raised the possibility of imposing a windfall tax if companies don’t boost domestic production.In remarks on Monday, just over a week away from the 8 November midterm elections, Biden criticized major oil companies for making record profits while refusing to help lower prices at the pump for American people. The president said he would look to Congress to levy tax penalties on oil companies if they don’t begin to invest some of their profits in lowering costs for American consumers.“My team will work with Congress to look at these options that are available to us and others,” Biden said. “It’s time for these companies to stop war profiteering, meet their responsibilities in this country and give the American people a break and still do very well.”Biden accuses oil companies of ‘war profiteering’ and threatens windfall taxRead moreThe release of Donald Trump’s tax returns to a House committee has been delayed by the supreme court’s chief justice John Roberts, who ordered the Democratic-led panel to respond in a lawsuit from the former president by Thursday of next week. The temporary stay is a reprieve for Trump, who has refused to make his filings public since his first campaign for office in 2016.Here’s what else happened today so far:
      A historian warned the attack against Paul Pelosi last week could be the latest sign of an increase in political violence in the United States. Another likened it to the 1850s, a period when tensions that led to the civil war hit a boiling point.
      Trump promoted conspiracy theories about the attack on Pelosi in a podcast interview today.
      California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom blamed Fox News for creating the atmosphere that fueled the violence against Pelosi.
      This post has been corrected to say the House committee’s deadline to respond to the supreme court’s stay is Thursday of next week, not this week.The list of Republican candidates beyond the reach of conspiracy theories grows shorter. Martin Pengelly reports that a New Hampshire school rebuked the state’s GOP Senate candidate Don Bolduc for making bizarre claims about what happens on its premises:A New Hampshire school has rebuked the Republican US Senate candidate Don Bolduc for claiming schoolchildren were identifying as “furries and fuzzies” in classrooms, using litter trays and licking themselves and each other.“I wish I was making it up,” Bolduc, a retired special forces general, said last week.In response, Pinkerton Academy, in Derry, said Bolduc was indeed making it up.On social media on Monday, the school said: “It has come to our attention that at a recent event in Claremont Don Bolduc named Pinkerton in false claims suggesting that unhygienic, disturbing practices are taking place in our classrooms and spaces on campus.“We want to assure our community that Mr Bolduc’s statements are entirely untrue. We invite all political candidates to speak with members of our administration or visit our campus so they can inform themselves about our school before making claims about what occurs here.”US school criticizes Republican Senate candidate for repeating false litter box claimRead moreCalifornia governor Gavin Newsom blamed Fox News for the attack on Paul Pelosi, saying the husband of Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi had become a fixation for one of the network’s commentators in the run-up to the attack:“I don’t think anyone’s been dehumanized like she has consistently,” Newsom, a Democrat, said of Nancy Pelosi in an interview with CBS. “Now I watched this one guy, Jesse Watters or something on Fox News. What he’s been saying about Paul Pelosi the last five, six months, mocking him consistently. Don’t tell me that’s not aiding and abetting all this. Of course it is.”“They’re sowing the seeds, creating a culture and a climate like this,” the governor continued. “I mean, look online. Look at the sewage that is online that they amplify on these networks and in social media to dehumanize people like Nancy Pelosi and other political leaders.”On Monday afternoon, Watters attempted to blame Newsom’s policies for allowing the accused attacker David DePape to be free – though it’s unclear if DePape had any criminal history prior to the attack. “If anything, Gavin Newsom has done more to aid and abet this attack on Paul Pelosi than anybody,” Watters said on Fox News.Prior to the attack, Paul Pelosi had been in the news for pleading guilty to driving under the influence:Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s husband, pleads guilty to drunk driving chargeRead more More

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      The attack on Paul Pelosi should be a moment of national reckoning | Jill Filipovic

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      The attack on Paul Pelosi should be a moment of national reckoning Jill FilipovicAll political violence is a problem, but in terms of sheer numbers, rightwing extremism is a much more significant problem than leftwing radicalism Much of American life has gotten coarser, uglier and crueler in the years since Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. Even with Trump out of office, his legacy persists, and it erodes American life every day.On Friday, in a grisly act of political violence, a man broke into the home of the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, one of the US right’s most vilified political figures, and attacked her husband with a hammer, fracturing his skull and leaving him with serious injuries. The attacker, 42-year-old David DePape, was reportedly carrying zip ties and duct tape and yelling: “Where’s Nancy?”Paul Pelosi is lucky he wasn’t killed – a hammer to the skull can certainly do the job, especially when the victim is an elderly man. And while I imagine that Nancy Pelosi is feeling enormous grief and guilt over the fact that her husband was nearly murdered in an attack that seemed aimed at her, she’s also lucky she wasn’t home at the time of the assault.Such an extreme act should shock the conscience of the nation. Instead, it has shown just how immune to human decency and empathy the Trumpist right has become. Trump’s son Donald Jr tweeted an image of a pair of men’s underwear and a hammer with the caption “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready”.His father has thus far remained silent, as have many Republican elected officials. Conservatives in the media, meanwhile, are working overtime to deny that the right holds any responsibility here, chalking this up to a random act of violence and arguing that sometimes leftists are violent, too.That’s not totally wrong: a mentally disturbed man was arrested outside supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house with a gun this past summer, and another shot at a bunch of Republican congressmen at baseball practice in 2017, nearly killing Representative Steve Scalise.But there are a few major differences, not least among them the fact that rightwing political violence is much more common than leftwing political violence, and that rightwing violence is much more likely to be fatal than leftwing violence. In the US, rightwing extremists aren’t just more dangerous than leftwing ones, but are more dangerous than Islamic radicals and those inspired by the Islamic State and al-Qaida. Since 1994, a majority of terrorist plots within the US were hatched by rightwing radicals.All political violence is a problem. But in terms of sheer numbers, rightwing violence is a much more significant problem than leftwing violence.That may be, in part, because of the right wing’s broad permission structure when it comes to unchecked misogyny, threatening and menacing political opponents, and refusing to forcefully condemn violent acts. When Scalise was shot and Kavanaugh was threatened, prominent Democrats didn’t sit in silence. Bernie Sanders, who was reportedly the favored candidate of the man who shot Scalise, immediately came out after the shooting to say, “I am sickened by this despicable act,” and emphasized that “real change can only come about through nonviolent action.” When the man menacing Kavanaugh was arrested, Joe Biden condemned the man’s actions in no uncertain terms, and supported expanded security measures for supreme court justices.And prominent liberals with national platforms and connections to Democratic administrations didn’t suggest dressing up as a bloody Steve Scalise or a dead Brett Kavanaugh on Halloween. The only prominent liberal to make such a tasteless joke – which had nothing to do with an actual assassination attempt – was the famously vulgar comedian Kathy Griffin, who posted a gory photo of herself holding the fake severed head of Donald Trump; for that, she lost most of her professional work and was booted from her television gigs, investigated by the Secret Service and, according to her, threatened with a charge of conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States.By contrast, threatening and menacing Democrats has become a staple not just of conservative big mouths on YouTube and talk radio, but of Republicans seeking office. Trump, notoriously, used his rallies to encourage supporters to chant “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton. Republican representative Paul Gosar tweeted a bizarre cartoon video of him killing the Democrat representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and threatening President Biden; he refused to apologize for it, and his actions were not broadly condemned on the right.The Republican representative from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene has said that Pelosi has committed treason, a crime “punishable by death”. The Minnesota Republican representative Tom Emmer tweeted a video of himself shooting a gun, along with the words “Exercising my Second Amendment rights” and the hashtag #FirePelosi. Blake Masters, a Republican who is running for a Senate seat in Arizona, has published campaign ads in which he is holding guns (in one of the ads, he specifies: “It wasn’t designed for hunting – this is designed to kill people”) and has said that when it comes to what he believes is a war between left and right, “You can recite an eloquent poem about pacifism right before they line you up against the wall and shoot you.”Republican Eric Greitens ran for Senate with an ad featuring him armed and breaking down a door, saying: “Get a Rino-hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.” (Rino stands for “Republican in name only”, slang for moderate members of the GOP.)There is also the fact of rightwing violence against women, which seems less and less like a political liability. Republicans do not have a total lock on misogynist violence, but the number of GOP candidates accused of abuse and assault is truly stunning – and so too is the party’s general shrug in response. This seems to be another outcome of the presidency of a man who bragged on video about sexually assaulting women: abusing women and girls is simply not a disqualifier for those on the Republican ticket.And finally, there is the rightwing conspiracy-mongering that predictably draws in those who are untethered to reality, and the related rhetoric that makes fixing the invented problem a kind of life-and-death battle of good versus evil. The anti-abortion movement truly pioneered this strategy, claiming abortion is murder and likening abortion clinics to Hitler’s extermination factories during the Holocaust.The outcome of telling people that millions of babies were being literally murdered in this clinic down the street was a predictable one: clinics attacked, women menaced and harassed, doctors and other workers murdered. And instead of losing, the anti-abortion terrorists won: the Republican party agreed with their political aims and Republican presidents appointed anti-abortion supreme court justices, and abortion is no longer a protected constitutional right.The US right has gotten even more unhinged in recent years, with many Trump supporters embracing the QAnon conspiracy theories, believing Democrats are trafficking children through pizza restaurants and in Wayfair furniture, and even mainstream Republicans are joining in on Trump’s “Stop the Steal” refrain that the 2020 election was stolen (it wasn’t).When you promulgate totally baseless, crazy ideas and convince your followers that the mainstream media are lying to them and that political opponents aren’t just ideologically different but are literally a threat to your life, and then you insist on living in a country where people can be armed to the teeth, it’s tough to act surprised when your followers are crazy and violent.There is a pattern here that you just don’t see on the left: the fetishization of deadly weapons; violence against women that goes unpunished by the party and its supporters; the kind of troubling conspiracy theories that are catnip for crazies and that demand extreme action in response; and the fantasizing about murdering one’s political opponents, all tossed into the cauldron together.It’s not a coincidence, given the hyper-masculine misogyny element to all of this, that much of the violent rightwing fantasizing is directed at women, Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chief among them. This isn’t the first time Nancy Pelosi was targeted by violent rightwing men. During the January 6 insurrection in 2021, she was a target of the rioters who broke into the Capitol building and wandered the halls calling her name in the kind of singsong voices usually reserved for horror movies: “Nancy, oh Nancy! Where are you, Nancy?”Republicans have largely refused to reckon with what happened on January 6. And even now, they are treating the Pelosi attack like a sideshow instead of the real warning it is. Just hours after Pelosi’s husband took a hammer to the head and as he was undergoing surgery to repair his cracked skull, Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, told an audience of rally-goers: “There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send [Pelosi] back to be with him in California.”The attack on Paul Pelosi should be a moment of reckoning. For the past several years, it has felt like the wheels on this bus are getting progressively looser, and the risks of conflict, both political and interpersonal, rising higher. Depending on how Republicans react to this moment, it could simply be a footnote – a bad and tragic act, but one without lasting national effects – or one of those historical inflection points we look back on as indicative of the dangerous turn the nation was about to make.
      Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Let’s Talk
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      Paul Pelosi attack suspect charged with attempted kidnapping and assault

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      Paul Pelosi attack suspect charged with attempted kidnapping and assaultSuspect who faces state and federal charges told police he wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and ‘break her kneecaps’ The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told police he wanted to hold the congresswoman hostage and “break her kneecaps”, authorities in California said on Monday afternoon.David DePape, 42, confronted a sleeping Paul Pelosi in the couple’s San Francisco townhouse bedroom shortly before 2.30am last Friday morning, according to a federal affidavit filed in court on Monday.Federal prosecutors have filed two charges against DePape, days after police say he broke into the Pelosis’ home and struck the Democratic House of Representatives leader’s 82-year-old husband in the head with a hammer.Paul Pelosi was left seriously injured in the attack and was in surgery for several hours on Friday, as his wife hurried back from Washington DC to the hospital where he was taken. He was operated on for a fractured skull as well as suffering serious wounding to his arms and hands.DePape is charged federally 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 US official on account of the performance of official duties. The charges carry sentences of up to 30 years if there is a conviction.DePape also faces multiple charges at the state level – including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, elder abuse and threatening a public official. Those charges were filed separately by the San Francisco district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, on Monday.Jenkins called the attack “politically motivated” and said the state charges are punishable by a prison sentence of 13 years to life.Jenkins rejected numerous conspiracy theories that swirled into the public domain over the weekend and on Monday, despite bipartisan condemnation of the attack from national political leaders on Friday, and an outcry over the rise in political violence and threats to lawmakers, their staff and families in a bitterly divided society.Jenkins confirmed that the assailant was targeting Nancy Pelosi when he broke into the couple’s home. She wasn’t there and DePape, after calling out “Where’s Nancy?”, confronted Paul Pelosi with a hammer.The justice department’s complaint contained some harrowing details, including more information about Paul Pelosi and DePape wrestling over a hammer when police showed up, which officers shouted at them to drop.“DePape pulled the hammer from Pelosi’s hand and swung the hammer, striking Pelosi in the head. Officers immediately went inside and were able to restrain DePape,” the complaint stated.Police found zip ties in the Pelosi residence that they said belonged to DePape, as well as retrieving from the suspect’s backpack “a roll of tape, white rope, one hammer, one pair of rubber and cloth gloves, and a journal”.The justice department reported that Paul Pelosi said he had never seen DePape before. “DePape came into Pelosi’s bedroom and stated he wanted to talk to Nancy.“When Pelosi told him that Nancy was not there, DePape stated that he would sit and wait. Pelosi stated that his wife would not be home for several days and then DePape reiterated that he would wait. Pelosi was able to go into the bathroom which is when he was able to call 911.”San Francisco police further reported, according to the justice department, that DePape said he was going to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and talk to her.“If Nancy were to tell DePape the ‘truth’, he would let her go, and if she ‘lied’, he was going to break ‘her kneecaps’,” the police recounted, adding that: “‘DePape was certain that Nancy would not have told the “truth’. In the course of the interview, DePape articulated he viewed Nancy as the ‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic party. DePape also later explained that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other members of Congress there were consequences to actions,” according to the complaint.When Paul Pelosi managed to dial 911, officials have highlighted how the quick actions of the dispatcher may have saved his life.With the line left open by Pelosi, the dispatcher could hear the conversation between him and his assailant. Two minutes later, the police arrived.“I truly believe, based on what I know, that it was lifesaving,” Jenkins told ABC News.She had told reporters on Sunday that there was no evidence of any connection between the assailant and his victim, despite far-fetched theories being peddled by the right, amplified by the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, which drew criticism from liberals.The FBI on Monday bolstered Jenkins’s countering of conspiratorial claims.Congressman Eric Swalwell decried a rising tide of violent threats against lawmakers and said his chief of staff spends many hours each week dealing with it.The Associated Press contributed reportingTopicsNancy PelosiCaliforniaUS crimeSan FranciscoUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      What drove the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband? | Francine Prose

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      What drove the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband?Francine ProseAccording to the US Capitol police, there were 9,621 threats against members of Congress in 2021. It’s surprising that there aren’t more Surely I’m not the only person haunted by visions of 82-year-old Paul Pelosi, the husband of House speaker Nancy Pelosi, struggling with an intruder in the early hours this past Friday. It’s not hard to imagine the terror that Pelosi must have felt as he made his coded phone call to the police, telling them that someone had broken into his San Francisco home. And it’s all too easy to picture his assailant, David DePape, calling out, “Where’s Nancy?”, the same cry that went up from the insurrectionists roaming the halls of the US Capitol on 6 January.In fact, the only thing that’s hard to comprehend is why, given the current political climate, incidents like this one don’t occur more often. According to the US Capitol police, there were 9,621 threats against members of Congress in 2021, and the frequency of those disturbing emails and phone calls appears to be increasing. Republican and Democrats alike have been warned that they and their families will be killed, and some have wisely taken advantage of the provision that allows them to use their campaign funds to pay for private security teams.A secret bathroom 911 call: how Paul Pelosi saved his own life Read moreTighter surveillance and more armed patrols may make our politicians more secure, but it’s precisely the sort of Band-aid that we have been pasting over the deep wounds from which our society suffers. The quick fix of hiring more guards is not unlike New York City’s plan for reducing subway crime by beefing up police presence. A mugger might be deterred by the sight of a uniformed officer, but the people pushing commuters onto the tracks are more likely to be heeding the directives of the voices inside their heads than checking for the location of the nearest CCTV camera.One could argue that David DePape has more in common with these unhinged attackers than with protesters expressing their concerns outside the US supreme court. And that difference suggests that violent extremism and the descent into the rabbit hole of conspiracy theory be understood – and treated – as a form of disturbance rather than a sign of voter dissatisfaction and another symptom of our political divisions.Of course, many presumably “sane” politicians are exploiting and exacerbating the widespread rage and paranoia – spreading lies about the evils of science and the government’s plot to stifle our freedoms – in order to attract attention and increase their voter base. But though it’s despicable to condone and encourage violence, it’s not the same as committing it. It wasn’t Marjorie Taylor Greene who fractured Paul Pelosi’s skull.The Republican party’s obsession with gun ownership has made deadly weapons freely available to the mentally ill, but few school shooters have claimed to have slaughtered innocent students because Joe Biden stole the election. During the recent outcry over Kanye West’s odious antisemitic and anti-Black remarks, the fact that he has been diagnosed as bipolar dropped out of the public conversation. And while it’s true that mental instability is not necessarily the cause of – and certainly not an excuse for – prejudice and hatred, it’s hard to argue, as California psychologist Bedford Palmer II has done, that Ye’s instability had absolutely nothing to do with his destructive downward spiral.Almost daily, it seems, we read another article about the mental health crisis afflicting our country – and much of the world – in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Anyone who has spent any time lately in an American city knows how dire the situation has become. During an eight-block walk in downtown Manhattan, I counted three people in severe mental distress – and those were just the obvious cases.Yet no one, as far as I know, has introduced a workable, far-reaching, effective solution for fully addressing – let alone remedying – our problems. We’ve arrested and tried dozens of the January 6 rioters, but I’ve yet to read one essay that brought me significantly closer to understanding the psyche of someone who would grab a can of bear spray and call for Mike Pence’s blood. We know that racism and inequality fuel the anger that incites political violence, but I imagine that few of those who push subway riders off platforms are doing so because they fear being replaced by Jews and people of color. Many of the perpetrators of the anti-Asian attacks in New York City during the past year were found to have been recently released from homeless shelters and mental hospitals.I’m not suggesting that we stigmatize mental illness more egregiously than we already do. Rather I’m proposing that we recognize the need for – and figure out –some way to remedy the sort of instability that sent David DePape into the Pelosis’ house in the middle of the night. Our cities and states – and the federal government – need to come up with better plans for intervention. Perhaps Kanye West’s former corporate sponsors might want to stop whining about how much money they’re losing by severing ties with him – and donate some of the profits they’re earning without him to fund outreach and treatment centers.More cameras, more cops, longer jail terms – it’s not enough, and ultimately the surveillance and punishment model is not going to provide a lasting solution. Gun control would be a huge help in reducing the senseless bloodshed, but let’s remember: Paul Pelosi and David DePape were struggling over a hammer, not a long gun. We need to come up with a more innovative and comprehensive remedy for our mental health crisis. Because the fact is: we need help.
      Francine Prose is a former president of Pen American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
      TopicsUS politicsOpinionNancy PelosiDemocratsRepublicansDonald TrumpcommentReuse this content More

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      Musk posts baseless conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi attack on Twitter

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      Musk posts baseless conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi attack on TwitterPost comes days after Musk takes over social media platform amid concern that hate speech will run rampant under his leadership Elon Musk was criticized on Sunday after posting a baseless conspiracy theory about the assault of Paul Pelosi to Twitter – the social media giant he took over several days ago with a promise to impose less restrictions on its content.Paul Pelosi, husband of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer at their California home on Friday. The attacker, identified by authorities as David DePape, allegedly said “Where is Nancy?” during the attack; president Joe Biden said that she appeared to be the intended target.Musk’s sharing of the conspiracy theory stemmed from a tweet by Hillary Clinton on Saturday. The Democratic former senator shared a Los Angeles Times story about DePape’s apparent far-right leanings.“The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories,” Clinton said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”Musk responded by tweeting that “there is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” and shared a link to a post that presented an unfounded conspiracy theory on the hammer attack, the Times reported. This conspiracy post was in the Santa Monica Observer, which the Times described as being “notorious for publishing false news”.Dan Moynihan, a public policy professor at Georgetown University, said in the wake of Musk’s tweet: “A big problem in contemporary American politics is that one party has become obsessed with conspiracy theories, encouraging radical responses including anti-democratic actions and violence. Musk will just make the problem worse.”Musk deleted the response by early Sunday afternoon, according to NBC News. Prior to its deletion, however, it had received in excess of 24,000 retweets and 86,000 likes.“The latest conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi’s attack is frankly too disgusting to print,” said NBC News reporter Ben Collins, in response to Musk’s retweet.The world’s richest man’s apparent sharing of this post comes amid concern that hate-speech and harassment will run rampant under his leadership. Musk has tried to ease concerns about an increase in harmful posts under his ownership, such as his announcement that there would be a new content moderation counsel.Musk suggested that a better approach would be to divide Twitter into various strands. This approach would see users applying content ratings on their posts, and engaging in online disputes, within a special space on the platform.The Guardian has reached out to Twitter for comment.TopicsElon MuskNancy PelosiUS politicsTwitternewsReuse this content More

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      A secret bathroom 911 call: how Paul Pelosi saved his own life

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      A secret bathroom 911 call: how Paul Pelosi saved his own life House speaker’s husband told alleged intruder that he needed to use restroom and spoke in ‘code’ to alert authorities of problem Paul Pelosi, the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who was attacked with a hammer during an invasion of their California home, saved his life after secretly telephoning for help from the bathroom.According to Politico, Paul Pelosi told the alleged intruder – identified by authorities as David DePape – that he needed to use the restroom. Paul Pelosi’s mobile phone was charging in the bathroom at the time; the 82-year-old then made a surreptitious call to 911, and remained connected.The emergency services dispatcher, Heather Grimes, heard an exchange between Paul Pelosi and his attacker as he spoke in “code” to alert the authorities there was a problem. “What’s going on? Why are you here? What are you going to do to me?” Pelosi reportedly said while on the call.A suspicious Grimes then notified police for a wellness check.“It is really thanks to Mr Pelosi having the ability to make that call, and truly the attention and the instincts of that dispatcher to realize that something was wrong in that situation and to make the police call a priority so they got there within two minutes to respond to this situation,” Brooke Jenkins, San Francisco’s district attorney, told CNN.The San Francisco police chief, William Scott, said that officers arrived to the Pelosis home and saw Paul Pelosi and DePape holding a hammer. “The suspect pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it,” Politico quoted Scott as saying. “Our officers immediately tackled the suspect, disarmed him, took him into custody, requested emergency backup and rendered medical aid.”Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture as well as injuries to his hands and right arm during the attack. He underwent surgery and is expected to fully recover.President Joe Biden said Saturday that it appeared the attack was targeting Nancy Pelosi. DePape allegedly said “Where is Nancy?” after invading their home.The attack on Paul Pelosi has intensified lawmakers’ calls for increased protection for their families. As threats against US politicians have risen sharply over the past several years, lawmakers are also seeing their families targeted.Lawmakers’ security details do not extend to their families when they are not with them. Some lawmakers have received supplemental protection from police departments in their home districts, but others have had to seek private security, CNN reported.TopicsNancy PelosiCaliforniaUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesUS crimefeaturesReuse this content More