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      Paul Pelosi attack: rightwing pundits backtrack after release of police video

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      Paul Pelosi attack: rightwing pundits backtrack after release of police videoSeveral top commentators promoted conspiracy theories after news of attack at San Francisco home broke in October00:55Conservative commentators were forced to backtrack over conspiracy theories and jokes about the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, after the release of police video and audio last week.Police body-camera video of Paul Pelosi hammer attack releasedRead moreOne Fox News commentator had to retreat from his claim there was no “evidence of a breaking and entering” when his host pointed out that footage of the attacker breaking into Pelosi’s home was playing on screen at the time.“Got it,” Brian Claypool said. “Yeah. OK. Can’t we talk more about what is the DoJ doing?”The Department of Justice has charged Pelosi’s attacker, David DePape, with assault and attempted kidnapping. The 42-year-old also faces state charges including attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty.Pelosi, 82, was attacked in his San Francisco home in late October, a time when his wife, Nancy Pelosi, was still speaker of the US House. According to tapes released by the police, the attacker said he was looking for her. She was not present. Her husband suffered a fractured skull and injuries to his hand and arm.Republican leaders including Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell condemned the attack.But prominent rightwingers including Donald Trump Jr, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk and Republican members of Congress including Ted Cruz and Marjorie Taylor Greene eagerly spread jokes, misinformation and conspiracy theories.Joe Biden said such reactions showed the Republicans were “extremely extreme”.Jill Filipovic, a Guardian columnist, wrote that though the attack “should shock the conscience of the nation … it has shown just how immune to human decency and empathy the Trumpist right has become”.Last week, a judge in San Francisco ordered the release of police and surveillance footage. On Friday, the footage played widely on TV and online.Musk said sorry – in answer to a tweet in which Juanita Broaddrick, an author who accuses Bill Clinton of rape, said the Pelosi footage showed what was “still a questionable and bizarre situation between two men in their underwear”. Other users pointed out that the footage showed neither man was wearing only underwear.Perhaps the most awkward reaction, however, came from Claypool, who according to his own website is “a nationally regarded trial attorney, trusted media personality, and a genuine ally to those who have endured sexual abuse and faced civil injustice”.Referring to a conspiracy theory which holds that Pelosi let DePape into his home, Claypool said: “The question they’ve not talked about is, and nobody wants to talk about, but let’s do it, is did Paul Pelosi know this guy?”Claypool pointed to the fact the footage shows Pelosi with a drink in his hand. The commentator also claimed a 911 call also released showed Pelosi to be “kind of passively in fear, it didn’t sound like he was in fear for his life”.Things started to go wrong for Claypool when his Fox News host, Sandra Smith, said: “Wasn’t that an effort to keep the attacker calm, potentially?“I think that’s the way a lot of us interpreted that 911 call … that this was somebody who had 911 on the line and that Pelosi was trying to convey that he was in distress, that he was in immediate danger, without escalating the situation with the attacker.“And, by the way, there’s clear footage … outside of the house, showing this attacker breaking through the glass windows on the side of the house.”Fox News rolled the footage. More

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      Republicans lead charge to ban noncitizens from voting in local elections

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      Republicans lead charge to ban noncitizens from voting in local electionsEight states have passed laws against ballot access, even as some progressive cities are extending local voting rights Louisiana voters recently approved a constitutional amendment barring anyone who is not a US citizen from participating in elections, becoming the eighth state to push back against the growing number of progressive cities deciding to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.Conservative donors pour ‘dark money’ into case that could upend US voting lawRead moreWhile noncitizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections and no states allow noncitizens to vote for statewide office, ambiguous language in constitutions has allowed localities to pass statutes legalizing noncitizen voting in local or school board elections. A short but expanding list of cities include two cities in Vermont, almost a dozen in Maryland, and San Francisco.Other cities are trying to join that list, including Boston and Washington DC, where the latter city’s council in October passed legislation allowing noncitizens who have lived in the city for at least 30 days to vote in local elections. New York City’s council also passed a measure in December to allow close to 900,000 green card holders and those with work authorization to vote in local elections, but a state trial court struck it down in June, finding it violated the state constitution. The ruling is currently being appealed.The potential for major cities like DC and New York to expand their electorates prompted backlash from Republican lawmakers.“This vote sends a clear message that the radical election policies of places like San Francisco, New York City and Washington, DC have no place in Louisiana,” Kyle Ardoin, the Republican secretary of state, said in a statement after the passage of the constitutional amendment, which he said will “ensure the continued integrity of Louisiana’s elections”.Louisiana law already prohibits anyone who is “not a citizen of the state” from voting, so voting rights advocates say the new amendment is an effort by Republicans in the state to limit voting based on false allegations that noncitizens are committing voter fraud by participating in elections.Louisiana’s amendment made it on to the 10 December ballot after it was passed by both chambers of the state legislature. Over 73% of Louisiana voters approved it, making Louisiana the latest in a series of states moving to explicitly write bans into their constitutions.Before 2020, just Arizona and North Dakota specifically prohibited noncitizens from voting in local and state elections, but voters in Alabama, Colorado and Florida all approved constitutional amendments in 2020 and Ohio approved one in November.Ohio’s amendment came after one town in the state, Yellow Springs, passed an initiative in 2019 to allow noncitizens to vote, giving voting rights in local elections to just a few dozen people in the small town. A few years later in 2022, Republican lawmakers proposed what would eventually become the constitutional amendment banning the practice and revoking the right from noncitizens in Yellow Springs.Fulvia Vargas-De Leon, senior counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a New York-based immigrant rights group, said the movement for ballot amendments is just one way that some lawmakers are trying to restrict voting rights.“It is a response to the expansion of the right to vote, and our concern is that since 2020, we’ve seen such attacks on the right to vote,” she said, adding that the pushback was coming because of an anti-immigrant sentiment “but also a larger effort to try to ban who has access to the ballot”.The United States allowed noncitizens to vote for much of its early history. From the founding of the country through 1926, noncitizens could vote in local, state and federal elections. But anti-immigrant sentiment led to lawmakers in most states to push for an end to the practice.“Resurgent nativism, wartime xenophobia, and corruption concerns pushed lawmakers to curtail noncitizen voting, and citizenship became a voting prerequisite in every state by 1926,” William & Mary professor Alan H Kennedy wrote in a paper published in the Journal of Policy History this year.In 1996, Congress passed a law prohibiting noncitizens from voting in federal elections, making illegal voting punishable by fines, imprisonment and deportation.But on the local level, the subject has re-emerged as a topic for debate in recent decades, as the populations of permanent noncitizen immigrants has grown in many cities.Advocates for noncitizen voting argue that documented immigrants pay taxes and contribute to their local communities and should have their voices heard when it comes to local policy.“We should have a representative democracy, where everyone who is part of the fabric of the community, who is involved, who pays taxes, should have a say in it,” said Vargas-De Leon, whose group intervened in the New York litigation and has filed the appeal.But conservative groups say that allowing noncitizens to vote dilutes the votes of citizens. Republican strategist Christopher Arps started the Missouri-based Americans for Citizen Voting to help states amend their constitutions to explicitly say that only US citizens can vote. He said that people who want to vote should “at least have some skin in the game” by completing the citizenship process.“We’ve been hearing for the past five, six years about foreign interference, Russia and other countries,” he said. “Well to me, this is a type of foreign interference in our elections.”It would also be a “bureaucratic nightmare”, he said, for states to have to maintain two separate voter rolls for federal and local elections, and could lead to illegal voting if noncitizens accidentally vote in a federal election.Though noncitizen voting still has not been signed into law in DC, Republicans in Congress have already introduced legislation to block it. One bill, introduced by the Texas senator Ted Cruz last month, would bar DC from using federal funds to facilitate noncitizen voting.“Allowing noncitizens and illegal immigrants to vote in our elections opens our country up to foreign influence, and allows those who are openly violating US law or even working for hostile foreign governments to take advantage and direct our resources against our will,” Cruz said in a statement.But Vargas-De Leon pointed to the benefits of expanding the electorate to include the country’s 12.9 million legal permanent residents and other documented immigrants.“All we’re trying to do here is ensure that everyone has a say in our government,” she said.TopicsUS newsThe fight for democracyUS politicsLaw (US)LouisianaOhioFloridaVermontfeaturesReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      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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      Nancy Pelosi: family ‘heartbroken and traumatized’ by brutal attack on her husband

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      Nancy Pelosi: family ‘heartbroken and traumatized’ by brutal attack on her husbandSpeaker’s husband underwent surgery after hammer assault that comes amid rising warnings of political violence in the US House speaker Nancy Pelosi said her family is “heartbroken and traumatized” after a brutal and bloody hammer assault on her husband that has shocked the US as it stands on the brink of tense and crucial midterm elections.An intruder smashed his way through a rear door into the Pelosi’s house in San Francisco on Friday. The man confronted Paul Pelosi and shouted, “Where is Nancy.”Paul Pelosi, 82, underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands but his doctors expect a full recovery. However, the brutal attack – by a man who had posted online right-wing conspiracy theories – came amid rising warnings of political violence in the US.In her first official statement on the attack, Nancy Pelosi said: “A violent man broke into our family home, demanded to confront me and brutally attacked my husband Paul. Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop.”She added: “We are grateful for the quick response of law enforcement and emergency services, and for the life-saving medical care he is receiving. Please know that the outpouring of prayers and warm wishes from so many in the Congress is a comfort to our family and is helping Paul make progress with his recovery.”Paul Pelosi remains in the hospital but “his condition continues to improve”, the speaker said.The attacker now faces charges of attempted murder and other felonies.David DePape, 42, has been named by police as the attacker. Formal charges will be filed on Monday, and his arraignment is expected on Tuesday, according to the San Francisco district attorney’s office.In recent posts on several websites, he had reportedly expressed support for former president Donald Trump and embraced the cult-like conspiracy theory QAnon. The rambling posts included references to “satanic pedophilia”, aliens, antisemitic tropes and criticism of women, transgender people and censorship by tech companies.TopicsNancy PelosiUS politicsSan FranciscoHouse of RepresentativesnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden says it appears attack on Paul Pelosi intended for House Speaker

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      Biden says it appears attack on Paul Pelosi intended for House SpeakerSpeaker’s husband underwent surgery for skull fracture as political figures unite in condemnation of violence A man accused of clubbing the husband of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi,’ over the head with a hammer and threatening his life while demanding “Where is Nancy?” now faces charges of attempted murder and other felonies a day after the violent break-in at the couple’s San Francisco home.Attack on Pelosi’s husband heightens fears of increasing US political violenceRead morePaul Pelosi, 82, underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands, though doctors expect a full recovery.Joe Biden on Saturday afternoon said Pelosi was “doing better” after his surgery. The US president told reporters it looked like the attack had been intended for Nancy Pelosi and he urged all politicians to contemn political violence.The assault stoked fears about political violence less than two weeks ahead of midterm elections on 8 November that will decide control of the House of Representatives and US Senate, coming amid the most vitriolic and polarized US political climate in decades.The 82-year-old House speaker herself was in Washington with her protective detail at the time of the assault, but she flew back to San Francisco on Friday afternoon and went to the hospital.Police identified the man arrested at the scene by officers who intervened in the attack as David DePape, 42. He, too, was hospitalized with minor injuries, although police have spoken to him and he is expected to be formally charged by the San Francisco district attorney on Monday.He was booked into custody on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, battery, burglary and several other felonies.The San Francisco police chief, William Scott, told a Friday night news briefing that police detectives, assisted by FBI agents, had yet to determine exactly what precipitated the home invasion but said: “We know this was not a random act.“A statement from Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson, Drew Hammill, said Pelosi’s husband had been attacked “by an assailant who acted with force, and threatened his life while demanding to see the speaker.”Scott said the intruder, wielding a hammer, forced his way into the Pelosis’ townhouse in the city’s Pacific Heights neighborhood through a rear door shortly before 2.30am on Friday morning.Police were dispatched after a cryptic emergency 911 call from the residence. CNN reported that Paul Pelosi managed to call 911 and used coded language as he spoke to the dispatcher.Scott credited the 911 operator with using her experience and intuition to “figure out that there was more to this incident than what she was being told” by the caller, so she dispatched police urgently. Scott called her decision “life-saving”.He recounted that police arriving at the scene caught a glimpse through the front door of DePape and Pelosi struggling over a hammer. As the officers yelled at both men to drop the tool, DePape yanked the hammer away and was seen striking Pelosi at least once, the chief said.The officers then arrested Depape. Scott condemned violence against politicians and their loved ones saying they “did not sign up for this” and called the attack on Pelosi “intentional and wrong”.“Everybody should be disgusted,” he said.In recent online posts, an internet user named “daviddepape” expressed support for former US president Donald Trump and embraced the cult-like conspiracy theory QAnon.The posts included references to “satanic pedophilia”, antisemitic tropes and criticism of women, transgender people and censorship by tech companies.He also railed against the prosecution of white former police officer Derek Chauvin, CNN reported, for the racist murder of George Floyd in 2020, a crime that sparked a racial reckoning and a reflowering of the Black Lives Matter movement.Older messages promoted quartz crystals and hemp bracelets. Reuters could not confirm that the posts were created by the man arrested on Friday.Friday’s incident came a day after New York City police warned that extremists could target politicians, political events and polling sites ahead of the midterm elections, and threats have risen sharply.US faces new era of political violence as threats against lawmakers riseRead moreThe US Capitol police said they investigated 9,625 threats against lawmakers from both parties in 2021, nearly a threefold increase from 2017, amid security concerns.Pelosi’s office was invaded and ransacked during the 6 January 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol by extremist supporters of Trump, who had been incited by the-then Republican president, as they attacked law enforcement and sought to overturn Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election. Some of those who invaded the building hunted for the speaker, calling out her name.She had escaped with other lawmakers and then from a place of hiding led efforts to get the halls and chambers of the Capitol re-secured and back in action so that Congress could certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory, which it did in the early hours of 7 January.In January 2021, the Pelosis’ home was vandalized with graffiti saying “Cancel rent” and “We want everything” painted on the house and a pig’s head left in front of the garage, media reported.The home of the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, was also vandalized.McConnell contributed to bipartisan condemnation, saying he was “horrified and disgusted” by Friday’s violence.Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, whom insurrectionists threatened to hang on January 6, a notion reportedly endorsed by Trump, because he was willing to follow protocol and certify Biden’s victory, tweeted on Friday. He condemned the attack on Paul Pelosi as an outrage and said “there can be no tolerance for violence against public officials or their families.”Speaking at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Friday evening, Biden told the crowd: “Enough is enough.“Every person of good conscience needs to clearly and unambiguously stand up against violence in our politics, regardless of what your politics are,” the US president said.Vice-President Kamala Harris was once the district attorney for San Francisco. On Saturday, she told an election campaign event in Baltimore that “there’s some scary stuff happening.”She said in place of vigorous but fair debate, “powerful people, so-called leaders, have been using the bully pulpit … to divide our country, in a way that is propagating hate,” adding that people needed to make their voices heard to articulate that “we won’t stand for that.”TopicsNancy PelosiSan FranciscoUS politicsUS crimenewsReuse this content More

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      in Elections

      Barack Obama reacts to attack on 'good friend' Paul Pelosi – video

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      At a rally in Georgia, Barack Obama commented on the violent attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband. The former US president said Paul Pelosi was a ‘good friend’ and condemned politicians who ‘stir up division to make folks as angry and as afraid of one another … for their own advantage’.
      Pelosi was attacked with a hammer after an intruder entered his home in San Francisco, demanding to see his wife, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was in Washington. The attack has prompted fears of growing political violence in the US before the midterm elections on 8 November

      Paul Pelosi in hospital with skull fracture after attack

      Attack heightens fears of increasing US political violence More

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      What we know so far about the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband

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      What we know so far about the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husbandDavid DePape, 42, was a hemp jewellery maker who posted conspiracy theories on Facebook The man accused of breaking into US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in San Francisco and beating her husband with a hammer grew up in Canada, became a nudist activist in the Bay Area, and spread far-right conspiracy theories before being linked to the attack Friday, according to relatives and various media reports.David DePape, the 42-year-old suspect booked with attempting to murder Paul Pelosi, grew up in Powell River, British Colombia, but left about two decades ago to maintain a romantic relationship that led him to California, his stepfather Gene DePape told CNN.Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, in hospital with skull fracture after attackRead moreHe had since become estranged from his family, Gene DePape and an uncle named Mark DePape said to CNN. But David DePape’s name and photo surfaced in San Francisco Chronicle news coverage for his living in a three-bedroom Victorian flat in Berkeley with a known nudist activist named Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, her three children and her fiance, Jaymz Smith.Smith and Taub had asked DePape, described as a hemp jewellery maker, to be the best man at a wedding they planned to hold on the steps of San Francisco’s city hall.Taub was convicted last year of various criminal charges, including stalking and attempted child abduction.Listed years ago in voting records as a Green Party supporter, DePape said he also took to the streets with activists who opposed a successful push to ban public nudity in San Francisco, the Chronicle also reported.More recently, Gene DePape and Mark DePape said, David maintained a Facebook account containing multiple conspiracy-laden posts.The account, which was taken down by Facebook’s owner Meta on Friday, included links to videos produced by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell which falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Republican incumbent Donald Trump in favor of his Democratic rival Joe Biden.Other posts mentioned videos falsely proclaiming that the congressional committee investigating the US Capitol attack staged by Trump supporters on January 6 had collapsed, and another was titled: “Global Elites Plan To Take Control Of YOUR Money! (Revealed)”.Additionally, he purportedly managed a blog under the domain godisloving.wordpress.com – also deactivated Friday – on which he regularly posted rants concerning the “ruling class”.The blog also had a banner reading “Weclome (sic) to Big Brothers Censorship Hell” above numerous posts rambling about government, media, tech and alien conspiracies, among other topics.Speaking to CNN, a DePape acquaintance named Linda Schneider said that she met him about eight years ago. He was living in a storage unit in Berkeley and described him as struggling with hard drugs at the time.Schneider said she later began receiving “really disturbing” emails from him, adding that he was “using biblical justification to do harm”.Another acquaintance, Laura Hayes, told CNN that she worked with DePape about 10 years ago and helped him make the hemp bracelets that he sold as part of a business he ran.“He was very odd – he didn’t make eye contact very well,” Hayes said, adding that he told her that “he talks to angels and there will be a hard time coming”.On Friday, San Francisco police alleged that DePape broke into the home of the 82-year-old Pelosis in a targeted act. Wielding a hammer, he allegedly attacked Paul Pelosi and asked, “Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?”The speaker was not at home at the time – she was in Washington DC with a security detail which accompanies her at all times, as standard.Pelosi dialed 911 himself and got police to check on him after telling the burglar that he had to use the bathroom and then calling on his phone, which had been charging there, Politico reported.Police then went to the Pelosis’ place at about 2.30am on Friday, and they found both Paul Pelosi and DePape both grasping at the hammer. Officers immediately arrested DePape, who had apparently planned to tie up Paul Pelosi until the speaker of the House returned home.First responders took Paul Pelosi to a hospital to be treated for blunt force trauma to his head and body. A spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi said her businessman husband had undergone “successful surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands” and was expected to make a full physical recovery.Authorities on Friday were expecting to charge DePape with attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and other felonies.TopicsNancy PelosiUS politicsSan FrancisconewsReuse this content More

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      Democrats and Republicans condemn attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband

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      Democrats and Republicans condemn attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husbandReactions pour in after Paul Pelosi was violently attacked by a hammer-wielding intruder Politicians from across the political aisle are reacting to the news that US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was injured during a break-in and attack at their California home.The White House released a statement on behalf of Joe Biden, confirming that the president had spoken to Pelosi, his fellow Democrat, and expressed his support for Paul Pelosi’s recovery.Biden also denounced the violence and called for the couple’s privacy to be respected.“The President continues to condemn all violence, and asks that the family’s desire for privacy be respected”, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in part.Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, in hospital after being attacked at homeRead moreThe US Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, similarly decried Friday’s violence, calling the attack against Pelosi and her husband a “a dastardly act”.“I spoke with speaker Pelosi earlier this morning and conveyed my deepest concern and heartfelt wishes to her husband and their family, and I wish him a speedy recovery,” Schumer said on Twitter.Amid Republicans, many wished Paul a steady recovery and denounced the violence.The Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell wished Pelosi a full recovery and shared his shock at the attack on Twitter: “Horrified and disgusted by the reports that Paul Pelosi was assaulted in his and speaker Pelosi’s home last night. Grateful to hear that Paul is on track to make a full recovery and that law enforcement including our stellar Capitol police are on the case.”The House Republican whip Steve Scalise condemned the attack on Twitter and shared gratitude for investigators’ involvement.Scalise, who was shot in an attempted assassination in 2017, added, “Let’s be clear: Violence has no place in this country. I’m praying for Paul Pelosi’s full recovery.”Meanwhile, Kentucky senator Rand Paul shared a message of recovery for Pelosi’s husband. But he also expressed bitterness at a 2020 tweet from Pelosi’s daughter about an attack Rand Paul suffered from a neighbor in 2017.“No one deserves to be assaulted. Unlike Nancy Pelosi’s daughter who celebrated my assault, I condemn this attack and wish Mr Pelosi a speedy recovery,” Paul tweeted on Friday.Paul Pelosi was attacked on Friday at the Pelosi’s San Fransisco residence while the California representative was in Washington DC.The hammer-wielding intruder broke into the Pelosi home, allegedly shouting, “Where is Nancy?” in search of the top House Democrat.The attack was not random, the Associated Press reported, and the attacker, who is in custody, allegedly targeted the Pelosi family residence.Pelosi is currently in an area hospital after the violent attack and is expected to make a full physical recovery.TopicsNancy PelosiUS politicsSan FrancisconewsReuse this content More