Blame game in attack on Pelosi's husband
Washington Times national politics correspondent Susan Ferrechio and Fox News contributor Mara Liasson discuss the press' blame game in the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband.
The Washington Post featured a lengthy dissertation Saturday claiming the recent attack against Paul Pelosi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, is connected to years of the Republican Party "demonizing" her.
Correspondent Ashley Parker and reporters Hannah Allam and Marianna Sotomayor began by tracing the recent attack to three specific incidents: the RNC's 2010 "Fire Pelosi" campaign to unseat her as Speaker, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., joking about hitting her with the Speaker’s gavel in 2021, and nearly $40 million of political ads being spent against her during the current midterm election cycle.
"The years of vilification culminated Friday when Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was attacked with a hammer during an early-morning break-in at the couple’s home in San Francisco by a man searching for the speaker and shouting ‘Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?’ according to someone briefed on the assault," they wrote.
The article highlighted that 42-year-old David DePape, who allegedly attacked Paul Pelosi in the couple’s San Francisco home, authored a blog with several "pro-Trump and anti-Democratic posts" as well as "deeply racist and antisemitic writings."
(Left) Paul Pelosi and Nancy Pelosi attend the Pre-GRAMMY Gala. (Right) David DePape (Michael Short/ San Francisco Chronicle )
JESSE WATTERS: LIBERAL MEDIA ONLY CARES ABOUT THE CRIME WAVE WHEN IT COMES TO NANCY PELOSI’S HOUSE
The Washington Post article, however, did not reference DePape’s connection to radical nudist activists or his alleged mental illness.
Instead, the breakdown emphasized Republican opposition to Nancy Pelosi, claiming their rhetoric has become "increasingly violent" under President Donald Trump.
"For many Democrats, the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband represents the all-but-inevitable conclusion of Republicans’ increasingly violent and threatening rhetoric toward their political opponents — a phenomenon that escalated under former president Donald Trump, who prided himself on his inflammatory oratory and who was often reluctant to denounce white nationalists and others spewing hate speech," they claimed.
The reporters added, "For a wide swath of Republicans, Pelosi is Enemy No. 1 — a target of the collective rage, conspiratorial thinking and overt misogyny that have marked the party’s hard-right turn in recent years."
The piece did note that Republicans have been targeted by extreme Democrats and leftists in the past, such as House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and other Republicans being shot at a practice for the Congressional baseball game and a thwarted assassination attempt against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Despite this, they claimed that far-right attacks on Pelosi have "been particularly ferocious and date back more than a decade."
Many Democratic figures blamed Republican rhetoric against Nancy Pelosi for the attack against her husband on Friday. ((Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images))
They wrote, "Among far-right extremist groups, the anti-Pelosi memes are often cruder and more violent, but the demonization of the Democratic House leader is no fringe phenomenon. Her face — sometimes adorned with devil’s horns or a swastika — was plastered on signs at all the national rallies that led up to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. Pelosi is such a frequent target that it’s common for right-wing pundits and protesters to refer to her only by her first name, as Jan. 6 insurrectionists did when roaming the halls of the Capitol searching for her while yelling: ‘Where are you, Nancy?’"
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The article was blasted by Twitter users for being a "smear" of Republicans and biased propaganda.
The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway tweeted, "Just wanted to grade you on your propaganda operation. I’m feeling generous so I’d give a C-. You completed the project but didn’t really try to make it believable."
"News article in @washingtonpost draws direct line from boilerplate campaign rhetoric—'Fire Pelosi’—to the attack on her husband. Some rhetoric has been incendiary and beyond the pale—see MTG, for example—but this is a smear," National Review Washington correspondent John McCormack tweeted.
Radio host Mark Levin tweeted, "For the Washington Post, Republicans are the source of all evil. Look at this story and how this sleazy media corporation seeks to exploit the attack on Paul Pelosi. Perhaps of Nancy Pelosi treated her political opponents with respect they’d return the favor."
"Corporate and regime propagandists be working it!! But your propaganda and spin are, well, incredibly stupid," American National CEO Ned Ryun joked.
"Notice how the liberal media didn’t do this breakdown when theirs: Shot up the GOP baseball practice, tried to kill Kavanaugh, tried to kill Zeldin, firebombed pro-life centers, attacks and tried to murder GOP candidates in 2018," Media Research Center associate editor Nicholas Fondacaro said.
Washington Free Beacon executive editor Brent Scher tweeted, "I heard that McCarthy joke about hitting her on the head with a gavel went viral in San Francisco’s nudist hippy circles."
Deseret News contributing writer Bethany Mandel wrote, "San Francisco, famously ground zero of MAGA country."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter that her family is "heartbroken" and "traumatized" by the attack. (Photo by Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images))
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Former RNC chairman Michael Steele defended the "Fire Pelosi" campaign under his leadership as political, not personal, but claimed "we are a long way from that today."
He blamed Trump's rhetoric during the 2016 campaign saying, "People took it literally that if I don’t like your political position or what you’re saying, it’s okay to get up in your face physically."
Though the article largely focused on Republicans, Steele’s quote more closely resembled Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., calling for Trump officials to be harassed in their daily lives or former President Obama telling his supporters in 2008, "I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors ... I want you to argue with them and get in their face."
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