Federal officials have sounded the alarm over domestic attacks ahead of the midterms.
Law enforcement is still on alert following the violent attack against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, at their home in San Francisco, California. On Tuesday, U.S. Capitol Police called for more resources, including additional protective details, to better protect lawmakers.
“Friday’s attack against Paul Pelosi is an alarming reminder of the dangerous threats elected officials and public figures face during today’s contentious political climate,” Manger said in a statement on Tuesday.
The alleged perpetrator, David DePape, reportedly broke into the couple’s house early Friday morning trying to find the speaker, who was in Washington, D.C. at the time, and ended up assaulting her 82-year-old husband. As Paul recovers in the hospital from his injuries, local police and federal officials are trying to piece together the exact motive behind the attack, but what is known is that it wasn’t done at random.
“There have been a significant number of recent violent attacks motivated by political rhetoric and sociopolitical narratives promoted on extremist forums. The attack on Mr. Pelosi is just another on a growing list,” John Cohen, who served as the Department of Homeland Security’s acting intelligence chief, told Politico.
Here’s a breakdown of what happened to Paul Pelosi, how this represents a growing threat, and what’s being done about it.
What happened to Paul Pelosi?
San Francisco police officers stopped by the the couple’s home for a priority well-being check just before 2:30 a.m. local time to find Pelosi and DePape struggling over a hammer. The suspect then took the hammer and assaulted Pelosi. A source reports DePape shouted, “Where is Nancy?”
Officers then quickly tackled DePape and disarmed him. But Pelosi was left in critical condition and had to be rushed to the hospital, where he underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands. In a statement released Saturday, the House Speaker said her husband’s condition was improving, adding that the family is “heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack.”
Fortunately, Paul is expected to make a full recovery in large part to his quick thinking — he was able to secretly dial 911 after tricking the assailant into letting him use the bathroom, where he had been charging his phone at the time. Paul spoke in code, describing what was happening to the 911 operator without raising any suspicion from his attacker.
“It is really thanks to Mr. Pelosi having the ability to be able 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,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told CNN.
Where’s DePape now?
DePape’s currently in police custody and the Justice Department filed felony two charges — assault and attempted kidnapping — against him. Together, these charges could lead to a maximum of 50 years in prison.
Though authorities are still looking into his background, the hammer-wielding intruder appears to have had an active social media presence, where he often made racist and transphobic posts. DePape also appears to have operated two blogs where he pushed various conspiracy theories. This includes far-right conspiracies like QAnon, a term used for a set of internet conspiracies that falsely allege that the world is run by a secret group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.
Is this part of a larger trend?
Unfortunately, the ruthless attack against Paul Pelosi is hardly an isolated incident.
On the same day of Pelosi’s assault, 22-year-old Joshua Hall pleaded guilty to threatening to kill California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and his staffers, claiming he had several AR-15s. This type of threat is nothing new: Former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head after Jared L. Loughner went on a shooting rampage at a constituent event. Giffords survived the harrowing ordeal, and Loughner is facing seven life terms.
Republican lawmakers have also been targets of political violence: House Republican whip Steve Scalise was shot in 2017 during a congressional baseball game. The suspected gunman, James T. Hodgkinson, who died in a shoot out with police, was strongly anti-Trump and identified himself as fierce progressive. Scalise recovered after being hospitalized, and has since spoken out about the assault against Paul Pelosi. “Let’s be clear, Violence has no place in this country,” he said.
To put these recent events into perspective, more than 9,000 threats were made against members of Congress and their families last year, according to the Capitol Police, which is more than twice as many compared with five years ago. Some have even led to deadly consequences — politically motivated extremism largely driven by the right has killed over 400 people in the U.S., according to the Anti-Defamation League. In 2021 alone, political violence caused at least 29 deaths.
What’s being done about political violence?
The Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the National Counterterrorism Center issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning how violent extremists could pose a threat to the upcoming midterm elections, particularly to election workers. Just this month, a 64-year-old Iowa man was arrested after he threatened to kill election officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County.
“Unfortunately, this is a continuation of at least a 2-and-a-half-year-long-established pattern of violence against elected officials and local officials, including poll workers, that has been steadily ramping up,” Harvard professor Erica Chenoweth told Politico.
Even with federal officials on guard, Cohen told Politico that these kinds of attacks can be hard to detect because the perpetrators don’t communicate in a “typical manner,” and often don’t “associate with terrorist organizations or extremist groups.”
How are lawmakers responding to the attack against Pelosi’s husband?
The violent break-in has drawn condemnation from lawmakers across the political aisle, ranging from Senate Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer to his Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell. Several others within the GOP have spoken out, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. used the traumatic attack as an opportunity to mock Paul Pelosi in a Halloween meme he posted on Instagram, even as his dad, former President Trump, called it a “terrible thing,” while railing on Democratic-led cities.
“With Paul Pelosi, that’s a terrible thing, with all of them it’s a terrible thing,” Trump told the conservative Spanish language outlet Americano Media. “Look at what’s happened to San Francisco generally. Look at what’s happening in Chicago. It was far worse than Afghanistan.”
But there has been some disagreement over which party’s to blame. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said it was “unfair” to imply that Republican rhetoric helped fuel the attack against Paul Pelosi, adding that “we all need to recognize violence is up across the board.” In a similar vein, GOP Sen. Rand Paul seized the opportunity to bring up a prior dispute with the speaker’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, who tweeted in support of Paul getting attacked by his neighbor in 2017.
Meanwhile, the White House issued its own statement, saying President Biden had personally spoken with the Speaker to express his support and denounced the attack. “The president continues to condemn all violence and asks that the family’s desire for privacy be respected,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote.
