No One is Surprised by the Attack on Paul Pelosi or the Republican Conspiracy Theories that Followed

If Republicans were truthful, they would admit that they were not at all surprised that the individual that broke into Nancy Pelosi's house was a Super-MAGA, QAnon-loving nutcase.

CBS News: "A CBS News review of suspected social media posts by DePape turned up conspiracy theories about Holocaust denial, pedophiles in the government, and claims that Democratic officials run child sex rings."

The man who bludgeoned Paul Pelosi with a hammer on Friday had also posted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, Jewish Americans, and the January 6th insurrection on social media.

Republicans have spent tens of millions this election cycle demonizing Nancy Pelosi and some super-MAGAs have gone even further. For instance, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has accused Pelosi of being “guilty of treason” — a crime, Greene noted, that’s “punishable by death,” and members of right-wing militia groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters have called for her assassination. It must have occurred to Republicans that one of their flock would take their blather seriously. As many have noted before regarding Trump's "stolen election" nonsense, words have consequences.

After the attack, some Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) quickly condemned the violence, saying that he was “horrified and disgusted” by the incident, but most have kept mum or tried to turn the attack to their advantage. Oddly, some, like Donald Trump and Fox News anchor, Bill Hemmer have treated the assault on Paul Pelosi as some random act of violence, just another example of the uptick in crime since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. It's obvious, however, that this attack was far from random.

The New York Times spoke to Frank Ciccarelli, the former boss and friend of the man accused of violently assaulting Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi.

Frank Ciccarelli, Times: “If you got him talking about politics, it was all over. Because he really believed in the whole MAGA, ‘Pizzagate,’ stolen election — you know, all of it, all the way down the line. If you go to Fox News, if you go on the internet and you look at QAnon, you know, he had all these theories.”

And, the conspiracy theories and outright lies spiraling around the MAGA universe are beyond the pale. Some have suggested that Pelosi's attacker was a male prostitute, and Donald Trump joined the chorus this week saying, “it’s weird things going on in that household in the last couple of weeks.” You know, probably, you and I are better off not talking about it. The glass, it seems, was broken from the inside to the out and, you know, so, it wasn’t a break in, it was a break out."

Police officials have contradicted these conspiracy theories, but among those that believe that Democrats steal elections, treat abortion as a religious ritual and drink the blood of babies, such denials probably don't carry much weight.

It's time for Republican leaders to forcefully push back against those in their party [including Donald Trump] that echo the vile rhetoric of the far right that portrays public policy differences as an existential threat to the nation. And the attack on Paul Pelosi should be a reminder to all Americans that democracy can only thrive when there is a respectful dialog among rational individuals. The problem with demonizing your opponent is that it makes it much more difficult to compromise. Without compromise, politics becomes a blood sport and each day we inch ever closer to that in America.

#politics

By: Don Lam & Curated Content