Paul Pelosi attack: Court hears DePape was on ‘suicide mission’ as Megyn Kelly raises conspiracies

Rep Claudia Tenney, the US representative for New York’s 22nd congressional district since 2021, appeared to mock the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in a tweet over the weekend.

The Republican congresswoman, who is up for reelection this November, retweeted a photoshopped picture of the home of Paul Pelosi’s suspected attacker, David DePape, in which the front the Berkley, California residence is surrounded by a group of men wielding outlandishly large hammers.

“LOL,” wrote the New York congresswoman, while retweeting the meme.

CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski quote tweeted the GOP lawmaker’s tweet, alongside the caption: “A Republican member of Congress mocking Pelosi‘s husband being beaten with a hammer.”

Ms Tenney’s Democratic challenger in the race, Steven Holden, responded to the CNN reporter’s tweet and wrote that he was “seeing real traction as voters in the district see how unfit and extreme she is”.

“Getting a lot of support from Republicans!” he added.

Rep Liz Cheney reportedly put her fellow Republican colleagues on blast during an interview with PBS, where she relayed how disappointed she was that certain members within the GOP seemed to be openly mocking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband after he was attacked last week by a hammer-wielding intruder.

“I’m not sure I ever spoke to @SpeakerPelosi before I joined the J6 committee. She is a liberal, I am a conservative. But I think she is a tremendous leader. She is a leader of historic consequence,” tweeted PBS correspondent Lisa Desjardins, who was reportedly interviewing the vice chairwoman of the January 6 committee.

“The fact that Paul Pelosi was in ICU, had been brutally attacked, that there were members of my party mocking him. Members of President Trump’s family, mocking him, that’s not who we are. That is disgraceful,” said Ms Cheney, according to a follow-up tweet from the reporter.

The chief of the US Capitol Police says his agency requires added resources to step up protection for lawmakers after last week’s brutal attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In a statement, Capitol Police chief Thomas Manger said his department had “engaged in a review” of the attack on Paul Pelosi by a hammer-wielding assailant who had sought to kidnap and assault Ms Pelosi, the longtime leader of House Democrats who is also second in the presidential line of succession.

He called the attack “an alarming reminder of the dangerous threats elected officials and public figures face during today’s contentious political climate” and said the department’s mission of protecting lawmakers has become “increasingly urgent” due to the “increasing number of threats against elected officials from city council members to federal judges”.

Andrew Feinberg has more details in this developing story here.

Donald Trump has joined a chorus of GOP voices promoting a flurry of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories around the attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

The former president began airing the controversial remarks while calling in to the Chris Stigall radio show on Tuesday morning.

The one-term president began by offering up condolences for Paul Pelosi and his family, as he described the attack as a “sad situation”.

But he also gave credence to conspiracy theories that exploded in right-wing circles in the days after the attack, most of which have since been debunked after authorities released the arresting documents against suspect David DePape.

“Wow, it’s — weird things going on in that household in the last couple of weeks,” he began.

“Probably, you and I are better off not talking about it. The glass it seems was broken from the inside to the out so it wasn’t a break in, it was a break out. I don’t know, you hear the same things I do,” Mr Trump said, highlighting a since dismantled theory that the San Francisco home of the House Leader and her husband didn’t show signs of a break-in.

Catch up on all the latest details with The Independent’s report on Mr Trump’s trafficking in conspiracy theories.

Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna said that the attack on Paul Pelosi highlights “the threat of political violence that is being stoked by conspiracy theories and propaganda and hate speech.”

While being interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now the California lawmaker discussed the dangers facing his colleagues in Washington, particularly ahead of the 8 November midterms.

It seems “that this was targeted to the Pelosis,” he began. “What we need to be responding to is the threat of political violence that is being stoked by conspiracy theories and propaganda and hate speech on social media and in our democracy.”

Watch the full clip below.

David DePape, who officials suspect of breaking into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacking her 82-year-old husband Paul with a hammer, was moved from a San Francisco hospital to a county jail ahead of his first appearance in court, according to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office.

The California man, 42, faces state charges including attempted homicide, first-degree burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, and elder abuse, as well as federal charges of attempted kidnapping and assault with intent to retaliate against a federal official.

He could face up to 50 years in prison if he is found guilty, the New York Post reports.

Mr DePape will be arraigned on Tuesday at 1.30pm local time.

Whoopi Goldberg seemed to echo the charge laid at the feet of Fox News by California Governor Gavin Newsom, as both The View host and the Democratic official accused the right-wing news outlet of being partly to blame for the attack on Paul Pelosi last week.

While the daytime talk show was discussing the recent attack on the House Speaker’s 82-year-old husband, Goldberg made an attempt to draw a through line between the rhetoric being spun at the cable news giant and the increased threat to public officials ahead of the 8 November elections.

“Fox News, some of this is on your hands. Some of this is on your hands. You like to call people out, I’m calling you all out,” the ABC host said. “Stop with the ‘That side is not good,’ because this is what it puts out there. It tells people that you think it’s OK to do this. Stop doing it.”

Watch the full clip below.

Ted Cruz faced a barrage of demands to issue an apology or retract a tweet after he appeared to promote a GOP conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi.

Despite offering his “prayers” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her 82-year-old husband on Friday, by Monday the Texas senator was retweeting posts from unreliable sources that seemed to promote falsehoods and innuendo about the suspected attacker, 42-year-old David DePape.

In one of the posts, Sen Cruz reshared a screenshot from alt-right activist Matt Walsh, in which he pushed back against the information that has been widely reported from reliable news outlets that Mr DePape had recently become engaged in posting on far-right political blogs.

“Where’s @tedcruz‘s apology?” asked one Twitter user while linking out to the arresting documents, released on Monday, that immediately debunked the two men’s theory as it clearly laid out how Mr DePape had politically motivated intentions.

Read the full report from The Independent here.

Monday’s federal criminal complaint offered new details about why David DePape didn’t flee the scene after Paul Pelosi called 911.

Mr DePape had begun preparing to restrain Mr Pelosi when the House speaker’s husband went into the bathroom and made his 911 call.

“DePape stated he felt like Pelosi’s actions compelled him to respond,” the complaint states.

“DePape remembered thinking that there was no way the police were going to forget about the phone call. DePape explained that he did not leave after Pelosi’s call to 9-1-1 because, much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender. DePape reiterated this sentiment elsewhere in the interview.

The filing continued: “DePape stated that they went downstairs to the front door. The police arrived and knocked on the door, and Pelosi ran over and opened it. Pelosi grabbed onto DePape’s hammer, which was in DePape’s hand. At this point in the interview, DePape repeated that DePape did not plan to surrender and that he would go ‘through’ Pelosi.

“DePape stated that he pulled the hammer away from Pelosi and swung the hammer towards Pelosi. DePape explained that Pelosi’s actions resulted in Pelosi ‘taking the punishment instead.’”

Rep Eric Swalwell took to Twitter to call out some of his Republican colleagues in the House and those in the Senate for “peddling” conpsiracy theories about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, last week.

“By peddling nonsense conspiracy theories about the Pelosi family, Republicans are showing once again that they are willing to say and do anything to cover-up the crimes committed by their base.”