Joe Biden condemns ‘despicable’ attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband – as police say assault was ‘not random’
Joe Biden has described the violent assault on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband as “despicable” – as San Francisco’s police chief has said it was “not a random attack”.
Paul Pelosi, 82, is recovering from a skull fracture after he was attacked by an intruder with a hammer on Friday.
The intruder – David DePape – broke into the couple’s home in San Francisco at around 2.30am, reportedly looking for the US House Speaker.
Police said officers were called to the house for a “wellbeing check” and arrived to find both men holding the hammer.
The suspect then pulled the hammer away from Mr Pelosi and used it to “violently assault” him, before being tackled by police officers.
At some point, the suspect searched for the Democratic leader shouting, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?”
Damage to the home of Nancy and Paul Pelosi. Pic: KGO TV via ABC
Posts about QAnon
The suspect appears to have made racist and often rambling posts online, including some that echoed QAnon conspiracy theories, according to initial investigations.
His posts also questioned the results of the 2020 election and defended former president Donald Trump.
The 42 year old grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, before leaving about 20-years-ago to follow an older girlfriend to San Francisco. A street address listed for DePape in the Bay Area college town of Berkeley led to a post office box at a UPS Store.
He was arrested at the Pelosi home early on Friday.
A motorcade believed to be carrying Mrs Pelosi arrived at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Friday, where her husband Paul is being treated.
She was in Washington when the assault occurred and flew back to San Francisco International Airport.
‘Despicable’
The US president sharply condemned the attack on Mr Pelosi and drew parallels between the attack on the House speaker’s husband and the US Capitol riots.
Speaking at an event in Philadelphia on Friday evening, he said he had earlier spoken to Mrs Pelosi and she reported that her husband was in “good spirits”.
He went on to address reports that the assailant had repeated the “same chant” heard during the 6 January 2021 riots.
“The chant was: ‘Where’s Nancy?'” Mr Biden said, calling it “despicable.”
“There’s too much violence, political violence,” the president added, suggesting that election denialism and claims that COVID-19 was a “hoax” had eroded the political climate.
“Every person of good conscience needs to clearly and unambiguously stand up against the violence in our politics, regardless of what your politics are,” he said.
A police officer rolls out more yellow tape on the closed street below the home of Nancy and Paul Pelosi
‘Not a random act’
Meanwhile, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott told a news conference that the attack on Mr Pelosi at their San Francisco home was “intentional”.
He said: “This was not a random act. This was intentional. And it’s wrong.”
Mr Scott declined to comment further on a possible motive for the assault and said the investigation was ongoing.
Mr Pelosi was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery for a skull fracture and severe injuries to his right arm and hands, a spokesperson said.
He is expected to make a full recovery.
DePape has been charged with attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and several other felony charges.
His motive has not yet been made clear.
Mrs Pelosi’s spokesperson, Drew Hammill, said her husband had been attacked “by an assailant who acted with force, and threatened his life while demanding to see the Speaker”.
The scene outside the Pelosi residence in San Francisco following the attack
Read more:
Attacker was looking for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when he broke into her house and hit husband with hammer
Analysis – Attack on Pelosi’s husband comes amid increasing threats against US politicians
‘Dastardly act’
Mrs Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the US House of Representatives, and second-in-line to the presidency, was in Washington DC at the time, having recently returned from a security summit in Europe.
Had she been at home, her security detail would have been present but Mr Pelosi is not eligible for this protection on his own.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement: “What happened to Paul Pelosi was 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.”
Nancy and Paul Pelosi pictured in 2018
After the attack, the White House released a statement saying “the president is praying for Paul Pelosi and for Speaker Pelosi’s whole family”, adding he was “very glad” a full recovery was expected.
The attack is being investigated by San Francisco police, Capitol Police, and the FBI.
It comes amid growing concern about the safety of America’s politicians almost two years after the Capitol insurrection in January 2021, when Mrs Pelosi’s office was ransacked.
Last year, Capitol Police investigated around 9,600 threats made against members of Congress from both parties – nearly a threefold increase since 2017.
US
Rating Donald Trump’s second term so far: He’s rattling the cage and so many here in Pennsylvania couldn’t be happier
President Trump promised profound change. His former aide Steve Bannon said the first few weeks would be ‘days of thunder’.
It’s been all of that and more.
Domestically and globally Donald Trump has proudly upturned norms.
One key question for me these past few weeks has been: if much of the world (and liberal America) has been buffeted and bewildered by Donald Trump, what do those who chose him back in November think, nearly 50 days in?
I’ve been back to Pennsylvania, a place I have spent plenty of time over the past few years. It’s crucial in every election and was particularly so last November.
The state is sort of a microcosm for the country. To the east and west are the urban Democratic strongholds of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
In between are the rural Republican heartlands. And dotted throughout are the hinterlands – smaller towns where there is more of a mix of voters but still with a general lean towards the Republicans or, more specifically, to Trump.
Gettysburg and Waynesboro both voted broadly two-thirds for Trump and one-third for Kamala Harris back in November.
On the edge of Gettysburg, a bleak rocky outcrop marks the location of the battle which changed the course of the civil war. The threads which stitch America run through this place.
A few hundred metres away is the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address.
It was 1863 and America’s 16th president marked the end of the battle with a reminder to a country divided by a civil war that it was a nation founded years earlier on the principles of liberty and equality.
Lincoln was America’s most consequential president, until now, maybe.
In the town’s Lincoln Square, a statue of the 16th president stands tall. My focus was the new White House occupant.
“10!” It was the first of many ‘tens’ on my Trump scorecard.
“Oh he’s doing great…Yeah he’s doing real great,” one man said.
I asked what, in particular, he was happy with. “The money he’s making me.” The theme was the same with the next person.
“Trying to pass no tax on social security for one, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime – help out the workers, help out the retirees, that’s very important to me,” Mike said.
My third conversation was with a couple. I suggested to them that the federal firings had felt quite chaotic; a sledgehammer approach.
“No. I think they’re using a scalpel. They’re finding so much. It looks bad,” the man said.
“We had too many people that were in those jobs, they weren’t doing anything,” his wife added.
A couple say that Donald Trump has been a ‘scalpel’ – not a ‘sledgehammer’
“He’s upsetting Europe as well…” I said in my next conversation. “That’s not good, is it? We’re supposed to be friends.” I suggested with a smile.
“Yeah, well we need Europe to step up too,” the man replied.
“Zelenskyy was here for a pay cheque and got a reality check,” another said, referring to the Oval Office showdown.
“I believe he wants to keep this war going, because as soon as this war is over, he’s going to be voted out,” he said.
“We’re an ocean apart. We’re doing him a big favour by supporting him.”
So much of what I heard was parroting President Trump almost word for word.
“You know, we gave him, what, $300bn? Where did that money go?”
There was no point in telling him that the true American contribution was about half that, and that it is all fully and publicly accounted for.
Lunch was at Chubby’s, a local pizza joint where I met Tom Jaskulski, a retired federal worker, now a handyman.
“He campaigned on all these policies, and he’s fulfilling them,” Tom told me. “It seems like the world’s waking up when Donald Trump came in office.
“A lot of things are happening worldwide, not just in this country.”
‘He’s rattling the hornet’s nest,’ Tom Jaskulski says
Tom’s score? “10! Not because I’m wearing his hat, but a 10 because he’s doing what he says he’s going to do.
“You know, he’s rattling the hornet’s nest.”
Down the road, at the Yankee Doodle Pet Spa, Tina and her 22-year-old apprentice Molly had no regrets and were baffled that anyone could think they would.
“He’s doing what he said he was going to do and I am quite happy with him right now,” Tina said.
‘I don’t think (Ukrainians) deserve our money,’ Tina says
Our conversation turned to Ukraine. I wanted to know her thoughts on President Trump’s abruptly shifting position and near-abandonment of Kyiv.
“It’s not our war. We have enough people in this country suffering, that’s how I feel about it. I don’t think they deserve our money,” Tina said, quoting the president’s exaggerated figures for how much America had spent in Ukraine.
But then our conversation cut to the core of where America is right now: siloed worlds.
Read more:
Russia ‘appears to have ignored Trump warning’
‘Trump bump’ turns to a Trump slump
We were discussing Elon Musk and his efforts to cut government bureaucracy.
“The social security, blowing that open with all of the people that are over 124 still getting social security,” Molly said of Musk’s claim that he had discovered social security was being paid to dead people.
“160 years old, I heard…” said Tina.
“Yeah, that’s insane,” Molly said.
I interrupted: “You know that’s been debunked? That wasn’t true. I’m worried that people are believing things that actually aren’t true. That the Trump administration is telling you stuff that is not true. What do you think?”
“I think it’s both ways,” Molly said, “I think both sides put out fake news and fake propaganda for each other.”
It was clear she didn’t know who to believe. She’d lost all trust in the legacy media. She and Tina had been drawn to social media and they’d concluded President Trump was trustworthy.
Back in Lincoln Square, a chance meeting exposed the other side of all this – deep anxiety.
“I’m a trans person so a lot of his policies have been impacting transgender people and that is just, it’s a scary time to live in,” 22-year-old Em told me.
Em said ‘there’s a lot of hatred in the world right now’
“There’s a lot of hatred in the world right now, especially at so many groups of people. I mean, it’s really… yeah…” Em said before trailing off, face filled with anxiety and emotion.
By nightfall my journey of conversations had taken me to the quiz night at a bar and brewery in Waynesboro.
“I’ve never been more embarrassed to be American…” one woman called Jacqueline said.
Jacqueline has ‘never been more embarrassed to be American,’ and Andrew says everyone is in their ‘own echo chambers’
Her quiz night partner, Andrew, chipped in. “I think it’s the access to information. I think we don’t go out and talk to each other.
“I think we’re on the internet all day. A lot of people are just on the internet and they’re getting news sources from their own echo chambers.”
“Things have been going downhill for a long time,” another man called Marco, at the next door table, said.
“I’m not saying Trump’s right about everything, but you know what? At least he’s trying, he’s doing something different. And I agree with what he’s doing.”
Marco says Donald Trump is ‘doing something different’
This wave of change has been profound. But to assume that those who chose this change – who chose Donald Trump – would have any regrets would be to fundamentally misunderstand America today.
The profound sentiment among everyone we spoke to who voted for him is that he is putting America first with a tangibility that they have never felt before.
It may turn out to be an illusion. But they feel no sense of that at the moment.
He is rattling the cage and so many here couldn’t be happier.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway