Editorial: Attack on Paul Pelosi was a clear act of political violence

Have you stopped laughing yet?

Of course, no decent or minimally empathetic person would ever laugh about such a terrifying incident.

But because the assault victim was Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a startling number of far-right political and media figures found merriment in his physical pain.

Also startling was the number of elected Republicans refusing to call the attack what it was: an act of political violence.

Within hours of the assault becoming public, an echo chamber of lies began forming an alternative, false narrative. Its underlying theme was the lie that Paul Pelosi and the male intruder, David DePape, were lovers in a rendezvous gone bad. The lie spawned scores of sick anti-LGBTQ memes and tweets.

The salacious rumormongering became problematic when it was revealed that the 42-year-old DePape’s blog was a smorgasbord of racist and antisemitic bile, videos about COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies and QAnon posts.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, on the morning of the attack, tweeted that it was “horrific.” He said he and his wife were praying for the Pelosis. “We can have our political differences, but violence is always wrong & unacceptable,” he tweeted.

But that tenor and tone quickly dissipated among disagreement about whether this was a politically motivated or influenced attack. In our view, it clearly was.

Republicans also sought to cite this attack as an example of rising crime rates. But this was also untrue — and, as an aside, crime rates are up in both Democratic and Republican-led communities.

Debunking this and all the other lies was DePape himself, who told police that because Nancy Pelosi was the “leader of the pack” of what he called lies told by the Democratic Party, he was going to hold her hostage, break her kneecaps and then wheel her into Congress. He compared himself to the nation’s Founding Fathers fighting against tyranny.

Federal authorities have filed attempted kidnapping and assault charges against him. The San Francisco district attorney also announced state charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary, false imprisonment and threatening the life or serious bodily harm to a public official.

Monday night after charges had been filed, Sen. John Cornyn’s first and only tweet on the assault was one wondering if the Biden administration would deport DePape, a Canadian who has overstayed his visa.

This is what moves Cornyn to comment on the case? Not the trauma of a fellow human? Not a prayer for recovery? Just another chance to score a point on immigration?

Inflammatory political rhetoric and political violence aren’t the province of a single political party or ideology.

In 2017, House GOP Whip Steve Scalise was among five people shot on a baseball field by a Bernie Sanders supporter. In June, a man showed up at the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh allegedly with plans to assassinate him.

But as conservative commentator Max Boot wrote in the Washington Post: “Political violence in America is being driven primarily by the far right, not the far left, and the far right is much closer to the mainstream of the Republican Party than the far left is to the Democratic Party.”

Last week, three men were convicted in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

Twice, beginning with Jan. 6, 2021, intruders have broken into where Nancy Pelosi works or lives, demanding to know her whereabouts.

Calling and condemning political violence by its name, whatever the motive, shouldn’t be difficult. The refusal of many elected Republicans to do that is cowardice.

Once excused, violence becomes accepted, with victims falling on all sides.