Elon Musk on Sunday responded to a tweet by Hillary Clinton tying an assault on Paul Pelosi to Republican rhetoric by espousing a conspiracy theory surrounding the circumstances of the incident.
A 42-year-old man allegedly broke into the San Francisco home of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her husband, Paul Pelosi, and assaulted him with a hammer, leading him to undergo surgery for a skull fracture.
Clinton lambasted the GOP while sharing a Los Angeles Times article that reported the suspect echoed QAnon conspiracy theories.
“The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories,” Clinton tweeted on Saturday afternoon.
“It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result,” Clinton continued. “As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”
On Sunday morning, just a few days after he took over the social media platform, Musk tweeted at Clinton by sharing an article detailing an unfounded, right-wing conspiracy about the circumstances of the attack.
“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk wrote.
He deleted the tweet later in the day.
There is no evidence to back up the claims made in the article by a website known for repeatedly publishing stories that are false, including one in 2016 that claimed Clinton had died during that year’s presidential campaign and that a body double was sent to debate then-GOP candidate Donald Trump.
After taking over the platform, Musk quickly made moves to determine content decisions as many of the Tesla CEO’s critics express worry about the spread of misinformation on the platform under more relaxed content moderation policies.
The specifics of future content moderation on Twitter under Musk’s ownership remain unclear, and he has vowed to implement significant changes to the platform, including layoffs and the lifting of lifelong bans, including that of Trump.
“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk wrote in a statement posted on Thursday.
The assault on Paul Pelosi has drawn condemnations from both sides of the aisle, and it marks the latest in a long series of attacks and threats against lawmakers and prominent government officials that has grown in recent years.
The Speaker said on Saturday that her husband’s condition continues to improve, calling the alleged altercation “life threatening” and “traumatizing.”
“Please know that the outpouring of prayers and warm wishes from so many in the Congress is a comfort to our family and is helping Paul make progress with his recovery,” she wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter.
Updated: 6:05 p.m.