Tapper: Elected officials, TV anchors creating a ‘permission structure’ for political violence

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said some elected officials and TV anchors are to blame for creating a “permission structure” that has opened the door for political violence, after news broke that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband was attacked in the couple’s home on Friday.

“There are people in mainstream accepted society — elected officials, TV anchors, others — who have been creating a permission structure that is helping to open the door to this violence,” Tapper said Friday night.

“This horrifying act of violence today, I wish I could tell you it’s an outlier,” he added. “It’s not. It is the inevitable product of a poisonous political climate where unchecked lies and hate-filled dehumanizing rhetoric combine to create a perfect storm of political violence.”

Paul Pelosi, the Speaker’s husband, was violently assaulted in the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday morning, when a man broke in and shouted, “Where is Nancy?”

When police arrived on the scene for a well-being check, they found Paul Pelosi and the intruder in a struggle over a hammer. The hammer was wrestled away from Paul Pelosi and used against him.

Paul Pelosi underwent successful surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands on Friday and is expected to make a full recovery.

President Biden on Friday night suggested that the violence against Pelosi was tied to Republican talk of stolen elections.

“What makes us think that one party can talk about stolen elections, COVID being a hoax, that it’s all a bunch of lies, and it not affect people who may not be so well balanced,” Biden said. “What makes us think that it’s not going to corrode the political climate?”

However, Tapper noted that the threat of political violence and violent acts have been committed against lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

He pointed to the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) at the annual congressional baseball game, as well as the man who traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this year intending to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“As much as Donald Trump is part of the problem here, you need to know these threats and horrific acts are not only from the right,” Tapper said.