Press: The inevitable result of years of attacking Speaker Pelosi

Let’s be clear about one thing. As the San Francisco Police Department quickly confirmed, last week’s horrific assault on Paul Pelosi was no random attack. This was not the case of a clueless burglar who just happened to pick the Pelosi residence to break into. This was a deliberate attempt to attack, perhaps kidnap or either assassinate the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  

It was, in fact, the second attempt to  attack Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). When David Wayne DePape  allegedly broke into the Pelosi home — hollering “Where is Nancy?” — on Oct. 28, he was only echoing the first attempt against Pelosi on Jan. 6, 2020, when an armed mob of Donald Trump supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol shouting, “Nancy, Nancy, where are you, Nancy?”  

The two events are clearly connected, and not only because Pelosi was the target of both — and, blessedly, not present or readily accessible in either case. Those who downplayed the violence of Jan. 6, or compared it to a “normal tourist visit,” or called the rioters “patriots,” or refused to participate in a serious investigation of what happened on that day and who was behind it, are arguably responsible for last week’s assault.  

The only surprise is that an assault like this on the Speaker or a member of her family did not happen sooner.  

In every election for decades, including the current one, House Republican candidates have run campaign ads and fundraising appeals containing vicious, personal attacks against Nancy Pelosi, as if the San Francisco Democrat were the devil incarnate.  

As documented by The New York Times, in 2009, “the Republican National Committee ran an advertisement featuring Ms. Pelosi’s face framed by the barrel of a gun — complete with the sound of a bullet firing as red bled down the screen.” Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), running for reelection, recently posted on Twitter a video of him firing a gun at a shooting range with the hashtag “#FirePelosi.” This year alone, according to ADImpact, Republicans have spent more than $61 million on ads vilifying Pelosi, which have aired 143,000 times. I see them every night on local news.  

Perhaps no one has spewed more hatred against Nancy Pelosi than Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Running for office in 2019, she accused Pelosi of being a “traitor to our country” who deserved to be executed. And she “liked” a Twitter comment that a “bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove her as House Speaker. Yet today, Greene appears as a star at Trump campaign rallies, and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) has promised to restore her to seats on House committees she was removed from in 2021 if Republicans take back the House.  

Meanwhile, Trump himself, who’s called Pelosi “crazy as a bedbug,” branded her “Nervous Nancy,” and accused her of having an “unhinged meltdown” after she stormed out of a White House meeting, put out a statement mourning the passing of rocker Jerry Lee Lewis — but has not yet found time to express one word of sympathy to Paul Pelosi or his family.  

Haven’t we learned anything? Words have consequences.   

To some people, ugly words are a green light to commit ugly acts. The second attempt  to harm or kill Speaker Pelosi and the near death of her husband is more than one man’s actions — it’s the direct consequence of years of violent rhetoric directed against Pelosi by Republican Party candidates and official campaign committees.  

Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has suffered her own share of vitriol, summed it up best: “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result.”  

Press is host of “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”