Paul Pelosi, the 82-year old husband of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was assaulted on early Friday morning by a suspect, David DePape, 42, who broke into the couple's home in San Francisco, reportedly shouting "Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?" When the police arrived, they found DePape and Paul Pelosi both holding onto a hammer with the 42-year old managing to hit the speaker's husband at least once. The suspect was eventually disarmed and taken to custody.
The news immediately caught the headlines. The left-leaning press called DePape a Trump supporter "enflamed by right-wing conspiracy theories" and anti-Pelosi sentiments, while the conservative media argued that the attacker appears to be a mentally ill follower of radical nudist activism and had never been particularly involved in politics. Nonetheless, all is fair in love and war when the midterms are around the corner: the pro-Democrat media pointed the finger at former President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters, claiming that he has been driving political violence for years. However, as Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel admitted on Sunday, "violence is up across the board."
When MAGA Hat is Enough to Assault
On June 3, 2016, protesters outside a Donald Trump rally in downtown San Jose, California, attacked the then-presidential candidate's supporters. Demonstrators jumped on cars, punched and pelted Trump supporters with eggs and water balloons, and snatched signs and "Make America Great Again" hats and burned them. The incident was one in a series of attacks on Trump supporters during the would-be president's election campaign in the Golden State, a Democratic stronghold. Later, during Trump's presidency, the US media regularly reported about instances of assaults on people wearing MAGA hats across the country.
Sorry, Not Sorry: Trump's Severed Head
On May 30, 2017, a photo of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a prop of then-President Donald Trump’s severed bloody head started circulating in social media. The picture was taken by photographer Tyler Shields, with Griffin joking that she’d probably have to flee to Mexico when the image became public, as per celebrity gossip websites. Griffin, a long-time supporter of Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, apparently demonstrated her dissatisfaction with the Republican victory at the time.
"Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!" Trump, who took the reins of the US that year, wrote on Twitter.
However, it appears that Griffin was by no means ashamed. After initially apologizing for sharing the picture which many found disgusting, Griffin changed her mind a few months later. She wrote: “I am no longer sorry. The whole outrage was B.S." On November 4, 2020, she proudly re-tweeted the gruesome image amid the presidential election.
Congressional Baseball Shooting
On June 14, 2017, a mass shooting shattered a practice session for the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity in Alexandria, Virginia. James Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old left-wing activist, attacked six people, including GOP Whip Steve Scalise, US Capitol police officer Crystal Griner, congressional aide Zack Barth, and lobbyist Matt Mika. The GOP whip was critically wounded.
GOP Rep. Rodney Davis specifically blamed "political rhetorical terrorism" and growing partisan polarization. At the time, Donald Trump and his aides and campaign came under unprecedented media pressure over the alleged "Russia collusion" plot, which turned out to be a big nothingburger, as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation indicated.
Two Attacks on Republican Senator Rand Paul
In November 2017, Republican Senator Rand Paul was attacked by his next-door neighbor and sustained broken ribs and bruises to his lungs. While the incident reportedly erupted over lawn maintenance, some of the senator's Democratic Party peers mocked and hailed the assault for years. Thus, Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Christine Pelosi, tweeted in March 2020: "Rand Paul's neighbor was right." The comment was later removed by Twitter. However, in January 2021, Democratic Senate candidate Mike Franken tweeted again: "Wasn't Rand's neighbor more than a little in the right?"
On August 28, 2020, Senator Paul was swarmed by a crowd of protesters as he departed the White House after listening to US President Donald Trump accept his party’s nomination for re-election. The assault took place amid 2020's violent protests by Black Lives Matter activists and Antifa militants which engulfed the US after the death of African American man George Floyd in police custody, being accompanied by arson and looting.
Trump Supporters Shot Dead Amid BLM Riots
On August 29, 2020, Aaron Danielson, a supporter of the conservative group Patriot Prayer, was shot and killed allegedly by Michael Reinoehl, an American leftist activist and Antifa supporter in Portland, Oregon, amid ongoing BLM riots in the city.
A month earlier, Bernell Trammell, a 60-year old African American Milwaukee dweller, was shot dead after a dispute with a young man over a Trump sign that Trammell was carrying. Some Republicans suggested at the time that the African American was killed over his support of Donald Trump, even though the 60-year-old also backed the BLM cause.
Democratic lawmakers, including then Congresswoman Kamala Harris, voiced their support for BLM protests and encouraged the unrest. In February 2021, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham told the press that Vice President Harris could be impeached if the Republicans win the Congress in November 2022. According to the South Carolina Republican, the vice president’s support for a fund that bailed out BLM protesters could leave her liable for "incitement of insurrection."
Attempted Murder of Justice Kavanaugh Over Roe v. Wade
On June 8, 2022, an armed man was arrested overnight near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The suspect, identified as Nicholas John Roske, 26, carried a handgun, a knife, pepper spray, and burglary tools. When the police arrested him, he said he planned to kill Justice Kavanaugh. Roske revealed that he was angry about the possibility of Kavanaugh overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion legislation.
Commenting on the botched assault, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise lambasted Democratic lawmakers who had "encouraged dangerous protests against Supreme Court justices, including at their homes, to illegally threaten and intimidate them in an attempt to change the outcome of a court decision."
Earlier, in May, 2022, The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning for law enforcement agencies about potential threats to the public and members of the Supreme Court over the national abortion debate. The SCOTUS' eventual reversal of the Roe v. Wade abortion law on June 24, 2022, was followed by a wave of protests by liberal and left-wing activists across the nation.
Republican Campaigners Assaulted
In late September 2022, two volunteers for Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott's reelection campaign were assaulted in a Houston suburb. The assailant chased the two, ripped off the sideview mirrors of the car they were in, and then tried to pull them out.
"Political violence is never acceptable," Greg Abbott's spokesperson Mark Miner said on September 25. "With just over a month until Election Day, the passion to win should never bubble over into something more dangerous. There is no place for this in Texas."
The upsurge in political violence reflects simmering polarization in the country, with the Democrats fanning the flames of division while pinning the whole blame on their Republican counterparts. As the Dems accuse the GOP of demonizing Nancy Pelosi, the Republicans point the finger at the years-long Trump-Russia collusion hoax, backed by Democratic lawmakers and the US left-leaning mainstream press.
The Capitol riot, branded as and "insurrection," raids by FBI SWAT teams on Trump supporters who had no criminal record and interrogation of January Sixers without a lawyer present have added to the already wide rift between the two parties. To cap it off, US President Joe Biden openly called the "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement "semi-fascist" on September 1, 2022. He further claimed that MAGA Republicans are a "clear and present danger" to US democracy.
Meanwhile, the upcoming midterms are unlikely to pave the way for the two parties' reconciliation, as the Dems are likely to lose the election, which could end up in a stalemate between a Republican Congress and Democratic White House.