Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was attacked early Friday morning in his home, and democrats are politicizing that attack in an attempt to tie in the motives of the offender to the GOP with tweets like the one below from AOC:
This is the future the Republicans want. It’s the future they’ve literally been calling for on television. This is why they are so excited about the new overlord of Twitter. This, the violence, has always been their endgame.
And if they win they will only get worse. https://t.co/qRvxQLCnwt
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) October 28, 2022
Nancy Pelosi’s office said, “Paul Pelosi was violently assaulted after someone broke into their home early Friday morning, adding he was taken to the hospital and was expected to make a full recovery.”
After Pelosi’s statement was made, many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle sent messages and made statements in support of Paul Pelosi and wished him a quick recovery. Some things, like the attack on the spouse of a member of congress, are bipartisan and people from both sides of the aisle can come together when those events occur.
Going into the final full week prior to the midterm elections, however, that sentiment seems to have been ignored. Politico put out an article titled, “Democrats Lash Out At GOP After Pelosi Assault,” which shows how many democratic leaders blamed conservatives for the attack of one man.
Mitch McConnel and Kevin McCarthy both reached out to Pelosi either publicly or privately, and condemned the attack by a man who was clearly unaffected by conservative or liberal politics when he made the attack.
Democrats, on the other hand, went on the offensive.
“A far-right white nationalist tried to assassinate the Speaker of the House and almost killed her husband a year after violent insurrectionists tried to find her and kill her in the Capitol,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN.) said on Saturday morning. “And the Republican Party’s response is to either ignore it or belittle it.”
“Yesterday, a man sharing that member’s rhetoric tried to assassinate the Speaker and her spouse,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday morning. Then, referring to McCarthy, she wrote: “What has @GOPLeader said? Nothing. This is who he is.”
Nobody on either side of the aisle wants to see physical harm come to anyone else in congress, and to think or to speak out publicly otherwise is both irresponsible and dangerous. Many democrats point to Donald Trump’s tenure as President as the turning point when violence and negativity took center stage in politics. According to what has happened since Pelosi’s attack Friday morning, it seems that it is the other side calling for hate and violence at a time when everyone should be condemning the attack.
