Democrats were quick to blame Republicans for the vicious attack on Paul Pelosi without mentioning the rising tide of violence this year against conservative targets, prompting Republicans to jog the memories of their colleagues across the aisle.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel pushed back Sunday as Democrats and media outlets sought to connect ads vilifying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the Friday attack on her husband at their San Francisco home by a hammer-wielding intruder.
Ms. McDaniel pointed out that political violence is a two-way street. She cited the June arrest of a man charged with attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and the attack on Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York at a July campaign stop in his gubernatorial run.
“I think this is a deranged individual. You can’t say people saying, ‘Let’s fire Pelosi’ or ‘Let’s take back the House’ is saying, ‘Go do violence.’ It’s just unfair,” Ms. McDaniel said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And I think we all need to recognize violence is up across the board. Lee Zeldin was attacked. We had an assassination attempt against Brett Kavanaugh.”
Mr. Pelosi, 82, was recovering Sunday after undergoing surgery for a fractured skull. The Friday assault quickly became fodder for midterm election narratives in both parties.
For Republicans, the attack represented an example of out-of-control crime in major Democratic-run cities. For Democrats, the incident was touted as a manifestation of the threat from the right that emerged during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
President Biden referred to reports that the suspect, 42-year-old David Depape of Berkeley, California, repeated the “same chant” of “Where’s Nancy?” used during the riot.
“It’s one thing to condemn the violence, but you can’t condemn the violence unless you condemn those people who continue to argue the election was not real, that it’s being stolen, that all the, all the malarkey that’s being put out there to undermine democracy,” Mr. Biden told reporters Saturday. “The talk has to stop. That’s the problem.”
U.S. Capitol Police reported that threats and concerning statements against lawmakers more than doubled from 3,939 in 2017 to 9,625 in 2021. The agency opened 1,820 cases in the first three months of this year.
Some cases have led to arrests. A Seattle man was charged in July with stalking Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Washington Democrat. A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty Friday to threatening Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, and his staff.
“These threats are on the rise, and I have to tell you, we have to draw the straight line between what is happening on the ground, as these threats become centralized and decentralized, from Jan. 6 to spread out across the country,” Mr. Swalwell told MSNBC host Joy Reid.
Ms. Reid said the “insurrection never went away, it never ended. In fact, it’s as if the attacker in San Francisco was seeking to finish the job of those who attacked the Capitol.”
SEE ALSO: What we know about the nudist activist and conspiracy theorist who attacked Paul Pelosi
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton linked to a story about the Pelosi assault and tweeted that 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,” she said. “As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”
Politically motivated violence against lawmakers didn’t start with the Capitol riot. Five years ago, a left-wing supporter of Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont shot and seriously wounded Rep. Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, during practice for a congressional baseball game.
.@TomEmmer calls out the media for trying to blame Republican rhetoric for the Paul Pelosi attack.
— Mike Berg (@MikeKBerg) October 30, 2022
Why didn’t they blame Dems when a Bernie Sanders supporter shot Steve Scalise? pic.twitter.com/Ko6iTLZ4UM
Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, tangled with CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan after she said Republicans have spent $116 million on ads this cycle featuring Mrs. Pelosi.
“I never saw anyone after Steve Scalise was shot by a Bernie Sanders supporter trying to equate Democrat rhetoric with those actions. Please don’t do that,” Mr. Emmer said.
Republicans condemn attack
Also omitted from the Democratic narrative was this year’s spike in attacks by pro-choice radicals.
An estimated 87 Catholic churches and 75 pro-life pregnancy centers have been vandalized since May 2, the day the Supreme Court draft opinion overturning the Roe v. Wade national right to abortion was leaked, as shown on the CatholicVote tracker. At least three of the centers were firebombed.
Last month, a North Dakota man was charged with vehicular homicide in the death of 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson after a political dispute. The suspect, 41-year-old Shannon Brandt, told police that the teen was part of a “Republican extremist group,” although police later said there was “no evidence” of that.
“We’ve got to figure out how to bring our country back together where we have a civil conversation and we have no violence. What happened to Paul Pelosi is despicable. It’s unacceptable,” Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, chairman of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Unfortunately, it’s become a more dangerous place, and we’ve got to do everything we can to lower the rhetoric.”
Top Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Vice President Mike Pence, also condemned the attack. Former President Donald Trump had issued no statement at press time despite being accused of fueling political violence.
“You can’t look at the entrance of Donald Trump in our political system and the increase and sit here and say there’s not a connection,” said Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Not having it was Republican strategist Brad Todd, who made the point that Democrats have spent years demonizing Republican figures such as Mr. McConnell in their ads.
“I don’t think it’s coming from one side of the aisle,” Brad Todd said on “Meet the Press.”
He recalled that Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, stood on the Supreme Court steps in March 2020 and warned Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh: “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.”
“Immediately, Democratic left-wing protesters flocked to their neighborhoods, and Merrick Garland, the attorney general, has refused to enforce federal law to get them out,” Brad Todd said. “Chuck Schumer has refused to say whether those protesters should leave the neighborhoods. This is happening at both edges of American politics.”
Mr. Biden ramped up his midterm election season rhetoric at an August rally by accusing “MAGA Republicans” of “political violence” and “semi-fascism.” In a September speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, he called them a “threat to this country.”
Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, said “the response from Biden and all of the mainstream media folks is basically the most predictable part.”
“I’m old enough to remember Joe Biden recently calling half the country semi-fascists, saying we were a threat to democracy,” she said on Fox News. “To all of a sudden jump to this conclusion — very predictable, totally unhelpful, we don’t have all of the information. But for Democrats to jump out there and try and suggest that Republicans, Trump, Jan. 6, any of it is to blame: of course, ridiculous.”
• Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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