Although there are various unanswered questions regarding the circumstances that led to an attack on Paul Pelosi last week, leftist pundits and activists have gravitated toward a narrative that places all the blame on the supposedly violent rhetoric of GOP politicians.
Director Rob Reiner, who frequently demonizes former President Donald Trump on Twitter, used the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband as his latest opportunity to continue that trend.
In a tweet on Friday, he referenced Trump’s public concerns about the 2020 election as the ostensible catalyst behind the suspected assailant’s decision to attack Pelosi with a hammer in the victim’s home.
“Donald Trump has been spreading The Big Lie for 2 years,” Reiner wrote. “The violent assault on Paul Pelosi and the attempt to murder Speaker Pelosi is directly related to that Lie.”
He went on to assert that the former president “is 100% responsible” for the attack and “must be indicted and never be allowed to hold office.”
Of course, a number of problematic details have surfaced in subsequent days that challenge the prevailing leftist argument.
For starters, Pelosi reportedly referred to the suspect as a “friend” in a 911 call just prior to the attack. Furthermore, those who have engaged with the alleged assailant say he is not only mentally ill but has been known to espouse a left-wing ideology.
Neighbors described DePape as a homeless drug addict with a politics that was, until recently, left-wing, but of secondary importance to his psychotic and paranoid behavior. https://t.co/9GK1O0ah5U
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 29, 2022
Those inconvenient reports have not stopped Reiner and others on the left from advancing the theory that the suspect, identified as 42-year-old David DePape, was influenced by right-wing rhetoric.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) claimed that the House speaker “has been villainized for years and, big surprise, it’s gone viral, and it went violent.”
She went on to argue that “it is really important that people realize that it is not just this moment of this horrific attack, but that we have seen violence perpetrated throughout our political system.”
Even President Joe Biden could not resist the urge to connect his political rivals to DePape’s alleged actions, which reportedly included him asking the victim where Nancy Pelosi was.
“It’s reported that the same chant was used by this guy they have in custody that was used on January 6th in the attack on the U.S. Capitol,” Biden asserted. “I’m not making this up. This is reported. I can’t guarantee it. I can tell you what’s being reported. The chant was ‘Where’s Nancy!? Where’s Nancy!? Where’s Nancy!?’”
