Nancy Pelosi Was A Target Of Misogyny And Threats. That Turned Into Violence
Threats against members of Congress have been on the rise, according to data from the US Capitol Police.
(Bloomberg) -- The attack at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home this week underscored the potential for violence from the escalating threats and misogyny directed at the California Democrat in recent years.
Threats against members of Congress have been on the rise, according to data from the US Capitol Police. But the hundreds of criminal prosecutions stemming from the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers met to certify President Joe Biden’s election win offered a new perspective on the depth of hostility and threatening rhetoric specifically directed at Pelosi.
Police who responded to Pelosi’s home early Friday found her husband, Paul Pelosi, 82, in a struggle with an intruder, according to San Francisco Police Chief William Scott. Police said the suspect, David DePape, 42, of Berkeley, California, struck Paul Pelosi in the head and body before being subdued and will face charges of attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse.
Scott told reporters a motive was under investigation, but a person familiar with the investigation said that the intruder had shouted “Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?” before attacking her husband. Using the research site DomainTools.com, Bloomberg News found several websites registered to a David DePape that railed against the government and technology giants, and espoused far-right conspiracy theories. Blog posts took aim at immigrants, “climate hysteria” and feminists, among other targets.
Elected officials who serve as the public faces of their political parties unsurprisingly tend to bear the brunt of criticism -- and, sometimes, threats -- from their opponents. A November 2020 report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace identified an “overwhelming amount of online abuse, harassment, and gendered defamation” that women in politics face at higher rates compared to their male counterparts.
Political scientists and extremism experts have been raising the alarm about the evolution of violent speech to violent acts as political polarization in the US deepened during former President Donald Trump’s time in office and since the 2020 election.
Pelosi had been the target of political vitriol through the years, but the prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters driven by Trump’s baseless election fraud claims show the degree to which the 82-year-old House speaker has become a singular focus of right-wing anger.
Federal prosecutors, in charging papers and other court filings, describe rioters searching for Pelosi as they entered the Capitol and shouting that they were “coming for” her as they tried to get past law enforcement into the House chamber. One woman allegedly demanded that police bring Pelosi out so the mob could “hang that f---ing bitch.”
A North Carolina man brought guns and ammunition to Washington on Jan. 6 and texted a relative the following day that he was thinking of going to see Pelosi speak “and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV.” He’s serving more than two years in prison after taking a plea deal.
Earlier this year, jurors in federal court in Washington heard how a Texas militia member convicted of bringing a firearm to the Capitol on Jan. 6 told people around him about wanting to drag Pelosi down the steps of the Capitol “by her ankles.”
A Pennsylvania woman who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense for illegally demonstrating at the Capitol admitted filming a selfie-style video in which she said, “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the frickin’ brain but we didn’t find her.”
Arkansas man Richard Barnett is set to go to trial later this year on a mix of felony and misdemeanor charges that accuse him of illegally going into the Capitol with a weapon. A photo of him sitting in Pelosi’s office with his foot on a desk was widely shared on social media. Prosecutors quoted a video that appeared to show him bragging about leaving a hand-written note referring to Pelosi with an obscenity and featured a photograph of the note in court filings.
Pelosi has a protective detail because of her position, but many members of Congress do not. Asked about any special security measures taken to protect Pelosi and her family after Jan. 6, a spokesperson for the US Capitol Police said in an email that, “For safety reasons, the USCP does not discuss potential security measures.”
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