Here is what should be the final nail in the coffin of the sick Right-wing conspiracies about the savage Paul Pelosi attack: The break-in with a hammer was caught on video by the Capitol Police.
Yes, the Capitol Police were able to watch a man with a hammer breaking in to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home on video, because they had it on security footage.
The Washington Post reported:
The officer in D.C. quickly pulled up additional camera angles from around Pelosi’s home and began to backtrack, watching recordings from the minutes before San Francisco police arrived. There, on camera, was a man with a hammer, breaking a glass panel and entering the speaker’s home, according to three people familiar with how Capitol Police learned of the break-in and who have been briefed on or viewed the video themselves.
So much for the “glass was on the outside so it wasn’t a break-in!” conspiracy. These people have never heard of laminated security glass, apparently, but far be it from me to expect hard core conspiracy believers to learn anything that can’t be warped to feed into their needy insular world.
The conspiracies will keep coming, because they are being (by people who know better) baked into the Right-wing gaseous chamber of lies reinforced by Elon Musk, who retweeted the conspiracy from a notoriously fake news website (a clue might have been when they published a story that Hillary Clinton had died and instead a body double had been sent to debate Trump) and Donald Trump, who fueled the conspiracy with his special blend of being the fake news he has always accused those who are telling the truth of being.
Rolling Stone reported, “a source tells Rolling Stone the ex-president has been gossiping about whether the beating that hospitalized the House speaker’s husband was a false flag”.
We don’t need to hear his insanity, but of course he reinforced the ‘break out!!!!! so it can’t have been a deranged Right winger who was radicalized by Q and Trump election denials’ fever that is being plastered and spammed all over the internet for the purpose of making sure no one can hold any of the election deniers accountable for yet another act of terrorism.
Rolling Stone pointed out the problems with the “break out” conspiracy before we had the final debunking with the video:
“Trump’s assertion that the broken glass at the Pelosi’s home indicates someone was trying to “break out” is easily debunked. Fans of crime dramas may be shocked to learn that forensic glass analysis is a little more complex than “glass inside” or “glass outside.” According to an affidavit released by San Francisco investigators, the glass on the Pelosis’ home was apparently laminated, making it more difficult to shatter. that breaking through the door was a “difficult task that required the use of a hammer,” as the glass was designed to not easily break.”
Next up, the conspiracy trolls will demand to see the video, because the same people who claim to “back the blue” don’t actually trust law enforcement. What they ‘back’ is white supremacy. We can’t keep assuming if they just hear and see the facts it will matter; they don’t care.
They are deliberately trying to inject the sense that we can’t know what’s real; but, we do.
David DePape has been charged with attempted murder of Paul Pelosi and attempted kidnapping of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among other charges.
The real problems here are actually all caused by Republican election denialism, which is a rather tepid way of saying Republican political terrorism, wherein elections won’t matter and violence will replace elections.
These problems are: radicalized far-Right political terrorism, Republicans refusing to acknowledge that President Joe Biden actually won the 2020 election (he did, and it was the most secure election in history), Republicans using guns and violence in their political ads, including aimed at Speaker Pelosi, Republicans justifying and lionizing 1/6 terrorists, and the fact that after the 1/6 Trump terrorist attack, the Capitol Police were overwhelmed, understaffed and demoralized.
It is beyond repugnant that the entire Republican Party, save for two, has been mocking the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi. It is a sickness meant to devalue human life and demonize and dehumanize anyone who doesn’t give power to Republicans.
We are in dangerous waters with these people, but do not let it numb you to the reality that this was an attempted murder for political purposes on the third in line to the presidency. We can’t turn away from the reality of the violence Republicans are trying to establish as the norm when they don’t win. It is not normal. People who value freedom would never mock an act of violence like this.
The best thing you can do for your country and your fellow citizens is to vote in the midterms and to make sure everyone you know is aware of the issues at stake and voting. Work election protection if you can.
Be a source of light in these dark days, and know that we are not alone as we fight off this fascist attack on our democracy. There are more of us who want the United States democracy to survive than those who don’t.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
