The posts by Donald Trump Jr. and Rep. Clay Higgins, among others, come as GOP leaders try to strike a different tone on the attack.
Even as Republican leaders condemn the brutal assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband, other GOP figures are broadcasting a much different message on social media — at turns downplaying, mocking and trading in disinformation about the attack.
Former Republican President Donald Trump has so far remained silent online about the Pelosi home invasion, but his son Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a proposed “Paul Pelosi” Halloween costume featuring men’s underwear and a hammer, saying “The Internet remains undefeated.” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, embraced a false anti-LGBTQ conspiracy surrounding the attack, tweeting and then deleting a post suggesting the perpetrator was a “male nudist hippie prostitute.”
Trump Jr.’s and Higgins’ posts followed a deleted tweet from Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, that also gave credence to the same disinformation about David DePape, the 42-year-old perpetrator of the Friday morning attack on the Pelosis’ San Francisco home. DePape’s previous ties to a prominent nudist activist in that city appear to have inspired the false claims that continue to gain traction online among conservatives.
And some Republicans are taking notice of the mismatch between GOP leaders’ official response to the assault — condemning it while rejecting any link to their campaign-trail attacks on Nancy Pelosi — and the less delicate online response by party figures.
“Jerk store jokes and tweets when it’s the ‘other side’ only feeds an environment that accepts political violence — violence that has and will continue to happen to officials of both parties which means we spin each other up as our discourse spirals down further,” Doug Heye, a former top Republican National Committee official, said in an interview.
One House Republican, speaking candidly about a colleague on condition of anonymity, described Higgins’ deleted tweet as “not appropriate … we don’t want that in any political arena, whether it be Republican or Democrat.” The idea of any lawmaker’s spouse getting attacked, this Republican added, “puts us all in fear.”
Beyond Trump Jr. and Higgins, pro-Trump commentators from Charlie Kirk to former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. also weighed in online to raise questions about the investigation based on unfounded and false claims. Among those baseless claims: that a third person answered the door when police arrived at the Pelosi home, which San Francisco law enforcement has said is untrue; and that DePape was in his underwear when apprehended, a falsehood taken from a since-corrected local news report.
Some of the conservative mockery that followed the Pelosi home invasion touched on Nancy Pelosi’s support for an assault weapons ban: Larry Elder, the right-wing radio host and failed California gubernatorial candidate, tweeted that the Speaker was weighing legislation restricting “assault hammers.”
“The Left is going crazy because not only are we not BUYING the wacky, implausible Paul Pelosi story but we are even LAUGHING over how ridiculous it is,” Dinesh D’Souza posted Sunday morning to his 2.5 million Twitter followers. “What this means is that we are no longer intimidated by their fake pieties. Their control over us has finally been broken.”
Another conservative Republican lawmaker, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity about the sensitive topic, said that reports of the attacker’s involvement in nudist culture are “picking up steam” more than other claims because they give credence to the argument that DePape was not a MAGA or Trump supporter.
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New: Even as Republican leaders condemn the brutal assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband, other GOP figures are broadcasting a much different message on social media — at turns downplaying, mocking and trading in disinformation about the attack. https://t.co/skt7hLmBOh
— Adam Wren (@adamwren) October 31, 2022
This member of Congress is a rabid defender and indeed promoter of the violence-inciting, conspiratorial extremism that helped trigger the attack on Paul Pelosi. He’s also, I believe, in perfectly good standing in the House Republican conference. As you’d expect he’d be. https://t.co/G6CGytsees
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) October 30, 2022
I'm not sure that anything, at this point, can stop people from believing that the Republicans care about inflation or jobs or anything but raw power, but no one later will be able to say that they weren't told. https://t.co/p3Tv3lRkaL
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 30, 2022
The attempted kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi and attack on Paul Pelosi mark a turning point in American political discourse.
Here's why:
We are witnessing the GOP not only refuse to widely condemn this attack, we are watching them mock and joke about it. They are normalizing it.
— Philip Germain (@Philip_Germain) October 31, 2022
Another of the Good Republicans™ is at it again https://t.co/Jz1rA1OqyV
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 1, 2022
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