Newsom accuses Fox News of "creating a culture" that led to attack on Paul Pelosi

Caitlin Yilek - Yesterday 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom partly blamed Fox News for fueling the vitriol against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul, who was attacked by an intruder with a hammer at the couple's San Francisco home last week.


California Gov. Newsom And West Coast Leaders Sign Climate Agreement© Getty Images

"I've seen the dehumanization of Nancy Pelosi," Newsom told CBS News' chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in an exclusive interview on Saturday. "I don't think anyone's been dehumanized like she has consistently. Now I watched this one guy, Jesse Watters or something on Fox News. What he's been saying about Paul Pelosi the last five, six months, mocking him consistently. Don't tell me that's not aiding and abetting all this. Of course it is."

Gavin Newsom accuses Fox News of "creating a culture" that led to Paul Pelosi attack

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"They're sowing the seeds, creating a culture and a climate like this," Newsom said. "I mean, look online. Look at the sewage that is online that they amplify on these networks and in social media to dehumanize people like Nancy Pelosi and other political leaders."

CBS News reached out to Fox News and Watters on Monday and had not heard back by 5 p.m. ET. Watters said on his show on Monday night that Newsom "thinks if you mock a Democrat, it puts him on a target list."

"If anything, Gavin Newsom has done more to aid and abet this attack on Paul Pelosi than anybody," Watters said, alleging Newsom's policies allow people like the alleged attacker to be on the streets

David Wayne DePape, the suspect in the attack, had a list of people he wanted to target, law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation confirmed to CBS News. He allegedly broke into the couple's home around 2 a.m. on Friday, shouting "Where is Nancy?" The Democratic leader was in Washington, D.C., at the time of the attack, according to Capitol Police.

Paul Pelosi underwent surgery on Friday for his injuries.

Newsom implied that he has also been on the receiving end of threats and that they've become more serious.

"I know what over the last three years has come in my inbox," he said. "Trust me, you don't, because I'm not sharing it. I don't even share it with my wife. I got four kids. So I know a little bit about this. I mean, it wasn't just a recall against me. It was surround sound in every way, shape or form."

"Look, there's always folks in the extreme and you roll your eyes," he continued. "This is — something is different here. There's, you know, the mind is being stretched. People feel free to shove again."

'Absolutely no evidence:' Police, FBI affidavit debunk salacious conspiracy about Pelosi attack pushed by conservatives

Casey Tolan -  CNN

Prominent figures on social media, including some of the loudest voices on the political right, are pushing a salacious and false conspiracy theory about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, in an apparent attempt to shift the narrative about the assault.

Tapper: This horrifying act of violence is not an outlier

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The claim that big names like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Jr., and Dinesh D’Souza have promoted to millions of their followers: Paul Pelosi and the man who attacked him were gay lovers who had gotten into a fight.

The spurious theory traces back to an incorrect early news report and a handful of pieces of evidence that its proponents have spun wildly out of context. It runs contrary to the explanation police and federal law enforcement have outlined – that the suspect in the attack, David DePape, broke into Pelosi’s house and attacked him.

“There is absolutely no evidence that Mr. Pelosi knew this man,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott told CNN in an interview. “As a matter of fact, the evidence indicates the exact opposite.”

But the explosion of social media posts discussing the theory shows how quickly conspiracies can spread, and how eagerly some political actors use falsehoods to push their agendas – even as violent threats against lawmakers have multiplied in recent years.

A conspiracy linked to Nancy Pelosi, who has long been a lightning rod for conservatives and played a starring role in GOP attack ads, was an especially appealing target for right-wing conspiracists, according to Cynthia Miller-Idriss, an American University professor who studies polarization and extremism.

“We have a population that is unable to discern what is true and what’s not, and this spreading of misinformation from credible sources undermines that,” Miller-Idriss said. “People are willing to accept conspiracy theories when they reinforce the narrative they already hold in their head.”

According to police and an FBI affidavit included in the federal criminal complaint, DePape broke into a glass door in Pelosi’s San Francisco home early Friday morning, and then went to the bedroom to confront Pelosi, saying he wanted to talk to his wife. Pelosi managed to call 911, and officers arriving on the scene witnessed DePape hit him with a hammer.

Those pushing the “gay lover” theory have pointed to a handful of purported pieces of evidence based on falsehoods and twisted storylines. They say that DePape was in his underwear when police arrived at the scene – but the local TV station that originally reported that has since corrected its story and removed the assertion. Others have suggested that a third person opened the door to Pelosi’s house, but police have debunked that.

Many of the theorists have latched on to a recording of a 911 dispatcher saying that Pelosi referred to DePape as “a friend” and “sounded somewhat confused.”

But Pelosi seemed to be speaking in coded language on the 911 call to make clear he needed help, a law enforcement source previously told CNN. And the complaint notes that Pelosi told officers he had never seen DePape before.

The complaint also included an interview police did with DePape in which he admitted breaking into the house and said he surprised Pelosi. According to the complaint, DePape said that wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage because he viewed her as the “‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic Party,” and claimed he was “fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender.”

Scott, the San Francisco chief, called the conspiracies surrounding the attack “pathetic” and “disturbing.”

“We’ve spent a lot of energy just pushing back, really ridiculous conspiracy theories, to make sure people stay focused on our team,” he said. “These things are harmful to society, they’re harmful to the victims involved – it’s really sad that we are here in this place, but we are.”

Baseless theory gains momentum on social media

Despite the lack of evidence, it took less than 24 hours after the attack for the “gay lover” theory to take root in right-wing social media circles.

There have been at least 19,000 tweets mentioning the words “Pelosi” and “gay” since the day of the attack, garnering a total of more than 700,000 likes, according to a CNN analysis – and that doesn’t include tweets referencing the theory without those words, or tweets that have since been deleted.

One of the first widely shared tweets endorsing the theory appears to have come at 11:36 a.m. on Friday, the day of the attack, gaining more than 2,700 retweets.

That evening, Raheem Kassam, a former Breitbart writer and co-host of Steve Bannon’s podcast, tweeted, “They’re still pretending it wasn’t Paul Pelosi’s gay lover,” earning over 1,000 retweets.

Other conservative figures like Donald Trump, Jr., Sebastian Gorka, and Dinesh D’Souza followed suit over the next few days, either explicitly endorsing the theory or referencing it approvingly. Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana GOP congressman who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, tweeted a photo of Nancy Pelosi and referred to DePape as a “male prostitute,” before deleting his tweet.

Musk helped elevate the conspiracy to a much wider audience. On Sunday morning, the billionaire, who just completed his purchase of the social media network, responded to a tweet about the Pelosi attack from Hillary Clinton and wrote “there is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.” He linked to an article in the Santa Monica Observer, an obscure website, claiming DePape was a male prostitute and Pelosi had been in a drunken dispute with him. The website has previously posted false news, such as a claim during the 2016 election that Clinton had died and been replaced with a body double for a debate.

Musk deleted the tweet around 2 p.m. later that day – but by then, it had already racked up more than 28,000 retweets and 100,000 likes.

Conservative figures gleefully praised Musk for sharing the post. “.@ElonMusk just posted a link that says Paul Pelosi may have been drunk and with a gay prostitute,” tweeted Lavern Spicer, a former GOP congressional candidate. “I have never respected him more than now.” Her message was retweeted more than 11,000 times.

Gene DePape, the alleged attacker’s stepfather, said it was dismaying to see his stepson turned into a character in a conspiracy theory and used as a political talking point. He told CNN he scrolled through his Facebook news feed for hours over the weekend, where he first saw the posts claiming his estranged stepson had been lovers with Pelosi.

“It’s pretty sick,” he said.

David DePape’s own social media and blog postings show that he himself was steeped in conspiracy theories in the months and years before the attack – from musings about QAnon to antisemitic rants to claims of a looming takeover by the global elite.

DePape’s posts on Facebook from last year endorse a litany of right-wing falsehoods. He posted multiple videos produced by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell falsely alleging that the 2020 election was stolen, linked to websites claiming Covid vaccines were deadly, and shared videos questioning the January 6, 2021attack. CNN reviewed the posts before the social media company took the page down, and several of DePape’s relatives confirmed the page belonged to him.

On other blogs apparently written by DePape, he also posted antisemitic screeds and endorsed the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Some conservatives’ embrace of the “gay lover” theory has muddied the waters of a story that had led to bipartisan condemnation and sympathy for Pelosi – and distracted from discussion of how other right-wing conspiracies could have inspired violence.

Miller-Idriss, the American University professor, said that prominent figures carelessly spreading misinformation can lead to wider impacts on society.

“It’s dangerous because it undermines peoples’ sense of truth, it helps them further divorce from reality,” she said. “It is a situation where they spread it further – and they pass it on.”

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