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Joe Biden has linked the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi to the January 6 riot, saying that the same Republican forces that questioned the 2020 election and called COVID a hoax were responsible for the feverish political environment.
Biden, speaking in Pennsylvania at a fundraiser for senate hopeful John Fetterman, said he had provided Nancy Pelosi with a plane to visit her husband in hospital in San Francisco.
He was attacked in the early hours of Friday by a hammer-wielding attacker, who yelled: ‘Where’s Nancy?’
She was in Washington DC at the time. Paul Pelosi, 82, suffered a fractured skull but is expected to make a full recovery.
‘Before I began, I want us to take a short pause, to send our loved Nancy and Paul Pelosi,’ Biden told the Pennsylvania crowd.
‘I’ve been on the phone with Nancy – arranged for her to be able to get from Washington out to see her husband. She’s on the plane now heading out there.’
Joe Biden, pictured on the campaign trail in Philadelphia, said ‘there’s too much violence — political violence. Too much hatred, too much vitriol.’ He drew a direct line between the January 6 riot and the attack on Paul Pelosi
Biden on Friday likened the attack on the Pelosi family to the January 6 riot (pictured), noting that both times chants of ‘where is Nancy?’ were yelled
Biden said that the House Speaker told him her husband was ‘doing okay, he went to the hospital, was operated on and he seems to be coming along well, he’s in good spirits, and the whole family’s there.’
The president said he could draw a direct line between the January 6 riot and the attack at their home, noting that the insurrectionists on January 6 also chanted ‘where’s Nancy’ and made a beeline for her office, taking selfies amid her possessions.
‘It was intended to be an attack on the house Nancy Pelosi lives in – the third ranking person the United States in line to be president,’ said Biden.
‘You know, it’s reported that the same chant was used by this guy they have in custody that was used on January 6 in the attacks on the US Capitol.
‘I’m not making this up. This has just been reported. I can’t guarantee it. I can tell you what’s been reported
‘The chant was, ‘Where’s Nancy, where’s, Nancy, where’s Nancy.’
The attacker, David DePape, 42, has been arrested and will be charged with attempted homicide.
President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris at the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s 3rd Annual Independence Dinner in Philadelphia on Friday
Pelosi was taken into brain surgery after the attack but is expected to make a full recovery, while DePape is set to be charged with multiple felonies including attempted homicide. He is pictured with Nancy at the Time 100 Gala in 2019
Biden said the attack on the Pelosis was ‘despicable.’
He added: ‘There’s no place for that in America. There’s too much violence, political violence, too much hatred, too much vitriol.
‘And what makes us state that one party can talk about stolen elections, COVID being a hoax, there’s a whole bunch of lies, and it not affect people who may not be so well balanced?
‘What makes us think that it’s not going to corrode the political climate?
‘Enough is Enough is enough. Every person of good conscience needs to clearly and unambiguously stand up against the violence in our politics, regardless what your politics are.’
Both Biden and Kamala Harris have been accused of hypocrisy in their response to the Pelosi attack.
Harris demanded people ‘speak out against hate’ following the attack – while she has still failed to condemn the attempted murder of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Harris, campaigning in Philadelphia on Friday ahead of the midterms, said the attack in the early hours on the Pelosi’s San Francisco home was ‘tragic’ and ‘extreme violence’.
Harris called for an end to ‘hate and division’, adding, ‘I strongly believe that we all, each one of us, have to speak out against hate, we have to speak out against violence, obviously, and speak to our better selves.’
Critics pointed out that Harris and President Biden failed to speak out against hate when Kavanaugh’s life was threatened in June by a 26-year-old Californian, who travelled across the country intent on killing him. Kavanaugh was targeted for his support for the repeal of Roe v. Wade.
Kavanaugh’s attacker, Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, was arrested on June 8 armed with a gun, knife and burglary tools after he phoned his sister, who encouraged him to call 911 and hand himself over.
Nicholas John Roske, 26, (left) was arrested in June for allegedly trying to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (right). Harris failed to condemn the attack
On June 22 he pleaded not guilty to an attempt to assassinate the Supreme Court justice, and is currently in custody pending trial.
On Wednesday his attorneys said Roske was fit to stand trial, and a timetable will likely be set out before Christmas.
At a press conference soon after the attempted attack, the president refused to condemn it – leaving it to the White House spokesman to issue a condemnation.
Biden ‘condemns the actions if this individual in the strongest terms,’ Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in June.
Kayleigh McEnany, former president Trump’s White House Press Secretary, noted the president’s ‘ample opportunity’ to condemn the violent act at the time on Fox News.
‘He walked out on the South Lawn; the press is right there – and often times you want to get a message out you stop and say something,’ she said, noting four other times the president could have made a comment in the immediate after math.
‘We get silence from Joe and Kamala,’ McEnany concluded.
On Friday, however, Harris took the moral high ground.
Harris said she spoke with ‘Speaker Pelosi this morning’ on Friday.
‘And, I mean, this was an act of extreme violence. And I think we’re looking at a time in our country where there is so much discourse that is fueled by hate and division.
‘And anyone who professes to be a leader, I think, has to really understand the meaning and the impact of their words and their posture on these things.’
Police tape is seen in front of the San Francisco home of Speaker Nancy Pelosi
David DePape, 42, was identified as the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul with a hammer at their San Francisco home in the early hours of Friday morning
Police stand guard as abortion rights activists protest near the house of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in Chevy Chase, Maryland
Kavanaugh and his wife are the parents of two young daughters. They all reside in the home that was apparently targeted by the suspect
Protesters returned to Kavanaugh’s Maryland home just hours after Roske was arrested while carrying a disturbing arsenal of weapons and equipment
In 911 calls, Roske (left and right) allegedly told operators that he was upset about the leak of a recent Supreme Court draft decision regarding the right to abortion as well as the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. He is pictured left and right in older photos
Barack Obama, pictured on Friday campaigning in Georgia, also spoke out against the attack on Paul Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi has represented the San Francisco constituency since 1987: Harris was the San Francisco district attorney from 2004-11.
Harris said on Friday, ‘I pray for Paul’s recovery. I know the Pelosis, and this is tragic.
‘Somebody literally broke into their home, saying, ‘Where’s Nancy?’
‘And I strongly believe that we all, each one of us, have to speak out against hate, we have to speak out against violence, obviously, and speak to our better selves.
‘There is absolutely room, and it is important to have public discourse when there are disagreements about policy.
‘But what we’ve been seeing recently is so base, in terms of reducing it down to something that I think is beneath the dignity and the intelligence of the American people.’
Barack Obama, also on the campaign trail, in Georgia, condemned the attack on Paul Pelosi.
‘I want to take a moment to say a prayer for a friend of mine, Mr Paul Pelosi, who was attacked,’ said Obama, speaking at a rally in Atlanta.
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