Within hours of last month’s brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, right-wing activists and media began publicizing baseless claims — nearly all of them sinister and many of them homophobic — that cast doubt on the that had occurred.
Some Republican officials quickly joined in, rushing to suggest that the beating of an octogenarian by a suspect obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories was something else entirely, dismissing it as an internal affair, a lovers’ quarrel, or worse.
Disinformation came from all levels of Republican politics. One senator circulated the opinion that “none of us will ever know” what really happened at the Pelosi home in San Francisco. A top Republican congressman referred to the attacker as a “nudist hippie hooker”, claiming unsubstantiatedly that the suspect had a relationship with Paul Pelosi. Former President Donald Trump questioned whether the attack could have been staged.
The richest man in the world helped amplify the stories. But none of that was true.
The barrage of falsehoods has shown how ingrained misinformation is in the Republican Party, where the reflexive response from the base — and even some prominent figures — to anything that might cast a negative light on the right is to deflect with more fictitious allegations, creating a cycle. vicious behavior that blurs the facts, shifts blame and minimizes violence.
It came after the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill attack, inspired by Trump’s lie about election theft, and in turn gave rise to more falsehoods as Republicans and their right-wing allies tried to downplay, deny, or invent a falsehood. different story for what happened, including baselessly blaming the FBI and anti-fascists. Pelosi’s attacker believed some of these stories.
“That’s the dynamic that unfolds,” said Brian Hughes, a professor at American University who studies radicalism and extremism. “Conspiracy theory provokes an act of violence; that act of violence needs to be disproved, and it can only be disproved by more conspiracy theories, which provokes more violence.”
The Justice Department moved quickly to bring criminal charges against the attack suspect — David DePape, 42 — who, prosecutors say, broke into Pelosi’s home with the intention of kidnapping Nancy Pelosi and breaking her knees and assaulted her husband with a knife. hammer, cracking your skull. The San Francisco District Attorney said it was imperative for prosecutors to present the facts to the public, given the misinformation circulating widely about the case.
But by then it was too late. In a pattern that has become commonplace, a parade of Republicans — aided by right-wing media personalities, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and prominent people such as new Twitter owner Elon Musk, the richest man in the world — had already encouraged the viral spread of lies about the attack, distorting the account of what happened before the facts could get in the way. Finding life on far-right websites and the so-called dark web, Conspiracy theories and falsehoods leapt from the fringes into the mainstream.
While many Republican leaders denounced the violence and some, like former Vice President Mike Pence, expressed sympathy for the Pelosi, none of them publicly condemned the falsehoods their colleagues were spreading or did anything to quell them. This allowed others to fill the void.
“Just show the police camera — why is it so hard?” demanded Carlson on his Wednesday night show. Addressing those criticizing the conspiracy theory, he added: “We’re not the crazy ones; you’re the liars. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions, period.”
The disinformation surrounding the Pelosi attack featured many of the standard elements of conspiracy theories from the so-called alt-right, who appreciate a “do your own research” culture, casting disbelief over official accounts, and tend to focus on sexual deviancy or issues related to children, often motivated by the fear that society will become immoral.
Disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz said no amount of evidence — whether it’s footage from police cameras or anything else — could stop such falsehoods in the eyes of those who don’t want to believe the facts.
“It doesn’t matter when there are documents or sworn witnesses alleging that something is, in fact, not the case,” Jankowicz said. “There will be an elaborate reframing effort. If the footage was released, people would say it was manipulated. There’s no end to it.”
Many Republicans who propagated the fiction phrased their comments as jokes, effectively preempting any criticism by suggesting that they might not be serious. Hours after the attack, Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son, shared on social media an image of a costume that included an oversized men’s underwear and a hammer, commenting that “the internet remains undefeated”.
A spokesperson said he “simply posted a meme and always rejected political violence in all forms”.
Republican Representative Claudia Tenney of New York tweeted a photo that shows a group of young white men holding huge hammers next to an LGBTQIA+ Pride flag, commenting simply “LOL” (which means “having a laugh”). Tenney did not respond to a request for comment.
It is unclear whether the elected officials and media personalities who have spread falsehoods believe the conspiracy theories they are promoting or simply want to be rewarded by their right-wing base. According to polls, up to 70% of Republicans still believe that Donald Trump was the real winner of the 2020 election.
According to federal prosecution documents, DePape was fascinated by conspiracy theories that portrayed Nancy Pelosi as an enemy of the country. His online activities show him complaining about the theft of the 2020 election, appearing to deny the extermination of Jews at Auschwitz and claiming that teachers were preparing children to be transgender.
His attorney said he intends to argue that DePape was so influenced by the misinformation that it should be considered a mitigating factor.
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