President Isaac Herzog on Saturday denounced the attack on the husband of US President Nancy Pelosi through a guy who presents conspiracy theories about Jews and the 2020 American election, leaving him with a skull fracture.
“Shocked by the ferocious attack on Paul Pelosi and relieved that my Speaker Pelosi, who so kindly welcomed me this week, is safe,” Herzog said in a statement.
“Attacks on elected officials and their families are attacks on democracy itself. On behalf of the other people of Israel, praying for Paul’s restoration,” he added.
Paul Pelosi assaulted his home in San Francisco “through an attacker who acted forcefully and threatened his life because it was not easy to see the speaker,” Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, said Friday.
Paul Pelosi, 82, who underwent surgery and is recovering in the hospital, was living alone at the time of the attack while his wife ran in Washington.
“It wasn’t a random act. It was intentional. And that’s wrong,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said.
Inside the home, police discovered that the suspect, David DePape, and Paul Pelosi were suffering from a hammer and told them to drop it, Scott said.
DePape ripped Pelosi’s hammer off and began hitting him with it, hitting him at least once, before being approached by officials and arrested, Scott said.
The FBI and Capitol Police also participated in the joint investigation.
One of the two websites run through DePape includes a category called “DaJewbs,” true to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and adds Holocaust denial.
Many recent posts accuse Jews of being Russia’s war opposed to Ukraine as a means of buying land.
It appears DePape’s Facebook page is no longer available, but CNN reported that it was filled with messages embracing the lie of election denial spread through Trump and his supporters, as well as transphobic content and unsubstantiated theories about coronavirus vaccines.
DePape, who police say is charged with attempted murder and crimes, joins a developing list of alleged perpetrators of attacks fueled by conspiracy theories spreading online.
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