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Republicans Fed Cycle of Misinformation About Pelosi Attack


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Republicans Fed Cycle of Misinformation About Pelosi Attack

Annie Karni
7-9 minutes

WASHINGTON — Within hours of the brutal attack last month on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the speaker of the House, activists and media outlets on the right began circulating groundless claims — nearly all of them sinister, and many homophobic — casting doubt on what had happened. Some Republican officials quickly joined in, rushing to suggest that the bludgeoning of an octogenarian by a suspect obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories was something else altogether, dismissing it as an inside job, a lover’s quarrel or worse.

The misinformation came from all levels of Republican politics. A U.S. senator circulated the view that “none of us will ever know” what really happened at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home. A senior Republican congressman referred to the attacker as a “nudist hippie male prostitute,” baselessly asserting that the suspect had a personal relationship with Paul Pelosi. Former President Donald Trump questioned whether the attack might have been staged.

The world’s richest man helped amplify the stories.

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But none of it was true.

The flood of falsehoods showed how ingrained misinformation has become inside the Republican Party, where the reflexive response of the rank and file — and even a few prominent figures — to anything that might cast a negative light on the right is to deflect with more fictional claims, creating a vicious cycle that muddies facts, shifts blame and minimizes violence.

It happened after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which was inspired by Trump’s lie of a stolen election, and in turn gave rise to more falsehoods, as Republicans and their right-wing allies tried to play down, deny or invent a different story for what happened, including groundlessly blaming the FBI and antifa. Pelosi’s attacker is said to have believed some of those tales.

“This is the dynamic as it plays out,” said Brian Hughes, a professor at American University who studies radicalism and extremism. “The conspiracy theory prompts an act of violence; that act of violence needs to be disavowed, and it can only be disavowed by more conspiracy theories, which prompts more violence.”

The Justice Department moved swiftly to bring criminal charges against the suspect in the attack — David DePape, 42 — who prosecutors said broke into the Pelosi home intending to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and shatter her kneecaps, and assaulted her husband with a hammer, leaving him with a cracked 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 far too late. In a pattern that has become commonplace, a parade of Republicans — helped along by right-wing media personalities including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and prominent people including newly installed Twitter owner Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man — had already abetted the viral spread of lies about the attack, distorting the account of what happened before facts could get in the way. Finding life on far-right websites and the so-called dark web, conspiracy theories and falsehoods leaped from the fringes to the mainstream.

Although many Republican leaders denounced the violence and some, including former Vice President Mike Pence, expressed sympathy for the Pelosis, none of them publicly condemned the falsehoods their colleagues were elevating or did anything to push back. That left others to fill the void.

“Just produce the police bodycam — why is that so hard?” Carlson demanded on his show Wednesday night. Addressing those criticizing the conspiracy theorizing, he added: “We’re not the crazy people; you’re the liars. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions, period.”

The disinformation surrounding the attack on Pelosi presented many of the standard elements of alt-right conspiracy theories, which relish a culture of “do your own research,” casting skepticism on official accounts, and tend to focus on lurid sexual activities or issues related to children, often driven by a fear of society becoming immoral.

Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation expert, said no amount of evidence — be it police body camera footage or anything else — could get in the way of such falsehoods in the eyes of those who do not want to believe facts.

“It doesn’t matter when there are documents or sworn testimony claiming something is, in fact, not the case,” Jankowicz said. “There will be an elaborate reframing effort. If the footage was released, people would claim it was fabricated. There’s no bottom.”

Many of the Republicans who amplified the fiction couched their comments as jokes, effectively preempting any criticism by suggesting they might not be serious. Hours after the attack, Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son, shared online a viral image of a costume that included an oversized pair of men’s briefs and a hammer, remarking “the internet remains undefeated.”

A spokesperson for Trump said he “simply posted a joke meme and has always rejected political violence in all forms.”

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., circulated a photograph on Twitter that showed a group of young, white men holding oversized hammers beside a gay Pride flag, commenting simply: “LOL.”

Tenney did not respond to a request for comment.

It is not clear whether the elected officials and media personalities who have trafficked in falsehoods believe the conspiracy theories they are elevating, or simply want to be rewarded by their right-wing base. According to public polling, as many as 70% of Republicans still believe that Donald Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election.

Mary Williams Benefield, a Republican running for a seat in Georgia’s statehouse, said she had responded online to a tweet suggesting the attack was staged because “the official narrative is unwilling to present all the facts.”

“Maybe their daughter has a film crew shooting a documentary on this too,” wrote the mother of three and former music teacher at a church school, making a reference to newly surfaced footage from a documentary that Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra was filming that showed the speaker in a secure location during the Jan. 6 riot.

In an interview, Benefield brought up a report that the police have debunked, which wrongly asserted that the intruder was dressed only in his underwear. The Fox News affiliate that originally reported the detail issued a correction saying the article had previously “misstated what clothing the suspect was wearing.”

That did nothing to change Benefield’s mind.

“There’s a lot of questions that need to be asked before there’s any legitimacy,” she said.

According to federal charging documents, DePape was enthralled by the conspiracy theories that have portrayed Nancy Pelosi as an enemy of the country. His online activities show him ranting about the 2020 election being stolen, seeming to deny the gassing of Jews at Auschwitz and claiming that schoolteachers were grooming children to be transgender.

His attorney has said he planned to argue that DePape was so influenced by disinformation that it should be considered a mitigating circumstance.

© 2022 The New York Times Company

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i thought the repukes were the party of christian values? i have never seen such a trashy group in a long time. and you sell your soul where jesus is concerned. i hope it is worth it.

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It's a self reinforcing system. 

Conservatives are prone to believe lies and mis-information as long as it supports beliefs they already hold or defends their own interests, and Conservative "News" is set up to cast blame and provide excuses, not to inform or provide information. 

 

A quick spreading lie that reinforces Conservative dogma is vastly more valuable than the truth can ever be. 

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1 minute ago, CoffeeTiger said:

It's a self reinforcing system. 

Conservatives are prone to believe lies and mis-information as long as it supports beliefs they already hold or defends their own interests, and Conservative "News" is set up to cast blame and provide excuses, not to inform or provide information. 

 

A quick spreading lie that reinforces Conservative dogma is vastly more valuable than the truth can ever be. 

my grandfather taught me about honor and it still means something to me. i might give the right hell but i will never make up stuff to make them look bad. but than again i really do not have to.

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I think the evidence about this incident will come out after the election. It appears it will remain hidden until then. I'll tell you what Aubie.  When the 911 tapes and the security cam footage come out, and I think they will, I'll come on the board and issue you a public apology for every doubting the story if they support the democrat version of events. As long as you agree to do the same if it turns out that the reason no alarms went off during the break in was that DePape didn't actually break in but was admitted into the residence.  We are going to have to see the video though because unsurprisingly, after 4 years of total bs about Russian collusion, Republicans are very skeptical about anything the media or democrats say.

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10 minutes ago, Cardin Drake said:

I think the evidence about this incident will come out after the election. It appears it will remain hidden until then. I'll tell you what Aubie.  When the 911 tapes and the security cam footage come out, and I think they will, I'll come on the board and issue you a public apology for every doubting the story if they support the democrat version of events. As long as you agree to do the same if it turns out that the reason no alarms went off during the break in was that DePape didn't actually break in but was admitted into the residence.  We are going to have to see the video though because unsurprisingly, after 4 years of total bs about Russian collusion, Republicans are very skeptical about anything the media or democrats say.

Is your source Q?

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No, just the common sense belief that one of the most secure residences in America would have had an alarm go off during a break in, as well as the picture of the window that was broken showed that it was broken from the inside, and the firm belief that if the body cam footage showed a rabid partisan beating an 82 year old man married to the speaker of the house, it would be on a non-stop loop on every network in America all day and night between now and election day.  I can include you in the apology bet as well.

Edited by Cardin Drake
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To Conservatives, every big news story  always has a conspiracy attached to it. Common sense has nothing to do with it. 

 

There is security camera footage that police and others people have already viewed and confirmed that the man did indeed break into the house through the window. The police chief has come out multiple times stating that all the evidence points to a break in and that the two men didn't know each other. 

 

Any other theories are simply tabloid sensationalism.

 

 

Edited by CoffeeTiger
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Glad to include you in the bet as well. Just to make it more interesting, how about the loser agrees to not post in the political forum for a year?

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3 hours ago, aubiefifty said:
His attorney has said he planned to argue that DePape was so influenced by disinformation that it should be considered a mitigating circumstance.

 

I hope this attorney is making a compilation of disinformation examples, with a focus on Republican party leadership.

 

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2 hours ago, Cardin Drake said:

No, just the common sense belief that one of the most secure residences in America would have had an alarm go off doing a break in, as well as the picture of the window that was broken into showing that it was broken from the inside, and the firm belief that if the body cam footage showed a rapid partisan beating an 82 year old man married to the speaker of the house, it would be on a non-stop loop on every network in America all day and night between now and election day.  I can include you in the apology bet as well.

"Common sense" should prompt you not to speculate without direct evidence to do so.

Speculation based on such an ignorance of the facts/evidence is the lifeblood of conspiracy propagation.  That's exactly why conspiracy theories emerge almost immediately after an event.

Like Coffee said, (somewhat modified):

"A quick spreading lie that reinforces Conservative dogma is vastly more valuable than (waiting for the) truth can ever be.

Edited by homersapien
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37 minutes ago, homersapien said:

What bet? :dunno:

Did you read anything posted? 

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2 hours ago, Cardin Drake said:

So, no takers on the bet.

If I'm honest, I wouldn't take the bet. I cannot blame them for the same. Simply recall all the debunked conspiracy theories propagated by the left from the last 5 years. 

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