The Hammer

FBI lays out case against David DePape

Since we first learned about the Friday morning attack against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul in their San Francisco home, there has been a lot of speculation about what happened. I’ve had a lot of questions that were answered in the FBI’s complaint against David DePape, which was released Monday.

I had wanted to know the answers to what may seem like cold questions, but the answers provide important context.

• Who owned the hammer which cracked Pelosi’s skull?

• Did Paul Pelosi know DePape?

• Was the attack politically-motivated or the act of a deranged individual?

The answers, according to the FBI, are:

• DePape owned the hammer.

• The two men had not met before.

• And: “DEPAPE stated that he was going to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If Nancy were to tell DEPAPE the ‘truth,’ he would let her go, and if she ‘lied,’ he was going to break ‘her kneecaps.’ DEPAPE was certain that Nancy would not have told the ‘truth.’ In the course of the interview, DEPAPE articulated he viewed Nancy as the ‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic Party. DEPAPE also later explained that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions. DEPAPE also explained generally that he wanted to use Nancy to lure another individual to DEPAPE.”

I think SanFransicko author Michael Shellenberger got it right when he wrote the attack “has far more to do with drugs, homelessness, and pedophilia than QAnon, anti-Semitism, and January 6.” Recent reporting reveals DePape was chronically homeless and mentally ill.

In this case, it would seem the alleged chronically-homeless assailant was political and untethered to reality.

If the FBI affidavit is correct, DePape bought into former President Donald Trump’s Big Lie — sadly, sort of like a number of GOP candidates on the ballot in November.

There are establishment talking heads who look at this story and see a need to battle “misinformation” on social media as a remedy. The problem is, the left rarely sees its own misinformation — which means that any effort for Silicon Valley to set the record straight is likely to be met with disbelief and skepticism among a huge chunk of the electorate.

A better remedy would be for GOP leaders to break the Big Lie’s hold within the party.

The Big Lie stoked the Jan. 6, 2021 insanity — and now this — because the wrong people believe it. They fall for the seductive song of conspiracy theories, in which the establishment has stacked the deck and only good people like them can hold stop the bad guys.

Trump’s super-power has been his skill at convincing disgruntled voters that they were robbed when they lost and he alone could see them and stand up for them. That delusion has consequences — and an 82-year-old man sleeping at home in his own bed was the latest victim.

Debra J. Saunders is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership.