Paul Pelosi attack

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

Damn, you fully drank the koolaid. What flavor do you like? Orange I presume?

Ok
Answer 1 one points I made.
Where’s the home security video ?
Where’s the body cam video ?
How does a person break into a house and the glass shatters outward, he use a suction cup on the glass 🤔

[Jim in CT]

releasing body cam footage would immediately end the speculation.

[PaulS]

Some parts of the C&P are hard to read


How Republicans Fed a Misinformation Loop About the Pelosi Attack
By Annie Karni, Malika Khurana and Stuart A. Thompson Nov. 5, 2022

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 Mr. Pelosi. Former President Donald J. Trump questioned whether the attack might have been staged.

The world’s richest man helped amplify the stories. But none of it was true.

Here are 21 of the elected officials, candidates and other prominent figures who spread misinformation or cast doubt on the attack.
In tweets, podcasts and TV appearances, these figures questioned whether the public was being told the full story of what happened and in some cases spread theories that were unfounded.
Elected officials and candidates
Photo of Senator Ted Cruz
Senator Ted Cruz

Republican of Texas

Amplified doubts that all facts were being disclosed.
Photo of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene

Republican of Georgia

Suggested Mr. Pelosi knew his attacker.
Photo of Representative Clay Higgins
Representative Clay Higgins

Republican of Louisiana

Suggested the attack involved male prostitution.
Photo of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson

Republican of North Carolina

Raised doubts about the details of the attack.
Photo of Mary Williams Benefield
Mary Williams Benefield

Republican statehouse candidate, Georgia

Suggested the attack might have been staged.
Photo of Royce White
Royce White

Republican statehouse candidate, Minnesota

Claimed the attack involved an extramarital gay affair.
Photo of State Senator Wendy Rogers
State Senator Wendy Rogers

Republican of Arizona

Suggested the attack might have been staged.
Photo of State Representative Anthony Sabatini
State Representative Anthony Sabatini

Republican of Florida

Suggested that the Pelosis are hiding vital information.
Photo of Representative Claudia Tenney
Representative Claudia Tenney

Republican of New York

Amplified a conspiracy theory about an extramarital gay affair.
Prominent figures
Photo of Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck

Conservative commentator

Raised doubts about the details of the attack.
Photo of Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson

Fox News host

Raised doubts about the details of the attack.
Photo of Dinesh D’Souza
Dinesh D’Souza

Conservative commentator

Claimed the attack involved an extramarital gay affair.
Photo of Ryan Fournier
Ryan Fournier

Founder, Students for Trump

Claimed details about the attacker were fabricated.
Photo of Sebastian Gorka
Sebastian Gorka

Former Trump adviser and podcast host

Raised doubts about the details of the attack.
Photo of Pete Hegseth
Pete Hegseth

Fox News host

Raised doubts that all facts were being disclosed.
Photo of Megyn Kelly
Megyn Kelly

Talk show host

Raised doubts that all facts were being disclosed.
Photo of Elon Musk
Elon Musk

Chief executive of Twitter and Tesla

Amplified a conspiracy theory about male prostitution.
Photo of Devin Nunes
Devin Nunes

Former representative of California

Repeated a false report that the attacker was in his underwear.
Photo of Michael Savage
Michael Savage

Talk show host

Raised doubts that all facts were being disclosed.
Photo of Roger Stone
Roger Stone

Trump associate

Suggested the attack was staged.
Photo of Donald J. Trump
Donald J. Trump

Former president

Suggested the attack was staged.
The flood of falsehoods showed how ingrained misinformation has become inside the G.O.P., 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 Mr. 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 F.B.I. and antifa. Mr. 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 Ms. 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 the Fox New host Tucker Carlson, and prominent people including the 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.

Fringe Websites and Mainstream Figures
Thousands of posts containing conspiracy theories about the attack were shared on message boards, social media and in comments sections of popular far-right sites, according to data from Pyrra, a company that tracks fringe social media. As the chatter picked up, several elected officials and mainstream right-wing influencers also shared their doubts about the attack.

Comments from fringe websites mentioning ...

“Prostitute” or similar terms

Other sex-related conspiracy theories

Doubts about the official account

12:23 p.m. A Fox affiliate in San Francisco

reports that the attacker was found in his

underwear. The error was later corrected.

Each

comment

FRIDAY, OCT. 28

6 P.M.

A conspiracy theory circulates widely

that the attack was the result

of a sexual affair.

9 P.M.

SATURDAY

3 A.M.

6 A.M.

9 A.M.

NOON

3 P.M.

6 P.M.

9 P.M.

SUNDAY

3 A.M.

8:15 a.m. Elon Musk, the new owner of

Twitter, tweets a link to a conspiracy website

that baselessly claims that Mr. Pelosi was

attacked by a male prostitute.

9 A.M.

Comments mentioning “prostitute” and

similar terms flood sites, reigniting

interest in the false theory.

NOON

5:06 p.m. On “The Big Sunday Show,”

a Fox News program, hosts raise doubts

about the official account.

6 P.M.

9 P.M.

MONDAY

3 A.M.

10:04 a.m. Representative Marjorie Taylor

Greene, Republican of Georgia, repeats the

conspiracy theory circulated by Mr. Musk

and calls the media the “source

of misinformation.”

7:06 p.m. Jesse Watters, the Fox News host,

raises doubts about the official account of the

attack, saying that glass appears to be broken

from inside the house.

9 P.M.

TUESDAY, NOV. 1

3 A.M.

6 A.M.

9 A.M.

NOON

8:43 p.m. Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host,

repeats the conspiracy theory shared by

Mr. Musk, joking that a prominent liberal

influencer would claim that “Paul Pelosi

couldn't be gay, not that it is a bad thing.”

9 P.M.

WEDNESDAY

3 A.M.

6 A.M.

9 A.M.

NOON

3 P.M.

Note: Roughly 9,500 comments that mentioned “Paul Pelosi” were analyzed from 16 websites and a service that provides commenting technology for online platforms. Key terms, such as ”prostitute,” were grouped into the categories shown.
While 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 on the false narrative. That left others to fill the void.

“Just produce the police body cam, — why is that so hard?” Mr. Carlson demanded on his show on 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 Mr. 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,” Ms. 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 pre-empting 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 spokesman for Mr. Trump said he “simply posted a joke meme and has always rejected political violence in all forms.”

Representative Claudia Tenney, Republican of New York, circulated a photograph on Twitter that showed a group of young, white men holding oversized hammers beside a gay Pride flag, commenting simply: “LOL.”

Ms. 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 percent of Republicans still believe that Mr. 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 Ms. Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra was filming that showed the speaker in a secure location during the Jan. 6 riot.

In an interview, Ms. 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 Ms. 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, Mr. DePape was enthralled by the conspiracy theories that have portrayed Ms. 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 Mr. DePape was so influenced by disinformation that it should be considered a mitigating circumstance.

[wdmso]

[QUOTE=PaulS;1235109]Some parts of the C&P are hard to read


How Republicans Fed a Misinformation Loop About the Pelosi Attack
By Annie Karni, Malika Khurana and Stuart A. Thompson Nov. 5, 2022u



Paul didn’t you know both sides do it. That’s the mantra of the faithful on the right with a twisted logic with them throwing out 3 examples ( all of whom apologized ) over a 10 years period

Against your list of all who spread lies and misinformation. In 1 day

All while Yelling see both sides do it actually believing what they are saying is True.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

[QUOTE=wdmso;1235113]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Some parts of the C&P are hard to read


How Republicans Fed a Misinformation Loop About the Pelosi Attack
By Annie Karni, Malika Khurana and Stuart A. Thompson Nov. 5, 2022u



Paul didn’t you know both sides do it. That’s the mantra of the faithful on the right with a twisted logic with them throwing out 3 examples ( all of whom apologized ) over a 10 years period

Against your list of all who spread lies and misinformation. In 1 day

All while Yelling see both sides do it actually believing what they are saying is True.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

for the tenth time, NBC reported that paul pelosi answered the door and that he then walked back towards the intruder. Not foxnews, NBC.

how do you know, that NBC was lying? i’m curious.

[wdmso]

[QUOTE=Jim in CT;1235115]

Originally Posted by wdmso

for the tenth time, NBC reported that paul pelosi answered the door and that he then walked back towards the intruder. Not foxnews, NBC.

how do you know, that NBC was lying? i’m curious.

Guessing you didn’t read one word of the play by play I posted



pelosi answered the door and that he then walked back towards the intruder.

What are you implying ?

Just Spit it out!
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

I see the Gathering Of Psychotics has found something else to be victimized by….
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

wayne, do we know for sure pelosi answered the door?

if there was an intruder i. your house, and you’re 80 years old, and the lilies show up, you run towards the police

something seems weird, and releasing the body cam footage ends 100% of the crazy speculation.

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

wayne, do we know for sure pelosi answered the door?

if there was an intruder i. your house, and you’re 80 years old, and the lilies show up, you run towards the police

something seems weird, and releasing the body cam footage ends 100% of the crazy speculation.

Ya ok do you think the footage is going to change you or Ronnie’s minds

You’ll do what all conspiracy driven people do. Create a new conspiracy
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Many people are saying that the man who pelted Ted Cruz with a beer can is actually his gay lover who’s jealous he hasn’t left Heidi

As Elon said, there’s a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[wdmso]

Guess you never heard of laminated glass

It breaks but you need to pull it apart

And clearly he didn’t go in via the hole he just unlocked the door

The photo makes it’s quite obvious
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[scottw]

Originally Posted by wdmso

And clearly he didn’t go in via the hole ....


Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

thanks for clearing that up

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by scottw

thanks for clearing that up

We know you would go for the Hole

[PaulS]

nothing at yesterday's hearing about gay prostitutes, glass breaking from the inside or any of the other vile right wing insults/theories.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

nothing at yesterday's hearing about gay prostitutes, glass breaking from the inside or any of the other vile right wing insults/theories.

vile tightening theory that was supported by NBc. all they need to do is release the body can video, hat ends the speculation.

Calling someone gay is an insult to you? I thought the left was all about celebrating them, why is that an insult?

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

vile tightening theory that was supported by NBc. all they need to do is release the body can video, hat ends the speculation.
You do understand the difference between law and entertainment?

Calling someone gay is an insult to you? I thought the left was all about celebrating them, why is that an insult?

Many people are saying that the man who pelted Ted Cruz with a beer can is actually his gay lover who’s jealous he hasn’t left Heidi, but maybe it's Jim's (not that there's anything wrong with that........)

As Elon said, there’s a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Calling someone gay is an insult to you? I thought the left was all about celebrating them, why is that an insult?

Couldn't understand that gibberish (isn't that the word you use when you're trying to insult someone) in the 1st sentence.

Did I ever say or insinuate calling someone gay was an insult?

Pls. post up where I said that or else you lied.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Couldn't understand that gibberish (isn't that the word you use when you're trying to insult someone) in the 1st sentence.

Did I ever say or insinuate calling someone gay was an insult?

Pls. post up where I said that or else you lied.

bump

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Couldn't understand that gibberish (isn't that the word you use when you're trying to insult someone) in the 1st sentence.

Did I ever say or insinuate calling someone gay was an insult?

Pls. post up where I said that or else you lied.

you mentioned accusations of gay in the same sentence as right wing insults.

funny, when liberals are mad at Senator Lindsay Graham, they often fall back to the rumorst hat he’s gay. Again, using it as an insult.

I could care less if Paul Pelosi is gay or not and to the extent I care, i’d respect him more if he were, given who he’s married to. But the left used this for political gain, saying it was a right wing assassination attempt. The proof of that, is on the bodycam video. An NBC station in San Francisco, reported that those who saw the footage, said it looked like a lovers quarrel not an intruder. That’s a san francisco NBC affiliate, not fox news.

if they refuse to share the bodycam footage, , it’s natural to wonder why.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

you mentioned accusations of gay in the same sentence as right wing insults.

funny, when liberals are mad at Senator Lindsay Graham, they often fall back to the rumorst hat he’s gay. Again, using it as an insult.

I could care less if Paul Pelosi is gay or not and to the extent I care, i’d respect him more if he were, given who he’s married to. But the left used this for political gain, saying it was a right wing assassination attempt. The proof of that, is on the bodycam video. An NBC station in San Francisco, reported that those who saw the footage, said it looked like a lovers quarrel not an intruder. That’s a san francisco NBC affiliate, not fox news.

if they refuse to share the bodycam footage, , it’s natural to wonder why.

You're a scummy liar.

Did you not see the word prostitute?

[PaulS]

Bumping this up to show what a scummy liar Jim is.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Bumping this up to show what a scummy liar Jim is.

your quote I responded to...

"nothing at yesterday's hearing about gay prostitutes, glass breaking from the inside or any of the other vile right wing insults/theories."

Paul, I don't think you are anti gay. I was teasing about a very legitimate interpretation of what you said. That the word "gay" is one of the right wing "insults".

And it is true, that when Senator Lindsay Graham angers liberals, they routinely attack him by resurrecting rumors that he's gay.

And I don't care if Paul Pelosi is gay, or if he was attacked by a random intruder. But the left chose to make this a political weapon, so we have the right to know the truth. All we need to do, is see the bodycam video. Obviously, those in control, don't want that bodycam video released. If the bodycam video showed the attacker beating Mr Pelosi while yelling "Trump paid me to do it!", obviously we'd have seen it. The logical conclusion is that we haven't seen the video, because those in charge don't like whats on there. That may well not be the case, but it's a logical conclusion.

And for scummy liars, I keep telling you that it was an NBC affiliate in San Francisco, who reported that those who saw the bodycam video, say it didn't look like an intruder. NBC, not foxnews.

So you are lying when you say it's only the rightwing perpetuating the myth. Unless you contend that the NBC affiliate in San Francisco is right wing. Is that what you're saying?

Make that wrong.

[PaulS]

I don't have to make anything wrong. It's right there what you try to do
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[PaulS]

Bumping this up again to show what a scummy liar Jim is.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Bumping this up again to show what a scummy liar Jim is.

because you’re humiliating yourself on the other thread, so why not do it here too?

the right wing nuts at NBC have reported repeatedly, that this looks like it could have been a lovers quarrel. releasing the body cam, would end all the speculation.

you got caught here, saying that being accused of being gay, is a vile insult. that’s on you.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

because you’re humiliating yourself on the other thread, so why not do it here too?

the right wing nuts at NBC have reported repeatedly, that this looks like it could have been a lovers quarrel. releasing the body cam, would end all the speculation.

you got caught here, saying that being accused of being gay, is a vile insult. that’s on you.

You're lying again. It shows what a scummy person you are. I never said being gay was an insult. I said being with a gay prostitute was the lie the scummy Rs were throwing out there.

You lied about what I said (look at 133). You are a scummy person

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

You're lying again. It shows what a scummy person you are. I never said being gay was an insult. I said being with a gay prostitute was the lie the scummy Rs were throwing out there.

You lied about what I said (look at 133). You are a scummy person

why is being with a gay prostitute a more vile lie, than being with a heterosexual prostitute?

and what proof do you have,,that this was certainly a home invasion and not a lover situation? home invasion is clearly the most likely scenario, but NBC ( are they scummy republican liars) reported at least twice, on some details that cast some doubt on the home invasion explanation.

why not release the body cam video? seems to me it benefits the left to not release it. they can continue to make claims that are POSSIBLY refuted by the body cam video?

paul, are the folks at the NBC affiliate in San Francisco, a bunch of scummy republican liars?

[PaulS]

Accusing someone of being with a prostitute whether gay or heterosexual is an insult. That is the insult the Republicans threw around. If it wasn't meant to be an insult why did the Republicans all use the word gay?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Accusing someone of being with a prostitute whether gay or heterosexual is an insult. That is the insult the Republicans threw around. If it wasn't meant to be an insult why did the Republicans all use the word gay?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Paul, I don't think for one second that you are anti gay.

The insult I hear, is that it was some kind of trist. It's not insane to believe that.

The GOP used the word gay in response to the unanimous initial reporting that teh GOP was responsible for the assault.

The attacker may have been motivated by politics. But NBC has reported evidence to the contrary, and it's interesting that you don't seem to want to comment on that.

Your side made this political. It's only fair to the GOP, then, if the truth comes out. The bodycam footage would end all debate once and for all. It's interesting that it hasn't been released.

If the democrats and the media are going to use this to smear the GOP, shouldn't they be required to reveal all the evidence? Why should the truth be kept secret while they make political attacks?

One could make a compelling case, that the left is afraid of the truth in this instance.

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Accusing someone of being with a prostitute whether gay or heterosexual is an insult. That is the insult the Republicans threw around. If it wasn't meant to be an insult why did the Republicans all use the word gay?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I'm old enough to remember when homosexuals were called homosexuals. It was a purely, biologically, psychologically, sociologically, descriptive word, but those who are called "gays" now objected then to being called homosexual because it somehow connoted an abnormal, devious, condition. So they chose to call themselves "gay" which used to be a word that denoted happiness, joy, good stuff, even better than just being normal such as heterosexuals supposedly were.

I'll never forget an incident when I was working behind the reference desk in our downtown library, a man asked for information on the subject. This was when "gay" had barely begun to make any headway at all as a term of use. So I gave him the file that was labeled homosexuality as a starter to peruse before finding him various books about it. He blew up in my face, and excoriated the library system for filing information under that title. He took it very personally as a homo--, er, "gay" person, claiming it was a derogatory word that painted a negative image of "gays." And went on and on about what bigots we were. I didn't engage in whatever debate he may have wanted to have or in whatever diatribe he wished to deliver. Just went about my business of getting him some more information. I doubted that any of it would use the label "gay" at that time. Hoped he wouldn't come back and call me out for discrimination and insensitivity for giving him such inflammatory literature--its all we had. The word "gay" in the manner he wanted to use it had not even begun to be the preferred term, (or the seemingly mandated term of today). One hardly ever, if ever, uses the word "gay" now to mean anything other than what used to be called homosexual. Just one of the many changes in the meanings of words that have "helped" to change our culture into becoming inclusive--and "nice."

Apparently, re Paul's post, even "gay" has reverted to being as insulting as "homosexual." Gotta keep changing these key words until we remake society into the "inclusion diversity and equity" model that will make us all happy. Though, if really nice and happy words, like "gay" used to be, still ain't good enough, one wonders even if we keep extending that peculiar sexual section of our vocabulary from homosexual, to gay, to perhaps "nice people," that will still be an insult for some reason or other.

Maybe homosexual is still homosexual, no matter what abuse we put language through. I don't consider homosexual to be derogatory. Why should it be, if its just a harmless matter of sexual choice?