So tonight, we have new details
about the violent attack on Speaker
Nancy Pelosi's 82 year old husband, Paul,
in their San Francisco home.
An intruder attacked him with a hammer.
Sources say the suspect was shouting,
Where's Nancy?
And when police arrived,
he told them
he was, quote, waiting for Nancy.
An angry
president, Joe Biden,
called the attack despicable.
Enough is enough is enough.
Every person of good conscience
needs a clearly and unambiguous lead.
To stand up against the violence
in our politics.
Regardless what your politics are
Now, this part will not shock you.
The alleged attacker posted
conspiracy theories on Facebook,
including links
to multiple videos from the Trump
ally and pillow salesman
Mike Lindell
saying insane things
about the 2020 election.
So not only are our elected officials
in danger days
before the midterms, so
are their families.
Federal officials
are warning that domestic
violent extremists
pose a heightened threat
to the midterms and beyond.
Let's bring in our CNN
law enforcement analyst Jonathan Wackrow
and CNN national security
analyst Juliette Kayyem.
Great to have you guys in studio.
So they just had a press conference
about this
in San Francisco Police Department
moments ago.
So here's what the chief said
based on their latest information.
Let's listen.
We also know,
based on our investigation at this point,
that this was not a random act.
This was intentional.
And as wrong,
our elected officials
are here to do
the business of their cities,
their counties, their states,
and this nation.
Their families don't sign up for this
to be harmed.
And it is wrong
and everybody should be disgusted
about what happened this morning.
Juliette,
we feared that things like
this would happen. Political.
I mean, they don't have a motive yet.
They're still early days, obviously,
but it sure looks
and feels like political violence.
Where's Nancy?
Is kind of your clue there, right?
I mean, he's
you know,
she is the second in line
for the presidency
and he was looking for her.
So we're talking about this
as an attack on Paul.
Was it
essentially was an attack on Nancy Pelosi
in that
if you think of it in those terms,
it would be hard to deny
that this is a political attack.
And so what we're finding on social media
is confirming a narrative about someone
who got radicalized through the
the fake election and the January six and
and all the stuff
that things were taken away from him
He may have mental health issues,
whatever it is.
I look like him.
He does sound like he has a long history
of being unhinged
from neighbors and friends.
And so but
lots of people have mental health issues.
But but most do not do this.
And so what was that?
Who was who or what
noise was leading him there?
And I think that's going to be
very interesting.
And then who else is
is picking up on that?
I think
I think the threat level
for other federal officials is just
it's got to remain high
and there has to be vigilance
for them and protection for them
at least until after the election.
And that leads us to their families.
Jonathan, I was surprised to learn today
that our top leaders,
families don't get protection
It's stunning.
To Juliette's point,
this is the number two person in line
of presidential succession,
the fact that their house
was broken into that
there was no residential security,
the fact that the husband was attacked
physically, violently is the hospital.
This is unacceptable.
Full stop.
We're not.
This is not a new threat environment
that we're living in right now. Right.
This has been around for a long time.
We're hearing warning after warning,
but we're not taking the right action.
We're not applying the right
control measures.
What should we be doing?
We need to be,
you know, focusing on
protecting these political leaders.
Right.
So rank and file members,
members of congressional leadership,
the same way
that the Secret Service does,
we need to protect them.
Well, she has protection in Washington.
D.C.,
but are you saying that
all of their families
should at this point
in this climate, because it's gotten
so bad,
also have protection
because obviously that cost
a lot of money, etc., etc.
But it costs a lot of money.
Let's put the money aside. Right.
We'll figure out what the government
spends money on. A lot of things.
Let's not let's not think about
how do we pay for protection.
Let's apply it when it's necessary.
And guess what?
When you are in line
for the office of the presidency
in the United States,
you need 24 hour protection.
On your home.
You need protection of your spouse,
your family, everybody.
That could impact because here's why.
Today, family members are soft targets.
Their path of least resistance
for an attacker.
We know that.
We've seen that time and time again.
And there's a material impact
that will occur in Speaker
Pelosi's ability to lead right now,
because now she's removed from the game
two weeks out.
We're concentrating
on an attack of her husband,
not on the,
you know, the midterm cycle, etc.
So the protection has a purpose
and we need to apply it correctly
to the threat environment
that Juliette has been talking
about for years.
We all have been.
Juliette, no surprise
what you find on this does
social media stuff.
I mean, just it's just textbook. It is.
And so it's
I mean, I'll just put up some stuff.
So Mike Lindell,
who's the pillow salesman,
and just famous conspiracy theorist,
this guy was tweeting
videos produced by him.
And then,
you know,
all of this just conspiracy
nonsense about January 6th.
And so we've seen it time and again.
Juliette, there's a connection.
Yeah,
but why can't we figure out
the connection
before the violence happens?
Well,
because there's there's
a nurturing of this kind of violence
coming from leadership of the GOP.
I mean, the person who is likely
to get the nomination,
Donald Trump, uses
the language of fighting.
I mean, he targets people.
We don't have to be shy about it.
We don't have to do both sides.
Like, let's just be clear here.
There is violence
that is
directed and nurtured
by the leader of that party.
And then the problem is,
is it is either
denied, accepted
or also embraced by other members.
And what what I
what is important to remember is the
is the well, let's just move on
attitude that you hear
from many people like, oh, that's
just Trump, whatever,
especially members of his party.
That actually is helpful.
To the radicalization
because it's
the silence is the lack of shaming
of what is going on
and what what is happening to that party
with the shame
with the shaming copy out on the map.
Imagine if McConnell had still stuck
to his.
This is this is unacceptable
right after January six.
Imagine that world
in which the party shunned the violence.
It'd be a totally different world.
And and yes,
there's going to be outliers.
There's going to be people
that are still violent,
but they're not going to be supported
by an apparatus
that gives them legitimacy.
Well, I mean, today, that's where we are.
There are Republicans
who are tweeting
tweeting about this as though
Vice President
Pence
says, quote, This is an outrage
and our hearts are
with the entire Pelosi family.
We pray Paul will make a full recovery.
There can be no tolerance for violence
against public officials
or their families.
This man should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law.
Is a tweet enough?
Well, it helps.
I mean, the op.
Well, let me just say the opposite.
Would be worse.
And I think
what we have to remember
is this is one tweet does not mute
what has been going on to Nancy
Pelosi and towards Nancy Pelosi.
In the world that I follow,
which is the radicalization.
She more than Biden
has become the focal point.
You could call it gender.
You could
you know,
maybe they were targeting her,
but it is her and it is at the rallies,
at the Trump
rallies, on social media, on true social.
It is Nancy Pelosi has been the target.
So where's Nancy
is it's a direct line from January six.
And they were saying
they were chanting
that they were chanting
that they were looking for her
What I want to follow up on one thing.
This behavior has been normalized.
Right.
And that's really, really dangerous.
Meaning political violence
or just political rhetoric?
Well, rhetoric that leads into violence.
Right.
It's a it's a it's a flash in a bang.
Right.
So it's that rhetoric first
that we see metastasizing
and everyone just accepts it.
They allow it.
We've seen it online.
It just has fueled for years and years.
And now it quickly
leads into physical violence.
We've seen it affect politicians.
We've seen it affect our societies.
We think about
how people have been radicalized
that are,
you know,
going into schools and synagogues
and churches and killing everybody.
And we have to do better.
We have to do better.
We have to take a different approach
to, one,
suppressing that type of ideology.
That type of thinking.
And we have to take a stronger
stand against,
you know, domestic
violent extremism, hate everything
that, you know, encompasses it,
because this is the consequence
right now. We're seeing it.