In response to David DePape’s arrest over the weekend, conservative radio talkshow host Charlie Kirk encouraged his audience Monday to bail the man who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer Friday out of jail.
During his livestream show on Monday, the Turning Point USA founder also dismissed the idea that “Republican rhetoric” inspired the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. Paul Pelosi remains hospitalized after undergoing surgery for a fractured skull and other injuries.
On Monday, the Department of Justice charged DePape with federal assault and attempted kidnapping. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins confirmed on Sunday that DePape broke into the Pelosis’ home and shouted, “Where’s Nancy!?” ABC7 reported that he wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and “break her kneecaps.” Jenkins is expected to file separate charges against DePape later today.
“Why is the conservative movement to blame for gay schizophrenic nudists that are hemp jewelry makers breaking into someone’s home — or maybe not breaking into someone’s home,” he said, referring to the conspiracy theory — which was retweeted and then deleted by new Twitter owner Musk — that the assailant was actually Paul Pelosi’s gay lover.
Kirk went on to say, “And by the way, if some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a midterm hero, someone should go and bail this guy out … Bail him out, and then go ask him some questions.”
Many over the weekend have been citing DePape’s social media accounts, which featured several right-wing conspiracies, including support for QAnon and the debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, as evidence that his attack on Pelosi was in part instigated by right-wing rhetoric – specifically that peddled by Donald Trump’s Republican party.
“Are we to insist that this attack was not the direct result of the dangerous, violent rhetoric we have heard from Donald Trump’s Republican party over the last six years? The deranged man who violently assaulted Paul Pelosi got his idea from somewhere,” “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski said Monday. “Are we supposed to ignore the fact that threats against the House Speaker have been specific for quite some time?”
Kirk’s call to post bail for DePape echoes similar efforts from the far-right to bail out Kyle Rittenhouse after shooting three Black Lives Matters protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020, killing two. Actor Rick Schroder bailed out Rittenhouse, who was later acquitted of the two murders.
