President Joe Biden compared the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, to Jan. 6, saying in a Wednesday speech that the Capitol rioters were using the same language as the man who broke into Pelosi’s home.
Forty-two-year-old David DePape allegedly attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer after reportedly breaking into Pelosi’s home early Friday morning. Before attacking Paul Pelosi, DePape reportedly yelled out, “Where is Nancy?” repeatedly, seemingly looking for the speaker before allegedly attacking her husband, San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Communications Director Randy Quezada said. (RELATED: How Did The Attack On Paul Pelosi Go Down? Here’s What We Know So Far)
“Those are the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, when they broke windows, kicked in the doors, brutally attacked law enforcement, roamed the corridors, hunting for officials, and erected gallows to hang the former Vice President Mike Pence,” Biden said while delivering remarks at Union Station.
Biden also stressed the need to “stand up against” political violence, saying, “we don’t settle our differences in America with a riot … or a hammer.”
San Francisco’s District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Monday that the attack on Paul Pelosi appears to be “politically motivated,” given that DePape was allegedly looking for the speaker and investigators believe that there was “an attempt to murder her husband at the time that the police arrived,” according to Business Insider.
The president then condemned Republicans who deny the results of the 2020 election, saying “American democracy is under attack” because former President Donald Trump believes the election was stolen.
“The great irony of the [2020] election, is that it’s the most attacked election in our history, and yet, and yet, there’s no election in our history that we can be more certain of its results,” Biden said.
“This is not about me, this is about all of us,” he added, saying it’s about “what makes America, America.”
Biden has previously cast doubt on the outcome of the 2022 midterm elections, saying in January that the election would only be fair if the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act were passed.
“It all depends on whether or not we’re able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election,” Biden said at the time.