What Biden’s Response to the Paul Pelosi Attack Reveals
Democrats are just fine minimizing or failing to fully repudiate political violence against Conservatives when it suits them
The attack on Paul Pelosi is absolutely despicable. If the facts as we know them are established in a court of law and a jury finds Pelosi’s alleged attacker guilty, I hope that he is punished to the fullest extent of the law. Regardless of the attacker’s ideological stance, his violent acts are anathema to both civilized politics and civilized society.
These are statements that most rational and nonpartisan observers and commenters should be able to agree upon without reservation. But determining exactly what this attack can tell us about our current political and social climate is far more polarizing, especially when compared to the varying reactions from the high-profile figures of both political parties in response to another, similar incident.
In June of 2022 a man was arrested for attempting to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He was arrested outside of Kavanaugh’s Maryland home with a gun, knife and pepper spray. After the attacker was arrested, Biden chose not to speak personally to the public about this issue, instead handling his condemnation through a prepared written statement. He took the same approach after a man attacked U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin at a campaign event, issuing only a statement.
In contrast, after the attack on Paul Pelosi, Biden went all-in on a primetime speech condemning not only the attack itself, but attempting to tie it to the statements and actions of Trump and others in the Republican Party:
"The assailant entered the home asking, 'Where's Nancy? Where's Nancy?' 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,"
— Excerpt from President Biden’s November 2, 2022 Speech
It is this contrast that I find particularly interesting.
One could argue that there is a difference in the damage done in these cases. With respect to the man who planned to murder Justice Kavanaugh, he was arrested after his sister convinced him to turn himself in. Lee Zeldin’s attacker used a cat keychain in his assault against the Congressman. However, Paul Pelosi’s assailant fractured his skull with a hammer resulting in serious injury that required surgery.
While I understand the difference in the scope and scale in these cases, I don’t think it justifies Biden’s lack of a personal and thorough response. So how then, do we explain why Biden felt he had to respond personally in a speech to the entire nation with respect to the assault on Paul Pelosi, while only issuing a statement for attacks on conservatives?
The answer is purely political. Democrats have spent nearly every day since January 6th trying to convince us that if Republicans win the mid-term elections that it will be the end of Democracy, and if they lose we will be in a state of civil war. They simply cannot afford, because of their own rhetoric, to acknowledge in any real way, the impact their own words and actions have on the violence carried out against their political opponents. This is because if they do, they risk losing the support of parts of their base who, like the members of Jane’s Revenge, have called for violence against pro-life pregnancy centers:
From here forward, any anti-choice group who closes their doors, and stops operating will no longer be a target. But until you do, it’s open season, and we know where your operations are. The infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive. We will never stop, back down, slow down, or retreat.
— From the Jane’s Revenge Website
Jane’s Revenge has also taken responsibility for numerous attacks on pregnancy centers, including some that included firebombs. And let’s not forget how the group Ruth Sent Us suggested targeting the children of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett with protests after the leak of the Dobbs opinion.
Where does this anger come from? What motivates these groups to take such action? It is the hyperbolic rhetoric of liberals who liken allowing states to pass their own laws on abortion to “sexual servitude.” There were calls for the expansion of the Supreme Court, a position held by several prominent Democrats, many of whom trumpeted that the Supreme Court, by hearing oral arguments and issuing an opinion they did not like, was illegitimate.
Trumpism, at its core, was about breaking down age-old institutions that his followers believed were all powerful forces working against the common man. That rhetoric is eerily similar to the liberal criticisms leveled today against the Senate and Supreme Court, two entities that they do not control at the moment. It’s the liberal version of “Drain The Swamp” and it’s not surprising that groups of people reacted with such violence against Kavanaugh and pro life pregnancy centers.
So why have there been no round table discussions, CNN town hall meetings, Presidential addresses, or deep media dives on the members of Jane’s revenge, or the men that carried out attacks against conservatives?
Because the left understands, just like the right, that hate is a powerful motivator in elections, especially where abortion is concerned. The left wants people to hate Kavanaugh and other pro-Trump politicians because it’s easier to stoke hate than it is to make a legitimate argument. And so attacks against these hated targets are condemned, but at arms length, and with a clear message that the victims are no one liberals should sympathize with. The media keeps what little digging it dies into the background of these attackers very quiet, if they choose to report on them at all. The dichotomy is evident.
And yet, I don’t think Joe Biden supports firebombing, Jane’s Revenge, or the attacks on Zeldin and Kavanaugh. But I do think that his failure to go to the same lengths to speak and condemn them as his is with the attack on Pelosi is absolutely a calculated political decision that demonstrates that Democrats can and have downplayed violence when it suits them to do so.
Again, they will never admit this because it puts them on par with Trump and everything they desperately need their supporters to fear in order to win elections. And the fact that they won’t admit it is a reason why rational people who understand this phenomenon, simply cannot take them seriously when they ask for the benefit of the doubt on so many other issues.