san francisco “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?” Around 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, a man broke into the home of Paul and Nancy Pelos in San Francisco. He was looking for the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. But only the husband was at home. According to the CNN news agency, the intruder said he would wait until she came home. A scuffle ensued, in which Paul Pelosi was seriously injured by hammer blows. Before that, he had been able to secretly make an emergency call to the police. When officers first arrived, the men were still fighting and the 42-year-old attacker was overpowered.
The news spread like wildfire in San Francisco and political Washington DC. The attack comes just days before the upcoming “midterm” elections, in which important positions in the states, Senate and House of Representatives will be filled. The outcome of the election also decides the political fate of President Joe Biden.
If the Republicans win both houses of Congress, he is a lame duck who can no longer enforce a law against the Republicans. The fear: Will the already heated election campaign finally tip from verbal to physical aggression?
“The incredible attack is just another example of the consequences of divisive and hateful rhetoric that puts lives at risk and our democracy at risk,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Those who use their platforms to provoke violence must be held accountable.”
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Republican Governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin said at a campaign rally there had been a slump in the Pelosis, according to CNN. There is “no place for violence, anywhere,” he added. Only to then promise, “But we’re going to send her (Nancy) back to California so she can be with her husband. That’s what we’re going to do.”
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Although the details of the burglary attack have yet to be clarified, the similarity to what happened on January 6, 2021 in the Capitol in Washington is alarming: “Where’s Nancy?” a mob, who later stormed Pelosi’s office, chanted again and again. A 59-year-old from Pennsylvania wearing a Trump cap posted a selfie video from the Capitol: “We’re in! We did our part! We went looking for Nancy to shoot her in the head. But we didn’t find her.” The woman was later sentenced to prison.
In August 2022, another participant in the storming of the Capitol in Washington was sentenced to seven years in prison. He had brought a gun and made threats against Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi – the ardent advocate of democracy
Born in 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland, Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi has become a focal point for right-wing hatred and violence like no other figure in political Washington.
The Democratic politician has been Speaker of the House of Representatives since 2019, a position she held from 2007 to 2011. She is the third most senior political figure in the country. In doing so, she would also take over the government of the USA if the President and Vice-President were not able to manage government affairs at the same time.
In her long political career she was responsible or jointly responsible for numerous laws. She was an active and powerful supporter of the major health care reforms under President Barack Obama (“Obamacare”), which the Republican Party vehemently opposes to this day.
With increasing age, the 82-year-old has not become any milder. Again and again she proves to be an ardent supporter of democracy and the US constitution. In 2019, the Democratic faction of the House of Representatives, under her leadership, launched investigations into foreign interference in the presidential election that saw Donald Trump rise to power.
She then questioned Trump’s order not to pay out promised aid to Ukraine. The investigations led to the first impeachment trial against Donald Trump. Pelosi later became the driving force behind the investigative committee into the incident surrounding the Washington DC Capitol, which was stormed by fanatical Trump supporters.
She also takes on her own party. On a trip to Asia this year, she pushed in a controversial stopover in Taiwan, which not only greatly annoyed the Chinese government in Beijing, but also met with clear criticism from the Democratic Party. They only heat up the mood unnecessarily.
In May she visited Ukraine. In mid-October, she vehemently opposed calls by Republican faction leader Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives to cut US aid to Ukraine. McCarthy promises that you will do that as soon as you have achieved a majority in the midterm elections.
Criticism against Pelosi for alleged insider trading.
Pelosi has been married to successful investment banker Paul Pelosi since 1963. They are considered one of the wealthiest and most influential politician couples in the US Congress. The Pelosis have their own fan groups on online sites like Reddit, where their investing successes are celebrated. But there have also been unproven allegations that Nancy Pelosi and her husband engaged in vigorous insider trading based on information she obtained in office. Allegations that she clearly rejects, but which are well received in right-wing online forums.
Nevertheless, she is making more and more enemies here, even in her own party. In mid-September she announced that members of the House and Senate had practically finalized a law to regulate securities trading more closely and that it would be put to the vote in September. But then came the retreat. Now the law can only pass after the midterm elections, which are important for the Democrats.
Even on the evening of the storming of the Capitol, she fanned the unbridled hatred of her opponents. Along with other politicians, she had insisted that Congress must reconvene in the ruins and complete the certification of the presidential election, despite any police safety concerns. The next morning, Joe Biden was officially elected President of the United States. On the first anniversary of the storming, Pelosi then declared: “Let’s not fool ourselves: our democracy was on the brink. But democracy won.”
At least she got a partial victory back then. The upcoming midterms in a few days must first prove whether the masterminds behind the attempted coup d’etat have actually been defeated or will come out stronger than ever.
More: Comment: The congressional elections could already be about the future of American democracy