President Joe Biden blamed political rhetoric including denial of the 2020 election result for the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, saying “this talk produces the violence.”
“You can’t just apologize and say: the violence,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware. “It affects people’s mentality, it affects how people think — particularly people who are not maybe as stable as other people. So the talk has to stop. That’s the problem.”
Biden’s comments amplified remarks Friday night at Democratic Party dinner in Philadelphia, where he called the attack on Paul Pelosi “despicable” and condemned “political violence.” An intruder hit Pelosi, 82, with a hammer inside the couple’s home in San Francisco early Friday.
Nancy Pelosi was the intended target of the intruder, who shouted “Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?” before attacking her husband, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
With midterm elections less than two weeks away, the attack put lawmakers on edge and focused attention on the potential for violence in a politically polarized nation.
“But you can’t condemn the violence unless you condemn those people who continue to argue the election was not real, that it’s been stolen — all the malarkey that’s being put out there to undermine democracy,” Biden said Saturday.
Doctors expect Paul Pelosi to make a full recovery after a successful operation to repair a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands, Drew Hammill, the speaker’s spokesman, said Friday.
“He seems to be doing a lot better, looks like he’s going to recover fully,” Biden said.
