Nearly two months after Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), was violently assaulted at their San Francisco home, shady details are still coming out. According to United States Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger, Pelosi's home had not been assessed by the Capitol Police since 2018, as he revealed in a Tuesday interview exclusively with CNN.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) had sent a letter in late November to Capitol Police for answers about the attack which was obtained exclusively by CNN.
Even with having the exclusive, there is very little CNN is able to reveal, based on Manger's less than thorough responses:
In a November letter exclusively obtained by CNN, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the chair of the House Administration Committee, asked the USCP for detailed answers about the lack of security at the Pelosis’ home, including why the residence had not received an assessment in the previous four years.
It’s unclear what recommendations Capitol Police made in 2018 and which ones were approved by Congress to be implemented. But the USCP has assessed the Pelosis’ home since the attack and will perform the security assessments more frequently, Manger told CNN.
“Anytime there’s a change in leadership position, we will do an updated assessment,” Manger said, noting that members can also request the security assessments.
Pelosi communications director Henry Connelly told CNN her office would not discuss security matters in response to questions about whether she had previously requested those assessments.
Making the attack on Paul Pelosi even more bizarre is how much the Capitol Police were focused on the speaker's safety, or so they claim, based on the amount of threats she had received.
"We had more folks focused on her safety than any other member of Congress because of the number of threats that she had," Manger is quoted as saying.
Another takeaway from the interview is that the threats are just going to have to be something to be dealt with it appears:
Despite their renewed efforts, however, Manger noted that threat levels aren’t something the Capitol Police can control.
“It’s just the sheer volume of what we’re dealing with now versus what we dealt with years ago,” Manger said. “I’m not so sure that the Capitol Police can do a lot to tamp that down. So our responsibility is we’ve just got to deal with the growing number.”
A suspect, 42-year-old David DePape is facing charges of assault and attempted kidnapping as well as attempted murder. DePape is here illegally from Canada and suffers from mental illness. When it comes the narratives surrounding DePape and the attack, his biological son, as Matt covered last week, torched the narrative that DePape is someone aligned with the far-right.
Rather, he may have been a member of the Green Party with his son, Nebosvod ‘Sky’ Gonzalez, DePape "had progressive views, he believed in human rights, equality, and justice. He was against the war, he was a peace activist, hardly a right-wing conservative as he has been branded."
Pelosi's San Francisco home isn't the only place that was not properly secured. A report was released later on Wednesday, as Spencer covered, by Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), and Troy Nehls (R-TX) on the "Security Failures at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."
Those Republican members, including and especially Rep. Banks, have long been speaking out against the failures from that day. Both Reps. Banks and Jordan had been denied spots on the January 6 select committee after Speaker Pelosi voted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) selecting them, among others, to serve. Afterwards, McCarthy pulled his remaining picks. No members selected by the minority party served on the select committee, furthering claims that the members were engaged in partisan and political activity.
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