"There may be more than meets the eye": Elon Musk shares a conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi on Twitter

byFaisal •
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- The new owner of the social network included a link to a medium known in the United States for spreading false news.

"There may be more than meets the eye": Elon Musk shares a conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi on Twitter
Elon Musk, in Berlin, in December 2020.

"There may be more than meets the eye": Elon Musk shares a conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi on Twitter

Elon Musk shared this Sunday through his Twitter account a conspiracy theory about the attack with a hammer on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the president of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

He did so in response to a tweet by former Democratic senator Hillary Clinton on Saturday about how David DePape, the suspect in the Pelosi attack, had spread far-right conspiracy theories.

Paul Pelosi was attacked with a hammer at his California home on Friday. The attacker, identified by the authorities as David DePape, allegedly asked for Nancy during the assault on the house, so the target was the Speaker of the House, as stated by the President of the United States, Joe Biden.

Far-right theories

It all started with a tweet that Hillary Clinton published on Saturday. It featured a Los Angeles Times story alleging that David DePape, the man arrested for the Pelosi assault, was spreading far-right conspiracy theories.

In the tweet, she further added: "The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and insane conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their actions." words and the actions that follow them.


Given this, Elon Musk did not hesitate to respond to the former Democratic senator with a link to a news item from the Santa Monica Observer, which questioned the circumstances of the attack. According to the right-wing outlet, Pelosi was drunk and DePape is a male prostitute. Both went from a gay bar to the house of the husband of the president of the House and once there the fight took place.

Along with the news, the owner of Twitter wrote after eight o'clock in the morning on Sunday that "there is a small possibility that there is more to this story than it seems", reaffirming the facts that are narrated in the link that he spread.

The messages of indignation were numerous. Democratic Congressman from Illinois Adam Kinzinger replied to Musk: "Really? The new owner of Twitter is spreading the conspiracy theory ... even saying that there is a small possibility." 


Faced with the barrage of criticism of Musk's response, the president of Tesla deleted the tweet in the early afternoon of the same Sunday, although it had already reached wide circulation with more than 24,000 retweets and 86,000 "likes".

Attack with a hammer

According to the police account, collected by the Independent, David DePape, a 42-year-old jewelry maker, entered the home in California and began yelling "Where's Nancy?" The husband of the Speaker of the House was home alone, as his wife was on a trip to Washington DC.

Realizing that the president was not in the house, DePape proceeded to tie up Pelosi in order to wait for Nancy until she returned.

Paul himself managed to call 911 from his phone and spoke in "code" with an operator. While speaking with DePape, he did not hang up so that the person who had answered him could hear what was happening at the time and alert the agents. 

When police arrived at the scene, they found DePape and Pelosi wrestling with a hammer. The attacker managed to get hold of him and attacked the 82-year-old man.

Pelosi was taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery on Friday for a skull fracture. He also suffered "serious injuries" to his right arm and hands, but is expected to make a full recovery.

Police sources stated that it was intentional and that the assailant had a list of other legislators he planned to attack. In addition, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has announced that she will file "multiple felony charges" on Monday and that she expects DePape to be arraigned on Tuesday. "DePape will be held accountable for his heinous crimes," he wrote on Twitter.


The police have also assured that he is being investigated for alleged crimes of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, assault, robbery, threatening a public official and other crimes.

Obsession with conspiracy theories

A search of DePape's internet history revealed a strong obsession with far-right conspiracy theories, including claims about the Covid-19 vaccine and QAnon.

In the weeks leading up to the violent assault on Pelosi, the pace of DePape's blog posts increased. Posting several times a day, topics included Holocaust denial, reverence for far-right figure Jordan Peterson, and his support for Donald Trump running in 2024 with Tulsi Gabbard as his teammate.

Removal of content moderation

This exchange of tweets between Clinton and Musk occurred just days after the latter took control of Twitter with a promise to remove content moderation.

So far, the social network has not changed its content moderation policy. Despite the fact that Elon Musk has declared that he is a "free speech absolutist", he has tried to calm advertisers on the platform by telling them that Twitter is not going to become "a hell" where you can write anything without consequences. 

Read this also: Musk Fires Twitter's Top Executives And Escorts Them To The Door After Taking Control Of The Company

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