Paul Pelosi Attack: Elon Musk Responds To Hillary Clinton Referencing Unfounded Theory
Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk appeared to have deleted a tweet posted on Sunday referencing an unfounded theory regarding the attack on the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at their San Francisco home.
The since-deleted tweet was in response to one by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who blamed the attack on hateful rhetoric by the Republican Party.
Clinton linked the attack to an L.A. Times story about how the suspect promoted far-right conspiracy theories online, Reuters news agencies reported.
Musk replied to Clinton, linking to a site called the Santa Monica Observer:
There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.
Fact-checkers have described Santa Monica Observer as a purveyor of hoaxes, including that Clinton herself died on September 11 and has since been replaced by a lookalike, according to The Associated Press.
With fears growing of increasing political violence ahead of the November 8 midterm elections, Musk’s tweet prompted fresh concerns about how he will handle hate speech and misinformation on the social media platform, which the outspoken Tesla CEO purchased last week for $44 billion.
The suspect in the Pelosi attack, David DePape, is due to be charged on Monday with multiple felonies for allegedly clubbing Paul Pelosi over the head with a hammer on Friday after forcing his way into the couple’s home shouting “Where is Nancy?”
Meanwhile, Paul Pelosi has undergone surgery for a skull fracture and other severe injuries to his right arm and hands after being attacked on Friday morning by a male assailant, believed to be David DePape.
