Prominent figures on social media, including some of the loudest voices on the political right, are pushing a bad and false conspiracy theory about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in an apparent attempt to shift the narrative about the attack .
The claim that big names like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Jr. and Dinesh D’Souza have promoted to their millions of followers: Paul Pelosi and the man who attacked him were gay lovers who had a fight.
The bogus theory traces back to an erroneous early news report and a handful of evidence that its proponents have blown out of context. It runs counter to the explanation outlined by police and federal law enforcement — that the suspect in the attack, David DePape, broke into Pelosi’s home and attacked him.
“There is absolutely no evidence that Mr. Pelosi knew this man,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said in an interview with CNN. “In fact, the evidence shows just the opposite.”
But the explosion of social media posts discussing the theory shows how quickly conspiracies can spread and how eager some politicians are to use lies to advance their agenda — even as violent threats against lawmakers have multiplied in recent years. .
A conspiracy linked to Nancy Pelosi, who has long been a lightning rod for conservatives and starred in GOP attack ads, has been a particularly attractive target for right-wing conspiracy theorists, according to Cynthia Miller-Idriss, an American University professor who study. polarization and extremism.
“We have a population that can’t tell what’s true and what’s not, and this spread of misinformation from credible sources undermines that,” Miller-Idriss said. “People are willing to accept conspiracy theories when they reinforce the narrative they already have in their heads.”
According to police and an FBI affidavit included in the federal criminal complaint, DePape broke through a glass door at Pelosi’s San Francisco home early Friday morning and then went into the bedroom to confront Pelosi, saying he wanted to talk to his wife. Pelosi was able to call 911, and officers who arrived on the scene saw Depp hitting him with a hammer.
Those promoting the “gay lover” theory have pointed to a handful of alleged evidence based on lies and twisted history. They say DePape was in his underwear when police arrived at the scene — but the local TV station that originally reported it corrected its story and removed the allegation. Others suggested a third person answered the door to Pelosi’s home, but police have debunked that.
Many of the theorists have latched onto a recording of a 911 dispatcher saying Pelosi referred to DePape as a “friend” and “sounded kind of confused.”
But Pelosi appeared to be speaking in coded language in the 911 call to make it clear he needed help, a law enforcement source told CNN. And the complaint notes that Pelosi told officers she had never seen Depp before.
The complaint also included a police interview with DePape in which he admitted to breaking into the home and said he surprised Pelosi. According to the complaint, DePape said he wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage because he saw her as the “‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic Party” and claimed she was “fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender.” ”
Scott, the San Francisco chief, called the conspiracies surrounding the attack “passive” and “disturbing.”
“We’ve spent a lot of energy just pushing back, really ridiculous conspiracy theories, making sure people stay focused on our team,” he said. “These things are harmful to society, they’re harmful to the victims – it’s really sad that we’re here in this place, but we are.”
Despite the lack of evidence, it took less than 24 hours after the attack for the “gay lover” theory to take root in right-wing social media circles.
There have been at least 19,000 tweets mentioning the words “Pelosi” and “gay” since the day of the attack, garnering a total of more than 700,000 likes, according to a CNN analysis — and that’s not including tweets mentioning the theory without those words or tweets which have since been deleted.
One of the first widely shared tweets supporting the theory appears to have come at 11:36 am. on Friday, the day of the attack, garnering more than 2,700 retweets.
That night, Raheem Kassam, a former Breitbart writer and co-host of Steve Bannon’s podcast, tweeted, “Still pretending he wasn’t Paul Pelosi’s gay lover,” garnering over 1,000 retweets.
Other conservative figures such as Donald Trump, Jr., Sebastian Gorka, and Dinesh D’Souza followed suit in the following days, either outright endorsing the theory or mentioning it approvingly. Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana GOP lawmaker who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, tweeted a photo of Nancy Pelosi and referred to DePape as a “man whore,” before deleting his tweet.
Musk helped elevate the conspiracy to a much wider audience. On Sunday morning, the billionaire, who just completed his purchase of the social network, responded to a tweet about Hillary Clinton’s attack on Pelosi, writing “there’s a small chance there’s more to this story than meets the eye in the eye”. He linked to an article in the Santa Monica Observer, an obscure website, that claimed DePape was a male prostitute and Pelosi had a drunken altercation with him. The site has previously published fake news stories, including a claim during the 2016 election that Clinton had died and been replaced by a body double for a debate.
Musk deleted the tweet around 2pm later that day – but by then, it had already racked up more than 28,000 retweets and 100,000 likes.
Conservative figures were happy to praise Musk for sharing the post. “[email protected] just posted a link that says Paul Pelosi may have been drunk and with a gay hooker,” tweeted former GOP congressional candidate Lavern Spicer. “I have never respected him more than I do now.” Her message was retweeted more than 11,000 times.
Gene De Pape, the alleged attacker’s stepfather, said it was disappointing to see his stepson turned into a character in a conspiracy theory and used as a political talking point. He told CNN he scrolled through his Facebook news feed for hours over the weekend, where he first saw the posts alleging his estranged stepson was lovers with Pelosi.
“It’s pretty sick,” he said.
David DePape’s own social media posts and blogs show that he was immersed in conspiracy theories in the months and years before the attack – from QAnon musings to anti-Semitic rants to claims of a looming global takeover elite
DePape’s Facebook posts from last year support a litany of far-right falsehoods. It posted multiple videos of My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen, linked to websites claiming Covid vaccines were deadly, and shared videos disputing the January 6, 2021 attack. CNN reviewed the posts before the social media company took the page down, and several of DePape’s relatives confirmed that the page belonged to him.
In other blogs apparently written by DePape, he also posted anti-Semitic rants and endorsed the QAnon conspiracy theory.
The embrace of the “gay lover” theory by some conservatives has muddied the waters of a story that had drawn bipartisan condemnation and sympathy for Pelosi — and distracted from the debate over how other right-wing conspiracies might have inspired the violence.
Miller-Idriss, the American University professor, said prominent figures carelessly spreading misinformation can lead to wider societal repercussions.
“It’s dangerous because it undermines people’s sense of truth, it helps them move further away from reality,” he said. “It’s a situation where they’re spreading it further – and they’re spreading it.”