- Trump's spreading false far-right theories about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband.
- Trump parroted claims that Paul Pelosi knew his attacker and that the glass was broken from the inside.
Former President Donald Trump promoted false, far-right theories about the violent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband on Tuesday and suggested that there were "weird things" happening in her household.
During an interview on The Chris Stigall Podcast, Trump was asked for his thoughts on the assault of Paul Pelosi, 82, at his home with a hammer on Friday. Pelosi was hospitalized with a skull fracture but is expected to make a full recovery.
"Well, it's weird things going on in that household in the last couple of weeks," Trump said. "You know, probably you and I are better not talking about it."
But then he kept talking about it. He repeated the debunked conspiracy theory that the glass at the Pelosi home was broken from the inside. "So it wasn't a break in, it was a break out," he added. "I dunno, you hear the same things I do."
The man charged in the assault, David DePape, 42, told authorities that he broke in with a hammer through a glass door, according to the affidavit, disproving that theory.
Trump also agreed when Stigall said the 911 tape seemed to suggest the Pelosis knew the identity of the suspect — which is also untrue, according to Paul Pelosi and authorities.
"Yeah, yeah," Trump said. "It's a lot of bad stuff. I'm not a fan of Nancy Pelosi but what's going on there is very sad."
Police radio communications had suggested Paul Pelosi didn't know the DePape — but also that the man was a "friend," according to the Los Angeles Times. The affidavit, however, explains that Paul Pelosi had said in the call the man who identified himself as David was waiting for Nancy Pelosi, and he didn't know him.
A spokesperson for Pelosi could not be immediately reached for comment.
Stigall, prompting Trump again, said "there just seems to be more to this story." Trump agreed, saying "more than the traffic accident," a reference to Paul Pelosi's car crash in May that resulted in his guilty plea for DUI.
The attack on Pelosi has fueled wild and baseless theories in conservative forums, including claims of a homosexual tryst that the owner of Twitter Elon Musk amplified. Musk, in a now-deleted tweet, said there might be "more to the story" and shared a link to a baseless report in the conspiracy-peddling Santa Monica Observer with the headline, "The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning."
Right-wing influencers have also raised suspicions about the attacker's background as a hemp jewelry maker and his ties to a nudist group as a way to distance themselves from the far-right theories he espoused more recently about COVID-19 and the 2020 election being stolen.
Stigall said that to pin the blame on Republicans or Trump was "absurd." Trump responded that the "whole thing is crazy. I mean, if there's even a little bit of truth to what's being said, it's crazy."
He added that it was strange that police were there when the attack took place. According to the affidavit, Pelosi and DePape were both holding the hammer when police arrived. When officers asked them to drop the hammer, DePape pulled it from Pelosi's hand and hit him on the head.
"You're going to have to explain it to everybody, including me," Trump said as Stigall laughed. "Figuring out Russia and figuring out China is much easier."