So on last night’s show, Jesse Watters had a segment on the attack on Paul Pelosi, and it went about the way you might have figured. In fact, some of you might’ve seen a brief clip or two on Twitter or here in comments, but I thought it would be good to show you the whole nearly seven minute segment, along with my running commentary. So strap yourselves down, because this will be a bumpy ride…
For a contrast to Jesse’s segment, here’s one from CNN about the incident:
And, now… here’s the shit show:
JESSE WATTERS: Fox News Alert: Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was beaten in the head with a hammer inside their San Francisco home at 2:30 in the morning.
VIDEO CLIP
ALLIE RASMUS: A man broke into his home, the home he shares with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wasn’t here at the time, but that man broke into the home and attacked him with a hammer. He suffered blunt force trauma to his head and his body, experienced some bruising and other injuries, but again, is expected to fully recover. In the meantime, we have a number of law enforcement agencies at the local and federal level investigating, continuing to gather evidence.
VIDEO CLIP ENDS
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL ASSWIPE): Here’s what we know: Paul Pelosi just came out of brain surgery and is expecting a full recovery, according to his doctors. He sustained a fractured skull and serious injuries to his right arm and hands. Police arrested the alleged attacker, a forty-two-year-old white male named David DePape. He’s an illegal alien from Canada. He has a long criminal history, including elder abuse and a slew of other felonies, but wasn’t deported.
Me: Tiff and I both spent some time factchecking this claim and couldn’t find anything outside RW sources that indicated DePape was here illegally or that he has a long criminal history. Not saying Watters is lying here; maybe he got confused about the current charges and thought they were old ones. Or maybe he’s intentionally misleading his audience in order to create a preferred narrative. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time he’s done the latter.
It’s also possible the MSM hasn’t mentioned any past convictions for serious crimes because it doesn’t fit their neat little narrative. However, that argument isn’t all that compelling, given the MSM has mentioned DePape’s past which doesn’t fit the MAGA mold, so why hold out on him (potentially) being an illegal alien or a serious felon? Neither of those facts would diminish or excuse what he’s done.
Just take what Jesse’s saying with a grain of salt, as there’s no support outside the RW echo chamber for these claims.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL ASSWIPE): San Francisco’s a sanctuary city. The San Francisco Chronicle says he’s a nudist activist who makes hemp jewelry.
Me: I guess all that’s mutually exclusive with being a RW nutjob…
Also, so weird that the SF Chronicle mentions facts that don’t fit into a neat little narrative that you would expect a RWer to fit into.
The reality here is that DePape had a long history of being troubled. People who knew him said he had a hard time talking to others. He didn’t feel like he fit in well. IOW, he’s the kind of person who might fall into an internet conspiracy-laden rabbit hole. But one thing people who’d known him long-term said was that his attitude had changed in the more recent past, to the point that they were distancing themselves from him.
Linda Schneider said she got to know DePape roughly eight years ago and that he occasionally housesat for her. When they met, she said, DePape was living in a storage unit in the Berkeley area and told her he had been struggling with hard drugs but was “trying to create a new life for himself.”
Schneider later received “really disturbing” emails from DePape in which he sounded like a “megalomaniac and so out of touch with reality,” she said. She said she stopped communicating with him “because it seemed so dangerous,” adding that she recalled him “using Biblical justification to do harm.”
Who’s David DePape? What We Know About Suspect in Attack on Nancy Pelosi’s Husband at SF Home, Oct 28, 2022
And as with a lot of crazy people, it’s a little hard to neatly pigeon-hole him into one category or another. Because you don’t often think “nudist activist” along with “RW conspiracy theorist.”
Finally, people can change over time, and that seems to be the case here. What prompted that shift, we don’t know.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL ASSWIPE): And he’s been posting crazy screeds on the internet for years. I read through a few of ’em; he looks mentally ill.
Me: Interesting that Jesse kinda leaves out the part that DePape’s “crazy screeds” are decidedly Q-ish in nature, including Pizzagate (with all the nuttiness that conspiracy entails), 2020 election denial, and anti-trans and anti-Semitic memes.
It can’t be that Jesse’s hiding the parts of the story that don’t fit his narrative, can it? Also, DePape’s blog GodIsLoving has only been around since August of this year. Now, he has had a Facebook (both the blog and his FB page were taken down sometime yesterday; so you can’t visit them) for much longer.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): CNN reports he was homeless, sleeping in a storage shed and addicted to narcotics.
Me: Well, I’m sure crazy RWers would never do that, right?
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): A few former acquaintances told CNN he was out of touch with reality. So, in summary, he was a mentally ill, homeless, nudist, illegal alien, ex-con druggie who should’a been deported.
Me: Again, the illegal alien ex-con part is unsubstantiated at this time, as well as the “should have been deported.”
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): The police say at 2:27 AM today, officers were dispatched to Pelosi’s home, responding to a well-being check that was called in. Politico reports that Paul Pelosi was able to dial 911 himself after telling the intruder he had to go use the bathroom, and then calling from there, where his phone was charging. Sources told ABC News that Depape busted in through a sliding glass door and shouted, “Where’s Nancy?” when he entered the home. And according to CNN, he tried to tie up Paul Pelosi and said he was gonna wait for Nancy to come home. Police have not confirmed that and say they have not yet determined a motive. This is what they say they saw when they arrived:
VIDEO CLIP PLAYS OF SF POLICE PRESS CONFERENCE
SF POLICE CHIEF WILLIAM SCOTT: They encountered an adult male and Mr. (sic) Pelosi’s husband, Paul. Our officers observed Mr. Pelosi and the suspect both holding a hammer. The suspect pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it.
VIDEO CLIP ENDS
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): There was a little confusion with the hammer. What we believe is that Paul was struggling with DePape over control of the hammer. Just one hammer. And was hit with it as police arrived. The perp’s been charged with attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elderly abuse, burglary, and a few other charges.
What happens in these types of cases usually is that when the smoke clears, some of the initial reporting is wrong.
Me: No shit, Sherlock.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): Which is why we’re telling you what news organization’s reporting what, because that could change by tomorrow.
Me: But you can rest assured that whatever lies we’re telling you here at Fox are burned into our narrative and will never be corrected.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): The Pelosi family is not talking, aside from the statements that they’ve released. And San Francisco officials are not leaking to Fox News. Just about everybody else, it seems like.
Me: Waaaaaaah! Nobody likes us!
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): But like clockwork, the media’s reporting that this is January 6th on the West Coast.
VIDEO CLIP PLAYS FROM MSNBC
FEMALE REPORTER: Before the assault occurred, according to this source, the intruder confronted Mr. Pelosi in their home, shouting, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” (unintelligible) that’s what the intruders going through the hallways on January 6th were shouting, “Nancy! Nancy!” This is part of the January 6th insurrection toxicity that has infected the brains of people around the country.
VIDEO CLIP ENDS
Me: Given this, along with DePape’s own writings, it’s pretty clear he was sympathetic to the January 6th crowd. (Heck, he even had a suggestion in his writing that Trump should run in 2024 and name Tulsi Gabbard as his running mate.) So, yeah…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): So the nude, homeless, Canadian drug addict with a rap sheet a mile long–
Me: 🙄
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): –who makes hemp bracelets in Berkeley is a January 6er?
Me: I thought the RW talking point was that January 6th was perpetrated by Antifa, BLM, and the FBI. So you’d think the right would embrace the narrative that, yes, this guy could be a January 6er, because, after all, he’s clearly an insane leftie. But now is Jesse admitting that people on the right were responsible for J6?
I’m getting confused by the ever-changing narrative from the right about who was responsible for January 6th…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): I think we may be getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here.
Me: I can see why Jesse’s audience might be confused about who DePape is and what his motives might be, given Jesse left out the important stuff about the subject of his “crazy screeds online.” And this is all intentional. For most of us who gathered information from multiple sources, DePape’s motives are becoming clearer and clearer…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): We wish Paul Pelosi a speedy recovery. We feel terrible for him, and our heart goes out to Nancy and their family.
Me: I’m sensing a “but” here…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): And we want to see this hammer-man locked up for 20 years to life, at least. But the media–
Me: Told you. There’s always a “but”…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): –ignored the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots, remember?
Me: Of course he’s now going into some false moral equivalence and whataboutism. Rather than take responsibility for helping create the divisiveness and heated political rhetoric which is tearing our country apart, Jesse is now going to lecture us on (checks notes) something that has nothing to do with the subject at hand. Because it’s a dodge intended to change the subject.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): Called them justified and “mostly peaceful.” Never blamed Bernie when a Bernie bro shot up Steve Scalise. A leftwing assassin nearly took the life of Brett Kavanaugh–
Me: By leaving the gun in his vehicle and turning himself into police. Yeah, that was a really close call for Kavanaugh! What the hell does any of this have to do with the attack on Paul Pelosi? Oh, right. Nothing. We’re just playing whatabout games, counting coup to tally up the score of which side has collected the most scalps. And pretending that someone the right has influenced and encouraged into violence isn’t their responsibility.
Typical.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): –after the SCOTUS leak and Democrats still didn’t want to add protection to justices homes.
Me: For the record, it was 27 House Democrats who voted against the measure. (Out of 220 total Ds.) New Jersey Democrats voted against the measure because they wanted similar protection for other federal judges. So… the nays to the bill from the Democrat side of the aisle weren’t as widespread as Jesse suggests, and some were because NJ Ds wanted more protection.
Who’s shocked he lied to his audience again? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): Republican canvasser just had his jaw broken and the media blamed him.
Me: Um… there was a lot more to the story, including no indication that the attack was politically motivated. Including a statement from the suspect’s mom. But, whatevs…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): And when Rand Paul got his ribs cracked by his crazy neighbor, it was one of MSNBC’s favorite stories.
VIDEO CLIP PLAYS:
MSNBC REPORTER: New details today on the incident that left Senator Rand Paul with six broken ribs–this might be one of my favorite stories–
VIDEO CLIP ENDS
Me: Okay, that was inappropriate on her part. But what does that have to do with anything? She’s a terrible person. That doesn’t mean everyone at MSNBC shared her attitude.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): Even Pelosi’s daughter said Rand Paul deserved it. Hm.
Me: Here’s what Pelosi’s daughter tweeted:
I’ll leave it to y’all how to interpret that, given all the facts in the Rand Paul situation with his neighbor…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): The Democrats have been telling us for years that crime isn’t a big deal and if you talk about it, you’re racist.
Me: Oh, jeeze… I can’t even.
VIDEO CLIP PLAYS
(NOTE: Few of these people were identified, but I was able to glean from context and multiple image searches who nearly all of them are.)
NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS: We’re dealing with actual crimes, those eight homicides, and we’re dealing with the perception of fear that people are feeling.
CUT TO FORMER REP. DAVE JOLLY (R-FL): In Republican politics the issue of crime and the issue of immigration have long been proxies for race. They’re playing the race card.
CUT TO ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: I also want to make sure that this hysteria, you know, that this doesn’t drive a hysteria–
CUT TO UNIDENTIFIED MAN I DON’T RECOGNIZE: The perception in this case, counts more than the actual (unintelligible. Not sure if he said “rapes” or “rage”).
CUT TO PHILADELPHIA MAYOR JIM KENNEY: A part of the Republican playbook, as you well know, is to point a finger at large, diverse cities and say large, diverse cities are lawless. (Clip is obviously edited to another line in his speech.) What we see here is the same old playbook, which is about coded and racist messaging–
VIDEO ENDS
Me: I have no idea what any of that has to do with the topic at hand.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): The Democrats and the media have been ignoring the crime wave–
Me: Isn’t the crime wave worse in red states than in blue ones?
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): –and only cover it when Nancy Pelosi’s husband’s attacked.
They’re not covering the crime wave; they’re covering the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband. Jesse and RW media are trying to downplay the seriousness of this crime by lumping it in with all other crimes, as if they’re all the same. They’re not.
Unlike the RW media, which has the luxury of fixating on one story for weeks, months, or even years, the real media has to talk about other things every day, because, you know, “news” happens every day. As in “new” stories.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): Where’s the media and the Democrats been while thousands of Americans have been attacked?
Me: Where was the RW media when such attacks happened under Trump? Because they did happen back then.
Does Jesse expect the media to report on every single violent crime that happens across the country? If so, nothing else would ever get reported on. Again, let’s hold him to his own standard: does Fox News report on every single crime that’s committed? No?
This is all just meaningless bullshit. It’s not like Jesse cares about this; it’s all just meant to take focus off the attack on Paul Pelosi and the Q-inspired nutjob who attacked him.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): People are being hit with hammers every day! People are being pushed into subways, slashed, shot in cold blood. But the media focuses on this one, single crime–
Me: I’m old enough to remember back in June when the RW media screeched about the “assassination attempt” on Brett Kavanaugh that they talked and talked about for weeks, even though, again, the guy never even pointed his weapon at Kavanaugh’s house. And why did they make a big deal about this? Because Kavanaugh was important for who he is, his position.
Just like the attack on Paul Pelosi was important because of who he is related to, and the fact that the attacker expected Nancy Pelosi to be there. Had she been, she might be dead now.
So, yes, some crimes get more attention than others. That may not be fair to those who are victims of crimes which never make big news, but that’s reality; and all media is guilty of picking and choosing which stories to cover. Including RW media. They just cover fewer stories…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): –to pin it on Republicans? Come on.
Me: Um… Again, he failed to mention the part about DePape apparently being off in rightwing conspiracy theory land…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): The Democrats defunded the police in San Francisco. The Democrats’ sanctuary policies prevented the guy from being deported.
Me: Again, no evidence he was here illegally.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): The Democrats want to send social workers to welfare checks, instead of the cops. If they had sent a social worker here, both Paul and the social worker would probably be dead.
Me: Jesse left out the part where the 911 operator stayed on the line and overheard voices and decided to dispatch a unit on a “Priority A Wellness call.” For more information on that, check out starting at the 5 minute mark in the CNN video that I posted at the top of this article.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): People in San Francisco were smashing people in the head every day.
Me: Do you have statistics or facts to back up this claim, Jesse? Also, criminals are doing that all over the country. What does that have to do with anything?
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): And they get bailed out! And they don’t get hit with attempted murder charges. Maybe they get sentenced to two years of restorative justice.
Me: We’ve seen these kinds of sweeping generalizations from the right before. These people (like Antifa/BLM protesters or whoever) didn’t get enough of a sentence so we’ll just say they’re let off. Well, unless you can offer us even one specific example, Jesse, maybe you should drop the feigned outrage on this point? Maybe arguing this crime is getting special treatment, especially when you whined about the assassination attempt (that never actually came to fruition) against Kavanaugh isn’t the mic drop conversation ender you think it is.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): But they throw the book at this guy because Paul’s married to a powerful woman? It’s not right!
Me: Yet that’s exactly what you demanded when it was Kavanaugh. The double standard here…
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): Every victim should be treated equally.
Me: Yet do you care if it’s some poor nobody, a person of color, or a trans person who’s the victim? No, you don’t.
What Jesse’s doing is the classic Alinsky tactic of holding the other side to their own impossibly high standard, all so he can call them hypocrites. Yet when we turn the tables on him, Jesse’s complaints are just as hypocritical, because he’d demand a harsher charge and punishment for anyone who committed a crime against a member of his own tribe.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): And so should every perp.
Me: We know justice is unequally meted out in this country, and that isn’t fair. If you’re rich or powerful–whether you’re the victim or the perp–you get treated differently than some lowly person of modest means. So, yes, we need to do better. But it’s curious Jesse demands we “do better” in this case, when one can make the argument that the assailant intended to kill the Speaker of the House. He wasn’t arguing for equal justice when it was Kavanaugh’s “assassin” being arraigned.
JESSE WATTERS (PROFESSIONAL DISINGENUOUS ASSWIPE): The crime wave has finally come to Nancy Pelosi’s house. And, hopefully, our political leaders can wake up and say enough is enough.
Me: And yet, when the suspect is charged with serious crimes in this case, they’re complaining how unfair that he’s been singled out for unfair treatment.
You can’t win with these people, because they’re constantly shifting the goal posts. This wasn’t a random crime; this was a targetted attack. That’s not my opinion; that’s what law enforcement said, as well. So this wasn’t an instance of random crime hitting Nancy Pelosi’s family; it was an attack directed at her.
But, again, this has nothing to do with the attack on Paul Pelosi, except to try to dismiss it as not as serious as what’s been done to people on the right. I mean, he left out the Buffalo shooter who killed people after being wound up by RW media. But that doesn’t fit his narrative that the violence all comes from the left; but when people on the right commit violence, they aren’t really on the right–they’re just crazy.
Okay, that’s it for today, my Blender peeps. Stay snarky, and I’ll see you tomorrow for the noir flick.