In San Francisco federal court on Tuesday, David DePape tearfully told a jury how he’d become radicalized by far-right conspiracy theories he’d devoured on YouTube podcasts.
He’d listen all day, he said, ultimately coming to believe in the kind of baseless political quackery that’s come to define a wing of MAGA — theories about LGBTQ “groomers,” so-called “white replacement,” and imaginary pedophile rings in the Democratic Party and Hollywood.
Eventually, he came up with a hit list — Tom Hanks, former Vice President Mike Pence, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hunter Biden, California Gov. Gavin Newsom. And Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Thankfully, the former speaker wasn’t home last October, when DePape broke in carrying zip ties and a hammer. But her husband Paul was. On Monday, Paul Pelosi testified that he “woke up in a pool of his own blood” after DePape assaulted him. DePape testified that he actually believed he’d killed Paul, until he read the state charges against him from jail: “Attempted murder.”
As the grisly and troubling testimony of DePape played out on one coast, on the other it was a different kind of freak show.
In a Senate hearing, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., challenged Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to a fight — an actual physical fight, where they both stood up from their chairs — until Sanders intervened.
In the House, Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., accused Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., of elbowing him in the kidney in retribution for voting to oust McCarthy last month. McCarthy denied the allegation, saying, “If I would hit somebody, they would know I hit them.”
In another House hearing, James Comer, R-Ky. angrily told Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., that any accusations that he’d lent his brother money were “bulls–t,” telling Moskowitz, “You look like a Smurf.”
And on Twitter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., went after Darrell Issa, R-Calif., for voting to kill her motion to impeach a cabinet secretary, calling him a “p----.”
The name-calling and playground taunts were bad enough coming from elected officials. Unseemly, unbecoming, and unprofessional, to be sure. We’ve sadly grown used to that. But the violence and violent rhetoric of Republicans in Congress is a new nadir for a body that’s been sinking deeper and deeper into the fetid muck of Washington politics.
The antics in Congress were so bad, in fact, even Fox News host Laura Ingraham called it “a complete and utter embarrassment.” This, at a network that’s had its share of recent embarrassments, and has been accused of inciting and encouraging violence over and over again.
A new kind of ugliness
It’s worse than embarrassing, however. It’s sickening. And it’s the direct result of a morally bankrupt president, and the complicit and power-hungry political party and blood-thirsty media machine that fed his overweening ego.
Politicians and presidents before Donald Trump were certainly no angels. But Trump ushered in a new kind of ugliness. From admitting to grabbing women by the genitals — also known in legal terms as “assault” — to threatening reporters, encouraging his supporters to assault opponents, calling his detractors vicious names, parading his hateful and open bigotry around in the guise of patriotism, and of course inciting a violent insurrection on Jan. 6, Trump turned the presidency into a never-ending WWE cage match of “I got next.”
With the decorum gone, the vengeful policies followed. So too did a politics of punishment, where rooting out heretics became far more important than winning converts, and where Republicans decided to be identified more by whom they hated instead of what they stood for. Punishing became more useful than governing. Threats became the normal means of doing business. Things like civility, decency, empathy and compassion became synonymous with wokeism.
So is it any wonder that the natural evolution of this culture of vengeance would see a deeply disturbed conspiracy theorist, gassed up by far-right media personalities, go and attempt to attack the people he was told to hate? (Incidentally, DePape’s far from the only one. Mass shooters in Buffalo, El Paso, and even as far as New Zealand have all been tied to Trump, and far-right rhetoric and conspiracies.)
Is it really that surprising that elected officials would end up threatening each other, challenging political enemies to fist fights, or even body checking them in the halls of Congress? Not after Trump made the hallmark of his presidency pitting Americans against Americans, and even Republicans against Republicans. Not after Trump made every political battle personal.
Where was this going to go if not here?
There’s a reason all of these Republicans felt completely comfortable behaving this way in public, with cameras rolling, in the People’s House of all places, with no shame or fear of being disciplined — because Trump led them here.
So where will we be in a Trump second term? It can only get worse.
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.
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