Things turned bizarre early Friday in San Francisco when an assailant allegedly broke into the home of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and hit him with a hammer while screaming, “Where’s Nancy?”
Originally published at WND News Center. Used with permission.
Authorities report Paul Pelosi was being treated in a hospital and was expected to recover, and the suspect was identified as David DePape, 42, of Berkeley.
The circumstances, as reported, revealed a list of oddities, including that, according to the Washington Examiner, San Francisco police chief William Scott suggested there was “some type of confrontation between the two men involving a hammer. But it was unclear who the hammer belonged to…”
A commentary by Tom Rogan, the national security writer at the Washington Examiner, pointed out that the situation raises some significant questions about the government’s security operations.
“The speaker of the House of Representatives is the highest-ranking member of Congress and second in the presidential line of succession. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is thus provided a full-time Capitol Police protective detail. Commensurate with continuity of government plans, should both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris be incapacitated, Pelosi’s security detail has advanced capabilities and liaises closely with the U.S. Secret Service.”
He explained, “These protective measures go significantly beyond what other senior members of Congress receive. And all members of Congress saw their security boosted this summer following the January 2021 Capitol riot. So how on Earth did an assailant access Pelosi’s San Francisco residence and beat her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer?”
He noted, “One possible answer is that Paul Pelosi directed the Capitol Police to leave the residence and deactivate its security systems. Living under 24-hour government protection can be grating, after all. This matters because the Capitol Police will have installed numerous perimeter and access control systems at Pelosi’s residence. It’s standard procedure for senior U.S. government officials under protection.
“Still, these security efforts are not supposed to stop simply because a protectee such as Speaker Pelosi is not in residence at any one time. A potential assailant might seek to use the absence of their prospective target to conduct reconnaissance for a future attack. They could even plant a delayed-use weapon, such as a bomb. Perimeter and access control systems are employed to detect entry and deny access to a location, and to provide warning so that security officers can respond to a possible threat. The bottom line is that if Paul Pelosi requested a suspension of security measures, the Capitol Police should have rejected that request,” he added.
Whatever happened to go wrong needs to be investigated, he said. Questions that need to be answered is what “protective systems were employed at the time of the attack — and if they were inactive, why? Were they malfunctioning and, if so, why weren’t those malfunctions detected earlier? Second, why were no Capitol Police officers from the agency’s San Francisco field office deployed for protective security patrols?”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.