On Friday’s The Today Show, NBC released an uncharacteristically interesting piece of original journalism, breaking new details about the Paul Pelosi-David DePape hammer confrontation.
After consulting with “sources familiar with what unfolded in the Pelosi residence,” NBC’s Miguel Almaguer reported that Mr. Pelosi opened the door to police.
“He did not immediately declare an emergency or leave his home,” Almaguer continued. Pelosi next “walked several feet back toward the assailant and away from police.” Why the 82-year-old did not appear to seek an urgent rescue from DePape was unclear.
These details seemed to contradict much of the federal affidavit, written by an FBI agent whose declared background was in “investigations of domestic terrorism” and who has “participated in several investigations of militia violent extremists.”
In the affidavit, the scene was described thusly: “When the door opened, Pelosi and DePape were both holding a hammer with one hand and DePape had his other hand holding onto Pelosi’s forearm.”
NBC’s Almaguer concluded his report with an acknowledgement, “We still don’t know what exactly what unfolded between Mr. Pelosi and the suspect for the thirty minutes they were alone before police arrived.”
It looked bad for NBC. Unable to square the circle, the network pulled the report and deleted the video from their website.
The case has been loaded with numerous irregularities and strange details since unfolding in the early morning hours of October 28.
In making the initial phone call to police, Pelosi described DePape as a friend. This has been characterized as Pelosi’s way of notifying the police that he was in danger without alarming DePape, but given that Pelosi appears to have been isolated from DePape while making the call, that detail continues to be a confusing one.
David DePape himself is a figure of much unresolved confusion and speculation. Initially characterized as a right-wing conspiracy theorist, odd details such as his penchant for nudism activism and illegal immigration status have resulted in a more complex picture than originally presented.
His so-called right-wing blog has made the most unhinged QAnon followers look like the picture of lucidity. In some cases, posts by DePape were just single words like “Solipsism.” Creepy stuff from a guy who was far from a generic Republican.
It isn’t just the content of DePape’s websites that is curious, but also the origins of the sites themselves. Last week, Tucker Carlson took a closer look:
“One of these sites was apparently called ‘friendy-frens-dot-com,’ Carlson reported. “And the strange thing about that website is that the web address for it was registered back in September, but there’s content on the site that is backdated to August and internet archiving services didn’t register any content from that blog, apparently David DePape’s blog, until October 28. That was the day of DePape’s attack on Paul Pelosi.”
At best, we are left with a complicated and confusing picture that has only gotten stranger by the day.
