In light of the recent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) joined KQED’s Natalia V. Navarro to share her thoughts on what is behind the unprecedented wave of hate-mongering and calls for violence from elected officials in recent years, and what legislators can do to prevent such attacks in the future.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
NATALIA NAVARRO: Representative Speier, first of all, I imagine you’ve been in touch with Speaker Pelosi over the last few days. What are you hearing from her?
JACKIE SPEIER: Well, I haven’t actually been in touch with her personally. I have communicated with her through text. And I stopped by the hospital and left a card and some flowers. But I have not actually talked with her. I think she has been focused on her family and, obviously, her husband.
What do you think legislators can do to help prevent things like this from happening again?
It really requires a wholesale change in how we do business. The amount of vitriol that is spewed out on social media by members is reprehensible. And it also is why we have the radicalization of persons in the United States who become domestic terrorists. And I don’t think that is hyperbolic when you realize that this particular man [David DePape, 42, alleged attacker of Paul Pelosi] had every intention of maiming, killing, abusing the speaker of the House, who’s third in command. He had zip ties, rope and two hammers. He was hell-bent on being a vicious perpetrator of a heinous crime.