“It’s shocking, but not surprising, it’s the result of violence,” she wrote on Twitter Saturday. “As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and actions afterwards.”
It was her post that prompted Mr. Musk, owner of Twitter since last Thursday night, to hint that there might be an alternate version of the attack. “There is a very small possibility that this story could be more than eye contact,” he replied directly to Clinton.
Mr Musk linked to an opinion piece from the Santa Monica Observer, a website known for posting lies, offering an alternative account of what led to the attack on Mr. . Based on an anonymous source and provided no evidence, the article suggested that the attacker was a male prostitute.
The story also indicates that the assailant was found by police wearing only his underwear, a detail that was initially made public by a Fox affiliate before being widely circulated in right-wing communities. online. The affiliated company later deleted the details and attached a correction, saying the article “wrongly stated what the suspect was wearing”.
A Fox Television spokesman said the story was corrected within about two hours.
That change has prompted a flurry of new baseless theories, with some right-wing Americans claiming a cover-up.
“New day, new story,” Tricia Flanagan, a former Republican primary candidate for New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District, tweeted to her 70,000 followers.
On Monday, federal prosecutors charge Mr. DePape with a plot to kidnap and assault a relative of an official. He was looking for Ms Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, and brought with him “a roll of duct tape, white string, a second hammer, a pair of rubber and cloth gloves and lanyards,” according to the United States Attorney’s office for the Northern District of California, where the charges were filed.
