Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a Monday interview on CNN condemned the attack on Paul Pelosi, calling it both “violent” and “horrific,” but said it is “difficult” to characterize it as domestic terrorism from a legal standpoint.
When asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday if the incident was domestic terrorism, citing the suspect’s social media activity and that authorities have said he had been looking for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Mayorkas said it came down to “legal implications.”
“It’s very difficult for me to label it as domestic terrorism,” Mayorkas said on “The Situation Room.” “That has legal implications. This case is being investigated and prosecuted by local authorities, so I’m going to let that process play out in a court of law.”
David DePape, 42, is accused of breaking into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home early Friday morning.
The Justice Department charged DePape on federal counts of assault and attempted kidnapping on Monday, and the San Francisco district attorney hours later announced six state charges, including attempted murder.
An affidavit alleges DePape told the San Francisco Police Department he went to the house to find the Speaker, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time, and hold her hostage unless she told the “truth.”
Blitzer noted that on the same day as the attack, Mayorkas’s Department of Homeland Security released a joint intelligence bulletin warning about a domestic violent extremist threat surrounding next week’s midterm elections.
“Domestic terrorism has specific legal implications for particular proceedings in a court of law, so we use the term domestic violent extremism,” Mayorkas said on CNN.
“It’s a real threat,” he added. “We have confidence in the elections, in our midterm elections, their integrity. We have been working very, very closely with election officials, state and local, around the country. So we have confidence in the integrity of those elections.”
The attack against Pelosi was met with condemnations from both sides of the aisle, including from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), although the parties have pointed fingers over who is to blame.
Some Republicans leveraged the incident to attack Democrats, including on policies involving crime.
Democrats have tied the altercation to the suspect’s reported support for QAnon and other far-right conspiracy theories, and President Biden on Saturday said someone can’t condemn the violence without condemning people who believe unfounded claims of mass electoral fraud in the 2020 election.
“I think dangerous rhetoric is something that divides our country, regrettably,” Mayorkas responded to Blitzer after he asked how much blame he places on Republicans for the attack.
Mayorkas also suggested that the high political division can be exploited by foreign adversaries.
“They try to fill that divide with disinformation and misinformation,” Mayorkas said on CNN. “I thought that Leader McConnell spoke very powerfully in condemning the attack against Mr. Pelosi. Those were very important words from one of our nation’s leaders.”