‘Democracy Can’t Survive This Way’: CNN Contributor Rips Republicans Tolerating ‘Political Violence’ After Pelosi Attack

CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem called out Republicans for not explicitly condemning “political violence” following the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

Kayyem joined John Berman on Monday’s New Day to discuss the fallout after a man allegedly showed up at Paul Pelosi’s house with zip-ties, assaulted him with a hammer, and demanded to know, “Where is Nancy?” Since the attacker has a history of MAGA-aligned grievances, Kayyem likened the attack to January 6 by arguing that the “performative nature of the political violence” was “very similar” to what America saw when Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Berman asked Kayyem to explain why she repeatedly referred to Mr. Pelosi’s attack as “political violence.” She described how crime could be distinguished from situations where political leaders use rhetoric to incite violent hostility toward their opponents. Because of Nancy Pelosi’s magnetism for right-wing ire, Kayyem warned of those who would consider violence “an extension of politics.”

“Democracy can’t survive this way,” she said. “We believe in elections, and we support elections, and in the peaceful transfer of power. Peaceful is the key word there, not transfer. That’s what’s going on in this country. Elevated by, of course, an apparatus often led by the former president, Donald Trump, that elevates the language so that the listener — you don’t want to parse what they’re saying — the listener, their supporters, believes that violence is an essential, if not, justifiable means.”

So far, Trump has said nothing about the Pelosi attack, though his son decided to have a conspiracy theory-fueled laugh about a political opponent getting assaulted.

Kayyem was then asked for her thoughts about Elon Musk spreading conspiracy theories about the attack, plus the Republicans “making jokes” or downplaying the political connotations involved.

Her thoughts:

Horrible ideologies…do not die. They either grow or they are weakened. What you are seeing by these jokes and counter-narratives that are complete lies is a way to try to minimize the harm, and, therefore, embrace the violence. It’s not just the support and the jokes saying Paul Pelosi somehow deserved this or there’s some other horrible, horrific, disgusting story to justify this attack, but also the silence helps breed it.

There’s something about shaming bad ideologies, whether it’s racism, sexism or whatever we’re seeing here, the combination of it, that it’s not allowable in civil societies. And we’ve lost that because of the silence, the refusal to acknowledge, in particular the GOP, of what is happening in a sliver of their base, and the willingness to ignore it, may in some ways be worse because it festers. These things don’t go away unless acknowledged and shamed and isolated.

Watch above via CNN.