Exactly one Republican has apologized for his gross reaction to the news that Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was assaulted in their home late last week.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin referenced the assault while stumping for Republican candidates Friday, telling the crowd, “Speaker Pelosi’s husband had a break-in last night in their house, and he was assaulted. There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re gonna send her back to be with him in California. That’s what we’re going to go do.”
That’s not the vilest response we’ve seen but it’s still awful. Youngkin used the attack—which was committed by a man who admitted to police that he was looking to assault and kidnap the House Speaker—as campaign jabber, making light of Paul Pelosi’s extensive injuries in promoting his own campaign.
Youngkin has now apologized for that reaction, telling Punchbowl News, “At the end of the day, I really wanted to express the fact that what happened to Speaker Pelosi’s husband was atrocious. And I didn’t do a great job.”
Whether he’s genuinely remorseful over his own shameful behavior or he realized that his comments were not going over well with voters just ahead of the midterm elections, this is the only acceptable way to address what he’d said. It’s also a lot more than we’ve been seeing from any of the other conservatives who were quick to jump on the bandwagon of horrible reactions. Fox News is still pushing conspiracy theories, as are Ted Cruz and Megyn Kelly, just to name a few.
And Kari Lake, Arizona’s extremist Republican nominee for governor, has not only refused to apologize for cracking a joke at the Pelosi’s expense Monday but is now denying she even did so. According to CNN, she’s claiming that criticism of her is due entirely to “creative editing” of her comments by the “despicable” “fake media.”
That’s not what happened. At a campaign event, Lake was asked a question about school shootings. “It is not impossible to protect our kids at school. They act like it is. Nancy Pelosi, well, she’s got protection when she’s in DC—apparently her house doesn’t have a lot of protection,” she quipped. The audience and the event moderator burst out laughing.
There’s really only one thing to say about Kari Lake:
(image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
