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A viral TikTok has cast the commentary around the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in a new light, resurfacing the politician’s previous comments about Nancy Pelosi’s home invasion.
For context, Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked in 2022 after a far-right conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter broke into his home and beat him with a hammer, leaving him with a fractured skull.
It was a politically motivated attack reminiscent of the more recent shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, and while many have denounced the display of political violence in that case, Trump’s old comments about the Pelosi invasion show that she was granted far less grace.
In a video uploaded on TikTok earlier this week, user Anthony McPherson makes a comment on the post-shooting sentiment among Republicans that “political violence is never funny, and it should always be condemned no matter who it’s against.”
It’s a valid point, and one echoed by Barack Obama in the wake of the assassination attempt, but McPherson goes on to show an old video in which Trump doesn’t uphold the same standard when discussing Pelosi’s home invasion. The video is from the same year as Pelosi’s attack, and shows Trump mocking the former House Speaker.
“How’s her husband, by the way?”, he jokes, in reference to the injuries Paul Pelosi incurred during the home invasion. Trump goes on to say that Pelosi was against building a wall around the US border, “even though she has a wall around her house which obviously didn’t do a very good job.”
Trump’s comments were met with rapturous applause and cheers from the audience, the same group of people who have likely denounced making light of political violence in the wake of Trump’s shooting. “Was it funny when Trump did it?”, McPherson wrote in the accompanying caption.
While the video seems to be aimed at those who supported Trump’s comments but now criticize making light of political violence, it can also be viewed in the reverse. Anyone shocked by the Pelosi comments should maintain that shock, even when it pertains to violence against Trump. McPherson appears to be calling out the hypocrisy on both sides of the political aisle, and users flocked to the comments to share their thoughts.
“Excellent delivery and valid point,” one viewer wrote, with another simply declaring: “That’s just wow.” Elsewhere, users said that McPherson had “nailed it”, but argued that — given Trump’s more divisive politics compared to Pelosi’s — political violence in his case “should not be condemned.”
“Republicans can dish it, but they can’t take it,” one user quipped. The video raises interesting points about the state of politics, which is perhaps why it’s been viewed over 150,000 times.