Elon Musk Tweets Anti-LGBTQ+ Conspiracy Theory About Paul Pelosi Attack
The new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk has tweeted, and later deleted, an unfounded anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theory. On Sunday he sent a tweet about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband from a website that has a history of publishing false information.
Musk responded Hillary Clinton when she tweeted a Los Angeles Times story about how David DePape, had spread far-right conspiracy theories. DePape is Paul Pelosi's suspected attacker.
DePape is accused of attacking Pelosi, 82, with a hammer after having broken into their home in California early Friday. He was searching for the House speaker, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time, two sources said.
Clinton tweeted the link to that story along with the message: “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”
Musk tweeted Clinton at 8:15 a.m. Sunday, linking to a story published on a right-wing website called the Santa Monica Observer. The article questioned the circumstances of the attack on Pelosi, according to an archived version of the story. “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk wrote.
The website was no longer accessible late Sunday morning. Musk then deleted the tweet by early Sunday afternoon. As of late Sunday morning, it had more than 24,000 retweets and more than 86,000 likes.
Fact-checking website Media Bias/Fact Check rates the Santa Monica Observer as a “questionable source” based on “the routine publication of false and misleading information and the use of poor sources.” Media Bias/Fact Check said the website's article about the attack “appears to be fake and defamatory.”
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
San Francisco police officials shared information with NBC News that directly contradicts the claims in the story Musk linked to.
Police said only Pelosi and the attacker were at the home at the time of the incident. The contradicts information shared at a news conference Friday that suggested a third person might have opened the door or been in the house, which the Santa Monica Observer reported. Police also characterized the incident as a “violent break-in” and said Pelosi and the suspect did not know each other before the incident, contrary to false claims reported by the Santa Monica Observer.
Police reported that zip ties were found at the scene but did not specify how many or their intended purpose.
The Santa Monica Observer has also published fake stories that falsely reported that Clinton died in the 9/11 attacks and Democrats had been using a body double since then and that Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, was appointed to a nonexistent position in the Interior Department during the Trump administration.
David Ganezer, the publisher of the website and a registered Republican, unsuccessfully ran for the Santa Monica City Council in 2010 and 1988, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.
Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter was finalized late last week. He said he will loosen rules about what kind of speech is allowed on the platform, prompting concerns that the changes could drive users and advertisers away.
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