To recap, Pelosi has long been criticized for her refusal to condemn violent protests on the left and targeting of public figures at restaurants. Those protests were no conspiracy but rather an example of how “people will do what people do.”
When the protesters appeared at her house, however, she saw nothing but Russians — or their fellow travelers.
She told CNN’s Dana Bash:
“They are in front of my house all the time. I have a feeling for what feelings they have. But we have to think about what we’re doing. And what we have to do is try to stop the suffering in Gaza. This is women and children, people who don’t have a place to go, so let’s address that. But for them to call for a cease-fire is Mr. Putin’s message, Mr. Putin’s message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see. Same thing with Ukraine. It’s about Putin’s message. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, and organic and sincere. Some, I think, are connected to Russia. I say that having looked at this for a long time.”
When Bash followed up to ask whether she was actually stating that these protesters are “Russian plants,” Pelosi doubled down and said that the groups and their financing “should be investigated.”
A Pelosi spokesperson has now attempted to moderate the comments while insisting that there is a possible Russian conspiracy. While emphasizing that she supports free speech, Pelosi has her suspicions. A news outlet was reminded that Pelosi knows what she is talking about after “three decades on the House Intelligence Committee.” Presumably, that was the same experience that led to the last debunked Russian conspiracy investigation involving the 2016 election.
For critics, Pelosi and many of her colleagues declare every ink blot on every political Rorschach test as “Russians!”
The spokesperson explained that “Speaker Pelosi is acutely aware of how foreign adversaries meddle in American politics to sow division and impact our elections, and she wants to see further investigation ahead of the 2024 election.”
Pelosi makes clear that “the modern champions of communism have selected this as the time, and ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down – they are truly down.” Oh wait, that was Joe McCarthy, but you get the idea.
Some of the groups involved in the protests did not take kindly to the push for a federal investigation, including Code Pink – a long ally of Democrats.
The group’s founder Medea Benjamin said that it has led many of the pro-Palestinian protests and demanded an investigation of Pelosi.