Pelosi attack didn't happen in a vacuum, but in an 'ecosystem' of misinformation and extremist views gone mainstream, experts on far-right groups say

A motive for the Friday morning attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has not been established, but experts say that the attack on a politically connected figure comes amid an atmosphere of violent rhetoric gone mainstream.

A professor at American University who has researched far-right groups in the US told Insider that the idea of targeting a politician like Pelosi wouldn't come from nowhere.

They did not get the idea to go to Pelosi's house out of thin air. It's not just in the corners of social media.

Police recommended charges of attempted homicide, elder abuse, and assault with a deadly weapon against the suspect. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, DePape was a nudist activist and a registered Green Party member.

The Pelosis' home in San Francisco was broken into and the attacker shouted "Where is Nancy?", according to the AP and CNN.

The call is similar to the chants of some rioters. The woman who was arrested for storming the Capitol said that she wanted to shoot Pelosi in the head.

She doesn't create a direct relationship between the words of a politician and the assault or the motives of the attacker. Mainstream outlets and public figures don't condemn the attacks when the idea of inciting political violence becomes normalized.

There are a lot of Republican Congress people who won't condemn what happened on January 6. Mainstream rhetoric ignores the violence that was committed that day.

The Republican National Committee censured Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger after they participated in the House investigation of the Capitol siege.

The attack came as no surprise to Eric Ward, senior advisor to Western States Center and expert on Extremism. Tucker Carlson once described the riot as a mere act of "vandalism."

"When you look at the months of political rhetoric by individuals campaigning for office, and the rhetoric from folks like Tucker Carlson on Fox News, you can't be surprised that someone took this rhetoric and then turned it into an action plan." As the sun rises again, this is what we are seeing.