Regarding Paul Pelosi’s criticism, the GOP is ambiguous.

Republicans have issued a variety of statements in response to the recent assault on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), some of which have drawn scathing condemnation from Democrats.

Many Republicans have strongly denounced the assault, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and former Vice President Mike Pence.

The former president of the United States, however, has chosen to keep mute, while reactions from a number of other Republicans have drawn condemnation from Democrats for ostensibly using the circumstance to push their political agenda.

An intruder assaulted Paul Pelosi early on Friday morning at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home. Where is Nancy? the trespasser allegedly said before hammering Pelosi. How is Nancy doing?

According to a representative for the Speaker, her 82-year-old husband had surgery on Friday to fix a fracture in his head as well as wounds to his right arm and hands. He is anticipated to fully recover from the incident.

After hearing of the incident, McConnell spoke out right away, expressing his “horror and revulsion.”

Pence sharply condemned the attack as well, calling it a “outrage.” Other party officials have also condemned the violence, including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (La. ), who was injured in an assault at a congressional baseball practice in 2017.

Even while he has continued to routinely post on his social media page Truth Social on anything from the midterm elections to the lawsuit over the Mar-a-Lago papers to the late musician Jerry Lee Lewis, Trump has kept mum on the subject.

In the hours after the news of the assault, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) similarly refrained from publicly commenting on it, however his spokesperson told The Hill on Friday that the congressman had contacted the Speaker to inquire about her husband and was hoping for his recovery.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized McCarthy on Twitter on Saturday for doing “nothing” as a result of McCarthy’s absence of a public reaction.

McCarthy addressed the incident in a Breitbart radio broadcast later that day, calling it “wrong” and denouncing political violence.

We have observed this with Lee Zeldin and Supreme Court judges. This is terrible; violence has no place in society. You see what transpired with respect to Steve Scalise and others. This must end, he said.

The reaction to the assault differed among Republican Party members below the upper echelons.

While some of the former president’s allies, including Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo. ), followed his lead and largely kept quiet about the incident, other Trump allies spoke out against the assault and against political violence in general.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) described the assault on Paul Pelosi as “horrific” and expressed concern for the Pelosi family as a whole.

Cruz said on Twitter that notwithstanding any political disagreements, violence is always immoral and abhorrent.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted that the news of the assault had left him “extremely saddened.”

Graham said, “This is abhorrent and we are all fortunate that Paul is anticipated to completely recover.” Every American should always feel comfortable in their own home because, in America, violence is never the solution to a problem.

Others, while denouncing the assault, also used the opportunity to criticize Democrats or, in the instance of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), to bring up a previous argument with the Speaker’s daughter.

Christine Pelosi tweeted that Paul’s “neighbor was correct” after he was physically assaulted by a neighbor in 2017.

“No one should be attacked. I condemn this attack and wish Mr. Pelosi a swift recovery, unlike Nancy Pelosi’s daughter who praised my assault,” Paul posted on Twitter, drawing a ferocious response.

There is no place for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her back to be with him in California, said Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), in reference to the assault, at a campaign event.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who used her response to the assault to criticize Democrats on crime, incited a furious reaction from one of her Democratic colleagues.

On Friday, Greene tweeted that she was praying for Pelosi but added that “murder and criminality are prevalent in Joe Biden’s America.”

Paul Pelosi shouldn’t be the victim of it. It shouldn’t occur to defenseless Americans. Greene said, “It shouldn’t happen to me.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) responded by placing the responsibility squarely on Greene.

“You demanded that Nancy Pelosi be put to death, @RepMTG. He tweeted, “YOU stated she should be hanged for treason. You’re making Paul Pelosi’s assault about YOU now that someone has listened, I see. America, this is what Republicans stand for. It is ill.

Similar connections were made by other Democrats between Republican rhetoric and the assault and a larger context of political violence.

President Biden linked the “despicable” attack on Paul Pelosi to falsehoods said by Trump and other Republicans in an address to Pennsylvania Democrats on Friday. Among these lies was the unfounded assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from the former president.

What makes us believe that one side can claim that COVID is a hoax, that it’s all a bunch of falsehoods, and that it won’t effect individuals who may not be as well-balanced? Biden questioned.

“What gives us reason to believe that it won’t deteriorate the political climate? There has been enough. No matter what your beliefs are, every person of good conscience must unequivocally condemn violence in our politics, he stated.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) criticized the GOP’s reaction to the assault while recalling the uprising on January 6, 2021, and tweeted a Los Angeles Times piece revealing that Paul Pelosi’s attacker had been active in disseminating far-right conspiracy theories online.

A year after violent insurrectionists attempted to track her down and murder her in the Capitol, “a far right white supremacist tried to assassinate the Speaker of the House and nearly killed her husband,” she said. The Republican Party’s approach to this has been to either dismiss it or minimize it.