maricopa county, arizona all right, good morning, welcome to the cross connection, i am tiffany cross. as you heard right now, house speaker nancy pelosi s husband was attacked yesterday. a 42-year-old man broke into those tight offices go home, hit paul pelosi in the head with the hammer multiple times, that s according to law enforcement, and the man says he is going to tie him up and quote, until nancy got home. that poured is quoted to a pelosi family member. thankfully she said paul pelosi is expected to make a full recovery, this is after he has to undergo surgery to repair is gold fracture. we don t know the precise motive at the law enforcement, they say he is still investigating, with officials saying that the suspects social media posts shows a quote, mixed ideology of both anti establishment, and more recently, far-right extremist ideas. the attacker does come amid but capital police say the huge spike in threats against members of congress. this is where we are.
To constitute quote a true threat. all right, let s get into this, joining us now is damon hewitt, president and executive director of their lawyers community for civil rights under a law. joining us remotely is doctor merrill southerners a former fbi special agent and a professor of the practiced in national and homeland security at usc. very happy to have both you gentlemen with us. dr. southern, i want to start with you. given what we are seeing and what we know about this person who was attacking and as a pelosi s home, how worried should be all be about political violence, especially as we get closer to the midterms. what do you assess of this person who attacked pelosi in her home? thank you, tiffany. we should be very concerned about this. we have seen the rise in violence or calls for violin since the last election in june, as we mentioned, dhs issued a warning stating that this would increase. while we don t know the exact