“We have nothing to suggest that these two men knew each other prior to this incident.”

The district attorney’s remarks come as the gruesome attack is being mocked and dismissed in conservative, far-right social media, even among some Republicans leaders and those at the highest levels of social power. San Francisco’s police chief has also said the attack was targeted.

Elon Musk over the weekend tweeted, then deleted, a fringe website’s far-flung conspiracy theories to his millions of followers, as his purchase of Twitter has raised concerns that the social media platform would no longer seek to limit misinformation and hate speech.

In the toxic political climate, a week before the midterm elections, tensions are high with record security threats against lawmakers and other officials.

Paul Pelosi remains hospitalised in San Francisco. Speaker Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, returned swiftly to California. Unlike presidents, the congressional leaders have security protection for themselves, but not their families.

The attack was an unsettling echo of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, when rioters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election defeat of Donald Trump stormed the halls eerily calling “Where’s Nancy?” DePape, was also carrying zip ties into the Pelosi home, two people briefed on the matter told The Associated Press.

Police were dispatched to the home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighbourhood around 2.20am on Friday after Paul Pelosi placed a 911 call. Jenkins said DePape broke into the rear door and made his way upstairs to confront Paul Pelosi. Police said they arrived to see the two men struggling over a hammer, when DePape struck Pelosi at least once before being tackled by officers.

With nearly 10,000 threats against members of Congress in the last year, US Capitol Police have advised lawmakers to take precautions in the lead-up to the midterms.

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Chief Tom Manger, who leads the US Capitol Police, has said the threat from lone-wolf attackers was growing and the most significant threat the force was facing was the historically high number of threats against lawmakers, thousands more than just a few years before.

This summer, a man carrying a gun, a knife and zip ties was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house in Maryland after threatening to kill him. In 2017, Republican Representative Steve Scalise was seriously injured when a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on Republicans at a congressional baseball game practice.

Trump’s son, Donald Trump jnr, was among those making light of the attack on Paul Pelosi, tweeting out a joke about a Halloween costume of the incident.

AP