Will the attack on Paul Pelosi change the rhetoric in NJ's 7th District Kean-Malinowski race?

The congressional race in New Jersey's 7th District is neck and neck between Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski and Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. Among Kean's central attacks against the incumbent, one that he comes back to again and again, is that he's too close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

But in light of the recent attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, the Malinowski campaign is asking the Republican to back off of some of his rhetoric.

WNYC "Weekend Edition" host David Furst spoke with senior reporter Nancy Solomon recently to discuss whether the assault changes anything in the tone of the race.

The transcript of their discussion below has been lightly edited for clarity.

David Furst: What exactly has been the Tom Kean message about Nancy Pelosi, and is it even fair to be linking that messaging to the attack on her husband?

Nancy Solomon: Well, in the two debates, Kean said things like "Malinowski votes with Pelosi 100% of the time," and OK, it's fair to tie Malinowski to the Democratic leadership in Congress. But there are a couple of things: He says it a lot in a one-hour debate. He said the same thing 11 times, and he didn't say what, specifically, is so bad about Pelosi, what he disagrees with. And the Democratic Party is asking Republicans to back off of attack ads about Pelosi, in part because they can sound like a dog whistle to all the lies and conspiracy theories about her.

In one ad that's still on YouTube, the campaign asks: "Are you ready to take on the progressive Pelosi puppets and the scandal-plagued politicians screwing up this country? Then we need Tom." And in that same ad, Kean also says he's going to hammer his political opponent.

Well, politicians are allowed to criticize their opponents and the opposing party. What has Kean had to say about Pelosi since the attack?

This has been a really difficult campaign to cover. They don't do press interviews, and they don't make their schedule public, so that I could go out and observe the campaign in action. I asked the campaign whether the Pelosi attack changes anything.

I got a written statement that says: “Violence has no place in our political discourse. Rhonda [Kean's wife] and I extend our prayers to Speaker Pelosi, Paul and to their family." But when I asked whether his campaign statements against Pelosi would now stop, I didn't get a reply.

This isn't just about Tom Kean Jr. Republicans all across the country have focused their attack ads on Pelosi. The Los Angeles Times reported that 3,000 ads attacking Pelosi ran on the day that the Pelosis' home was invaded. Overall, what has been the Republican response to that attack, and has it changed their rhetoric?

You know, I think it's fair to say the Republican response has ranged from lukewarm to disavowal, and to more conspiracy theories that allow people to dismiss what happened. There's been an interesting comparison to the Steve Scalise shooting in 2017 — a shooting at a congressional Republican baseball practice that injured the GOP congressman and five other individuals.

I went back to watch the response to that one, and when Republican Paul Ryan stood up on the floor of Congress, the unity between Democrats and Republicans was really palpable. "An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us," he said. That standing ovation went on for 30 seconds. And five years later, it's a very different kind of response. There isn't the same kind of outrage expressed by Republicans.

Plenty of outrage from the Democratic side of the aisle though. Are you seeing any of that filtering back to the Malinowski-Kean race?

Yeah, it came up at a rally in Rahway for Malinowski last week. Here's Sen. Cory Booker: "We have a time of too much hate, too much division, pitting American against American, and it's rising to levels of violence. Look what happened to Nancy Pelosi's husband."

What has the Democratic incumbent, Tom Malinowski, had to say about this?

You know, one of his central messages during the campaign has been that Tom Kean Jr. is too extreme, that he would be a rubber stamp on the far-right wing of the Republican Party. At the rally in Rahway, Malinowski blamed Republican leaders, who he says have created an echo chamber of lies and conspiracy theories.

"Eventually, people march on the capital of the United States and try to overthrow our government and attack police officers. Eventually, an 82-year-old man is beaten on the head with a hammer because he happens to be married to the speaker of the House of Representatives," Malinowski said.

The Malinowski campaign released a statement on Thursday night that's calling on Tom Kean to take down that video ad we referenced earlier.

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