Twitter CEO Elon Musk lastly apologized for selling a baseless conspiracy concept to his 126 million social media followers concerning the vicious hammer assault on Paul Pelosi inside his dwelling final October.

“I apologize,” Musk stated after a refrain of requires him to take action Friday when the gruesome video footage captured by the physique cams of police arriving on the scene of the assault was launched.

But Musk pointedly didn’t denounce or discredit the conspiracy concept that the assault was a part of some form of spat with a male escort. The truth is, he indicated in a tweet he nonetheless believed it could possibly be true.

After the vicious assault, quite a few right-wing Republicans — together with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — made gentle of the crime that fractured the cranium of the husband of former speaker of the Home Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

Paul Pelosi was rushed to a hospital the place he underwent surgical procedure for the cranium fracture and to restore severe hand and arm accidents. Donald Trump expressed skepticism concerning the assault.

Others, like Musk, pressed the conspiracy concept that the ugly assault was dedicated by a person the 82-year-old Pelosi had picked up at a gay bar in San Francisco fairly than by a house invader. Their baseless “proof” was that Pelosi seemed to be in his underwear. The truth is, he was in his pajamas, in mattress, when his dwelling was invaded.

David DePape is presently in jail awaiting trial on a number of costs within the assault, together with tried homicide and elder abuse. In a name from jail Friday to a San Francisco TV station, he reportedly stated he regretted that he “didn’t get more of them,” apparently referring to Democratic lawmakers. Investigators stated he was after Nancy Pelosi when he broke into the couple’s San Francisco dwelling.

Instantly after the violence, Musk linked to an article in the Santa Monica Observer claiming the assault occurred as a drunk Pelosi was arguing with a male escort. None of that was true. But Musk wrote: “There’s a tiny risk there is likely to be extra to this story than meets the attention.”

Former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted on Friday: “Hey @elonmusk care to react to the Pelosi video? You unfold the large conspiracy…”

MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle additionally tweeted: “This may be an ideal second for @elonmusk to apologize to the Pelosi household.”

Musk responded: “I did.”

It couldn’t instantly be decided if Musk had reached out to the household to apologize — or if such an apology was accepted, provided that he hadn’t denounced his lie.

One Twitter person wrote: “Idiots on the left need @elonmusk to apologize to the Pelosis. For what? It’s nonetheless a questionable and weird state of affairs between two males of their underwear.”

Reasonably than discredit the conspiracy concept, Musk responded: “Nonetheless, I apologize.”

Musk’s ugly assault on Pelosi was harking back to his stunning slam on British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth, who risked his life taking part within the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped for weeks in a flooded Thailand collapse 2018. Amid a Twitter spat about the right way to rescue the boys, Musk called the rescuer a “pedo,” short for “pedophile.”

After he was sued for defamation in that case, Musk testified in a Los Angeles Court docket that he used the phrase “pedo” merely as an “insult” — not as an announcement of reality. He solely meant to insult the “creepy previous man,” Musk insisted.

The jury discovered that Musk didn’t defame Unsworth.