Then she heard a loud knock at her door.
“So I ran to the door and was very scared. I saw the Capitol Police. They said they had to come talk to you.” “And I’m thinking, my kids, my grandchildren. I didn’t think it was Paul.”
What she later learned was that 82-year-old Paul Pelosi had been attacked by an assailant with a hammer and broke into the couple’s San Francisco home. He was seriously injured and continues to recover from the attack. He was released from a San Francisco-area hospital last week after undergoing skull surgery.
But little did Nancy Pelosi and the police officer who woke her up in the early hours of October 28 know that. At one point during the interview, the Speaker of the House had to pause to collect his emotions.
“At the time, we didn’t even know where he was or what his condition was,” she told CNN. I knew there was.”
Asked how suspect David Wayne DePap searched for her instead of her husband, Pelosi said, “This is the really hard part.”
“Paul wasn’t the target, but he paid the price,” she said.
Shortly after the attack, federal authorities filed charges of attempted kidnapping and assault against 42-year-old Depapu. According to her indictment, DePap told authorities after her arrest that she had planned to “take Nancy hostage” and break her kneecap to send a message to other Democrats. .
The Washington Post confirmed that a blog written under Depapp’s name was filled with anti-Semitic writing, unsubstantiated claims, pro-Trump and anti-democratic posts. It was registered at a house in Richmond, California.
Many Democrats have blamed the attacks on Republicans for their inflammatory rhetoric, and Pelosi’s attackers blamed right-wing misinformation and conspiracy theories spread by supporters of former President Donald Trump. suggesting that they are affected.
At a campaign event on the night of Oct. 28, President Biden called on crowds to stand up to political violence “clearly and clearly.”
“Why do we think a political party can talk about stolen elections, covid is a hoax. [that it’s] It’s all full of lies, doesn’t it affect people who aren’t balanced? ’ said Biden at the time. “Why do we think it won’t change the political climate? Enough.
Like Biden, Pelosi saw a connection between the Jan. 6 mob who called her name in an attempt to find her in the Capitol and the man who broke into her home.
“It’s definitely the same thing,” she said.
Most Republican leaders have condemned the attacks on Paul Pelosi, but many have linked those accusations with claims that “both sides” are responsible for the rise in political violence. Still others turned the brutal attack on the Speaker of the House’s 80-year-old husband into a punch line, joking about the incident at campaign events and sharing memes and Halloween costumes that mocked the assault.
Nancy Pelosi accused her husband of mockery of the attack.CNN’s Anderson Cooper accused former President Donald Trump and billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk of promoting a conspiracy theory related to the incident. I asked her about being there.
“It’s really sad for the country to see people in such high profile turn away from the facts and the truth,” she said.
Devlin Barrett, Eugene Scott, and Holly Bailey contributed to this report.
