Comment In her first televised interview since her husband’s brutal attack, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) broke her silence about how scared she was when she learned of the attack that took place in their San Francisco home. Pelosi told CNN she was sleeping in Washington when she heard her doorbell ring around 5 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 28. He had just returned from San Francisco the night before, he said, and assumed it was someone who had the wrong apartment. Then she heard loud knocks on her door. “So I ran to the door and I was really scared — I see the Capitol Police and they said we have to come in to talk to you,” Pelosi said in the interview that aired Monday. “And I think, my children, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul, because I knew he wouldn’t be out, let’s say.’ What he would later learn was that Paul Pelosi, 82, had been attacked by a hammer-wielding assailant who broke into the couple’s San Francisco home. Paul Pelosi suffered a fractured skull and serious injuries to his right arm and hands and continues to recover from the attack. He was released from a San Francisco-area hospital last week after undergoing surgery on his skull. But in the early morning hours of October 28, Nancy Pelosi and the police officers who had woken her up knew little about it. At some point during the interview, the Speaker of the House had to stop to gather her emotions. “At that time, we didn’t even know where he was or what his condition was,” she told CNN. “We just knew there was an attack on him, in our house.” Asked how the suspect, David Wayne Depe, allegedly sought her out and not her husband, Pelosi replied, “That’s really the hard part.” “Paul wasn’t the target, but he’s the one who paid the price,” he said. David DePape, 42, faces state and federal criminal charges after attacking Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), on Oct. 28. (Video: The Washington Post) Shortly after the attack, federal authorities filed charges of attempted kidnapping and assault against DePape, 42. According to charging documents, DePape told authorities after his arrest that he had planned to “hold Nancy hostage” and break her knees to send a message to other Democrats. The Washington Post confirmed that a blog written under DePape’s name was filled with anti-Semitic writing and unsubstantiated claims, as well as pro-Trump and anti-Democrat posts. It was registered to a home in Richmond, California, where Depp lives, according to neighbors. Many Democrats have decried the attack as a consequence of inflammatory Republican rhetoric, suggesting that Pelosi’s alleged assailant was influenced by right-wing misinformation and conspiracy theories spread by supporters of former President Donald Trump. At a campaign event on the evening of October 28, President Biden called on the crowd to stand up “clearly and clearly” against political violence. “What makes us believe that a party can talk about stolen elections, that covid is a hoax, [that it’s] it’s all a bunch of lies and doesn’t affect people who may not be so well balanced?’ Biden said then. “What makes us believe that the political climate is not going to change? Enough is enough.” Like Biden, Pelosi saw a connection between the Jan. 6 rioters who searched for her on Capitol Hill, calling her name, and the man who broke into her home. “There’s no doubt it’s the same thing,” he said. Republicans spoke on Oct. 30 about attacking Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). (Video: The Washington Post) Most Republican leaders have condemned the attack on Paul Pelosi — though many have also been quick to conflate those allegations with claims they blame “both sides” for the rise in political violence. Still others in the GOP have turned the brutal attack on the House speaker’s husband of eight years into a backlash, joking about the incident at campaign events and sharing memes and Halloween costumes mocking the attack. Nancy Pelosi denounced the mockery of her husband’s attack. CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked her about former President Donald Trump and billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk promoting conspiracy theories related to the incident. “It’s really sad for the country that people with so much visibility would be separated from the facts and the truth,” he said. Devlin Barrett, Eugene Scott and Holly Bailey contributed to this report.
