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In her archetypal televised interrogation since a violent onslaught connected her husband, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) broke her soundlessness astir however frightened she was to larn of the battle that took spot successful their San Francisco home.
Pelosi told CNN that she was sleeping successful Washington erstwhile she heard her doorbell ringing astir 5 a.m. connected Friday, Oct. 28. She had conscionable flown backmost from San Francisco the nighttime before, she said, and assumed it was idiosyncratic who had the incorrect apartment.
Then she heard large banging astatine her door.
“So I tally to the doorway and I was precise frightened — I spot the Capitol Police, and they said we person to travel successful to speech to you,” Pelosi said successful the interview that aired Monday. “And I’m thinking, my children, my grandchildren. I ne'er thought it would beryllium Paul due to the fact that I knew helium wouldn’t beryllium retired and about, shall we say.”
What she would larn aboriginal 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 superior injuries to his close limb and hands, and is continuing to retrieve from the attack. He was released from a San Francisco-area infirmary past week aft undergoing country connected his skull.
But successful the aboriginal hours of Oct. 28, Nancy Pelosi and the constabulary officers who had awakened her knew small of that. At 1 constituent successful the interview, the House talker had to intermission to stitchery her emotions.
“At that time, we didn’t adjacent cognize wherever helium was oregon what his information was,” she told CNN. “We conscionable knew determination was an battle connected him, successful our home.”
Asked astir however the suspect, David Wayne DePape, had allegedly sought her, and not her husband, Pelosi said, “This is truly the hard part.”
“Paul was not the target, but he’s the 1 who was paying the price,” she said.
David DePape, 42, is facing authorities and national transgression charges aft attacking Paul Pelosi, hubby of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), connected Oct. 28. (Video: The Washington Post)
Shortly aft the attack, national authorities filed attempted kidnapping and battle charges against DePape, 42. According to charging documents, DePape told authorities aft his apprehension that helium had planned to “hold Nancy hostage” and interruption her kneecaps to nonstop a connection to different Democrats.
The Washington Post confirmed that a blog written nether DePape’s sanction was filled with antisemitic writings and baseless claims arsenic good arsenic pro-Trump and anti-Democratic posts. It was registered to a location successful Richmond, Calif., wherever DePape lives, according to neighbors.
Many Democrats person decried the onslaught arsenic the effect of Republicans’ inflammatory rhetoric, suggesting that Pelosi’s alleged attacker was influenced by right-wing misinformation and conspiracy theories dispersed by supporters of erstwhile president Donald Trump.
At a run lawsuit connected the evening of Oct. 28, President Biden called connected the crowd to “clearly and unambiguously” basal up against governmental violence.
“What makes america deliberation 1 enactment tin speech astir stolen elections, covid being a hoax, [that it’s] each a clump of lies, and it not impact radical who whitethorn not beryllium truthful well-balanced?” Biden said then. “What makes america deliberation that it’s not going to change the governmental climate? Enough is capable is enough.”
Like Biden, Pelosi saw a transportation betwixt Jan. 6 rioters who looked to find her successful the Capitol, calling retired her name, and the antheral who broke into her home.
“No question it’s the aforesaid thing,” she said.
Republicans spoke Oct. 30 astir the onslaught of Paul Pelosi, the hubby of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). (Video: The Washington Post)
Most Republican leaders person condemned the onslaught connected Paul Pelosi — though galore person besides been speedy to mates those denunciations with assertions of blasted connected “both sides” for the emergence successful governmental violence. Still others successful the GOP person turned the brutal onslaught connected the House speaker’s octogenarian hubby into a punchline, joking about the incidental astatine run events and sharing memes and Halloween costumes that mocked the assault.
Nancy Pelosi denounced the mocking of her husband’s attack. CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked her astir erstwhile president Donald Trump and billionaire Twitter proprietor Elon Musk promoting conspiracy theories related to the incident.
“It’s truly bittersweet for the state that radical of that precocious visibility would abstracted themselves from the facts and the truth,” she said.
Devlin Barrett, Eugene Scott and Holly Bailey contributed to this report.
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