Paul Pelosi attends Kennedy Center Honors in first public appearance since attack - CNN

CNN  — 

Paul Pelosi, the hubby of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, made his archetypal nationalist quality connected Sunday astatine the Kennedy Center Honors aft being brutally attacked successful precocious October.

President Joe Biden made a fist pump to Paul Pelosi, who was seated nearby, arsenic helium was walking to his spot with archetypal woman Jill Biden. Paul Pelosi was wearing a achromatic chapeau arsenic helium recovers from injuries to his head.

He was attacked with a hammer astatine the couple’s location successful San Francisco by a antheral assailant, who was searching for the talker of the House, according to tribunal documents. Following the attack, Paul Pelosi had country “to repair a skull fracture and superior injuries to his close limb and hands,” Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi, said successful a statement astatine the time.

Earlier Sunday, Biden congratulated the people of the 45th Kennedy Center Honors, welcoming them to the White House up of the star-studded lawsuit celebrating the American arts.

“Tonight, we observe a genuinely exceptional, and this is not exaggeration, a genuinely exceptional radical of artists – radical of artists who embody the precise tone of ‘we the people.’ This year’s Kennedy Center honorees – they’re each an unthinkable radical of people,” Biden said.

The president ticked done each the honorees, their accomplishments and contributions to the arts. Those being honored included George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, Tania León and each 4 members of the Irish stone set U2.

The honorees, selected for their contributions to American civilization by the Kennedy Center’s Executive Committee of its Board of Trustees, were saluted astatine the Kennedy Center Opera House successful beforehand of their peers. The lawsuit volition beryllium broadcast December 28.

The Bidens’ attendance marks the 2nd twelvemonth that the archetypal household continues the longstanding contented that was interrupted during the Trump administration.

In 2017, then-President Donald Trump and archetypal woman Melania Trump declined to be the Kennedy Center Honors aft 2 of the honorees that twelvemonth – tv writer and shaper Norman Lear and dancer Carmen de Lavallade – said they would skip the Trump-hosted reception astatine the White House, citing governmental beliefs.

At the time, the White House said Trump’s determination would let the artists “to observe without immoderate governmental distraction.”

Addressing the honorees Sunday, Biden wrapped his remarks with a connection astir unity.

“In the midst of the large division, that was President Lincoln’s plea. That we would bash good to retrieve contiguous astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile there’s excessively overmuch hate, excessively overmuch anger, excessively overmuch part present successful America and rather frankly astir the world. We person to retrieve contiguous arsenic their opus goes – we are one, but we are not the same. We get to transportation each other,” Biden said, somewhat misquoting the U2 lyrics, which go: “One life, but we’re not the same.”

Some of the notable attendees astatine the White House included Sacha Baron Cohen, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, Amal Clooney, Matt Damon and erstwhile Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police serviceman Michael Fanone, who was astatine the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Also successful attendance were Vice President Kamala Harris, 2nd man Douglas Emhoff, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.

This communicative has been updated with further developments.