US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that the recent assault on her husband by a hammer-wielding intruder who broke into their home will affect her decision on when to step down from Congress. The spokeswoman was affected to admit that she knows that she was the real "target" of the assault.
In her first televised interview on CNN since her 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, suffered the assault that left him with skull fractures and other injuries, the speaker of the lower house assured that the attack on October 28 at her home came from of the same strain of "misrepresentation" that led to a mob storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Choking back tears, Nancy Pelosi recounted the unnerving moment she was woken up in her Washington apartment by US Capitol police to inform her of the violent break-in that had taken place that morning at her San Francisco home.
"For me, the really hard part" was knowing that she was the real target of the intruder, Nancy Pelosi, also 82, said in the interview. "Because Pablo wasn't the target, and he's the one paying the price," she lamented.
Pelosi voiced her objection to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's question about whether she had made the decision to withdraw from Congress and her job as House Speaker if Democrats lose a majority in the midterm elections. But she assured that "my decision will be affected by what happened in the last week or two", referring to her aggression towards her husband.
"And it will be affected by - but - let me say this," she added without finishing her thought, saying she felt "blessed" for her 35 years of public service in the House.
Affidavits filed by charging prosecutors against the suspect, 42-year-old David Wayne DePape, show that he told police after his arrest that he had planned to kidnap the speaker, interrogate her and break her kneecaps if she "lied."
On the day of the attack, DePape entered the couple's home and crawled into an upstairs bedroom, where he woke up Paul Pelosi demanding to see the speaker, who had flown back to Washington the night before. Paul Pelosi managed to place an emergency 911 call and police arrived just in time to witness the scene, according to court documents.
NBC coverage giving more details of the assault two weeks ago shows that DePape and Pelosi were inside the house for half an hour before police arrived. It was Pelosi who opened the door to the agents, who did not know that they were in the house of the speaker of the lower house.
When one of the officers asked what was wrong, Pelosi said "everything is fine," but just then DePape hit Pelosi in the head with a hammer, according to court documents. Then, the agents ran to help him.
DePape has been charged with attempted kidnapping and assault in federal court. In California state court, he pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, elder abuse, false imprisonment and threatening a public official.
