During an interview aired on CNN on Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visibly choked up while recalling the moment she was woken up by Capitol police who notified her about the attack on her husband at their home in San Francisco.
The Democratic leader revealed to host Anderson Cooper that she was “very scared” when there was a knock on the door from Capitol Police and became extremely worried about her children and grandchildren.
Pelosi said she had been asleep in Washington, DC, after getting in the night before from San Francisco when her doorbell rang early in the morning,” Pelosi said, holding back tears. “I look up, I see it’s 5 [a.m. ET], they must be at the wrong apartment,” she told Cooper after he asked where she was when she got the news.
“So I run to the door, and I’m very scared,” Pelosi said, describing what unfolded. “I see the Capitol Police and they say, ‘We have to come in to talk to you.’”
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Pelosi described how her thoughts went immediately to her children and her grandchildren.
“And I’m thinking my children, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul because, you know, I knew he wouldn’t be out and about, shall we say. And so they came in. At that time, we didn’t even know where he was,” she said.
The violent attack on Paul Pelosi has raised fresh concerns over threats of political violence driven by partisan animosity and increasingly hostile political rhetoric – and highlighted the potential vulnerability of lawmakers and their families in the current political climate.
Paul Pelosi was attacked with a hammer at the couple’s home in San Francisco by a right-wing assailant at the end of last month, authorities have said. The assailant who attacked him was searching for the speaker of the House, according to court documents.
During Monday’s interview, the House speaker said the attack will affect the decision she makes of whether to retire from Congress should Democrats lose control of the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Watch the interview below:
Pelosi talked to CNN about what it was like to learn that her husband had been brutally assaulted. The full interview will air later tonight but here's a clip. pic.twitter.com/K3kPy1E9tS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 7, 2022
