US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday she and her family were “heartbroken and traumatized” by the violent attack on her husband at their home in California.
An intruder broke into the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday morning and attacked the speaker’s husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer and fractured his skull.
“Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our pop,” Pelosi said of the incident in a letter posted to Twitter Saturday night.
“We are grateful for the quick response from law enforcement and emergency services and for the life-saving medical care he is receiving,” she said in her first comment on the attack.
Paul Pelosi, 82 – who underwent surgery and is recovering in hospital – was home alone as his wife worked in Washington.
“His condition continues to improve,” Pelosi said in the letter.
San Francisco police said officers found the attacker just before 2:30 a.m. (0930 GMT) at the couple’s home, where he and Paul Pelosi were tussling over a gavel.
“The suspect pulled the gavel away from Mr. Pelosi and used it to brutally assault him,” San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott told reporters, later saying that Paul Pelosi was hit at least once.
Police identified the attacker as 42-year-old David Depape, with Scott saying Depape faces charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and other crimes.
“It wasn’t an accidental act,” Scott said. “That was intentional and it’s wrong.”
The suspect “demanded to confront me and brutally assaulted my husband Paul,” Pelosi — who is second in line to the presidency — said in Saturday’s letter.
– ‘This conversation produces the violence’ –
US media, citing family sources, reported the intruder told Paul Pelosi he would tie him up and wait for the speaker to come home.
Local media had previously reported that the intruder shouted “Where’s Nancy?” during the attack, which took place less than two weeks before the midterm elections.
And after the vote in his home state of Delaware on Saturday afternoon, President Joe Biden said he didn’t know “for sure, but it looks like this[attack]was meant for Nancy.”
He again denounced the attack, citing increasingly polarizing political rhetoric.
“You can’t condemn the violence unless you condemn the people who keep arguing that the elections weren’t real, that they’re being stolen – all the nonsense that’s out there to undermine democracy,” he said he.
“This conversation produces the violence,” he added.
The suspect, who The Wall Street Journal reported breaking in through a sliding glass door citing law enforcement officers, has taken far-right positions on social media, one of the newspaper’s officials said.
Several Republicans also spoke out against the attack, including House minority whip Steve Scalise, who himself was shot at a congressional baseball practice in 2017 and said he was “disgusted” by Friday’s attack.
