House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke her silence Saturday on the “life-threatening” hammer attack that left her husband with a fractured skull, saying her family is “heartbroken and traumatized.”
Paul Pelosi, 82, was said to be recovering a day after a madman broke into the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday and demanded “where’s Nancy?” when he found the House speaker wasn’t at home.
“Yesterday morning, a violent man broke into our family home, demanded to confront me and brutally attacked my husband Paul,” Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter to her congressional colleagues. “Our youngsters, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop.”
The speaker went on to thank police and emergency responders for his or her response.
“Please know that the outpouring of prayers and warm wishes from so many within the Congress is a comfort to our family and helps Paul make progress together with his recovery. His condition continues to enhance.”
Nancy Pelosi quoted a Christian Bible verse from the Book of Isiah and concluded by saying “we thanks and pray for the continued safety and well-being of your loved ones.”
The couple’s son, Paul Pelosi Jr., earlier updated Fox News Digital on his father’s condition outside Zukerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
“Thus far so good, to this point so good,” Paul Pelosi Jr. said.
Alleged attacker David DePape, 42, may very well be charged as early as Monday with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and “several other additional felonies,” said police, together with his first court appearance expected on Tuesday.
Nancy Pelosi was in Washington, DC, on the time of the assault.
The unhinged attacker was described by his stepdaughter as a “monster” who sexually abused his kids, she wrote online.
DePape was “consumed with darkness,” Inti Gonzalez charged on Facebook after his arrest.
“This attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband got here as a shock to me, though not much considering the type of extreme abuse he had inflicted on me and my brothers,” Gonzalez wrote.
DePape “did genuinely attempt to be person,” she wrote – but “the monster in him was at all times too strong for him to be protected to be around.”
She said her mother, notorious Bay Area nudist and left-wing activist Gypsy Taub, split with DePape in 2014 “due to his toxic behavior.” Gonzalez directed a reporter to her social media post when reached for comment.
DePape had been living in a dilapidated yellow school bus on the road in front of Taub’s Berkeley home, said neighbors who described him as otherwise “homeless.”
A Black Lives Matter sign and a flag combining pot-leaf symbols and the LGBTQ rainbow decorate the debris-strewn property. Out front, an unpainted wood fence sports a hand-lettered sign: “News Reporters Go Away.”
“He normally kept to himself,” neighbor Ryan La Coste told The Post. “He would just give us a blank stare after we would walk by. We tried to remain clear of him.”
La Coste said he “wasn’t surprised in any respect” when he learned of DePape’s arrest.
“One other crazy story coming from someone in that house,” La Coste said. “They’re at all times on the news and attempting to be ‘activists.’ They at all times wish to be within the highlight.”
DePape’s disturbing online activities appear to have included posts on an array of conspiracy theories, in addition to anti-Semitic comments.
President Biden on Saturday continued to assert — without evidence — that the horrifying hammer attack was motivated by Republican rhetoric casting doubt on the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, asserting “this talk produces the violence.”
One other neighbor, Margarita Gonzalez, said DePape “is homeless … but I never seen him being violent,” she told The Post. “He never had work.”
“Possibly there’s a mental problem with him,” she suggested.
Meanwhile, local law enforcement praised Paul Pelosi for his quick pondering on the night of the attack.
Pelosi managed to call 911 from his bathroom, where he was charging his phone, and use coded language to alert the dispatcher to his dire situation without DePape’s knowledge, in response to reports.
“What’s happening? Why are you here? What are you going to do to me?” Pelosi allegedly said to be able to alert 911 to the emergency without tipping off DePape to the decision, in response to CNN.
The dispatcher, Heather Grimes, had sensed something was mistaken with the situation and ordered officials to conduct an expedited wellness check on the house.
As officers arrived on the scene, Pelosi attempted to grab the hammer out of DePape’s hands. DePape allegedly hit Pelosi over the top with the weapon in a scuffle.
Aerial photos of the Pelosi property appeared to point out shards of broken glass littering the brick walkway outside a shattered French door, as if it had been broken from the within out. San Francisco police declined to comment.
Local police, who said they’re working with the US Capitol Police and the FBI to analyze the attack, also declined to comment on a report from a California television station, later retracted, that DePape was clad only in underwear throughout the attack.
Pelosi remained hospitalized at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center Saturday, with an in depth police presence stationed outside.
Additional reporting by Wealthy Calder
