Nancy Pelosi reveals her guilt over husband Paul’s hammer attack: ‘They were after me’
David DePape, the man who attacked Paul Pelosi, confirmed during his trial that the 82-year-old was not his intended target
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Your support makes all the difference.Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she felt guilty over the hammer attack that left her husband, Paul, bloodied and battered at their California home.
Pelosi made the comments on Good Morning America on Monday while promoting her new book, The Art of Power.
The book starts with the attack on her husband.
She said she felt guilty because she knew the attack was motivated by her politics, and noted that her husband was not a very political person.
"What was sad about my husband's situation is he's not very political," she said. "They were after me. And I feel guilty about his paying the price."
David DePape broke into the couple's home in San Francisco on October 28, where he found Paul Pelosi and beat him with a hammer in 2022. The attack left Paul Pelosi with a fractured skull, and a left hand so damaged that it required multiple plastic surgeries to treat.
Since his attack, Paul Pelosi, 82, has reported suffering dizzy spells and a new aversion to bright light and loud noise.
Paul Pelosi told the court during DePape's trial that his attacker had asked about his wife's whereabouts, and then threatened to wait for her to return to Washington DC.
Pelosi told USA TODAY that DePape demanding her location was reminiscent of the Capitol rioters who called out after her during the January 6th insurrection attempt.
"'Where's Nancy? Where's Nancy?' That's what they were saying in the halls of Congress ... [and] going into our bedroom in San Francisco, that's what he was saying," Pelosi said.
DePape was sentenced to 30 years in prison in May. During his trial, DePape said he had been influenced by conservative conspiracy theories and podcasters on YouTube.
He told the court that he believed that "everything was a lie coming from the press" reporting on former President Donald Trump.
In addition to Pelosi, DePape had a list of targets that included actor Tom Hanks — who QAnon conspiracy theorists believed, without evidence, was trafficking children — and California Governor Gavin Newsom, long a thorn in the side of conservatives.
He confirmed that Paul Pelosi was not his intended target during the trial.
“He was never my target and I’m sorry that he got hurt,” he said, “I reacted because my plan was basically ruined.”
The former House Speaker said she and her husband have never really discussed what happened on the night of his attack. She said the memory was still too painful for him to discuss.
Pelosi said her husband is doing better, but is still recovering from the attack nearly two years on.
"He's still on the mend. He's good − maybe 80 percent," she said. "But getting hit on the head is an ongoing affliction, and I'm hoping that with the progress that he's making that pretty soon he'll be where he was before."