Nancy Pelosi Recounts Attack on Husband in New Book

Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi attend the 24th Annual Mark Twain Prize For American Humor at The Kennedy Center on March 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was attacked in their San Francisco home on Oct. 28, 2022.

The assailant—David DePape, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant from Canada—broke into the Pelosi home at 2 a.m. and awoke Paul in his bedroom, demanding to know, “Where’s Nancy?” Paul, after speaking with DePape for several minutes, was surreptitiously able to call the police; as they arrived, DePape hit him several times with the hammer, which fractured his skull.

The attack gained international attention and was widely condemned as unacceptable political violence. Pelosi attributed the attack as a reason she stepped down as leader of the House Democratic Caucus in 2023, a position she had held for 20 years, eight of them as speaker.

DePape was sentenced to 30 years in prison in May.

For the first time, Pelosi has recounted her thoughts about the attack in her latest book, “The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House,” which was published on Aug. 6.

Silence and Regret in the Pelosi Family

Pelosi describes how she first heard about the attack on Paul. At about 5 a.m. on Oct. 28, her U.S. Capitol Police security detail banged on her apartment door to wake her up and inform her of the news.

“Is he alive?” Pelosi asked the agents protecting her. “We don’t know,” they responded.

Pelosi says that her family has since “never discussed the attack” among themselves or with Paul. She writes:

“Paul has never discussed the attack with me or with our children. It is ’too traumatic,' he says. ... Most importantly, Paul’s doctors did not want him to relive the events of that night—they just wanted him to focus on healing. ... In our home and family life, we have done everything possible to wall off this moment, which was truly a centimeter away from disaster.”

Even for Pelosi herself, recordings of DePape—whom she never names in the chapter on the attack—in their home are apparently too difficult to see or hear.

“To this day, I have not been able to listen to the 911 call and hear Paul’s voice. I cannot watch any of the security footage or police body camera footage. I have avoided them all.”

Pelosi describes how life changed for her family after the attack in an effort to avoid memories of it. Paul refused to use a small elevator in their home, through which he had tried to escape from DePape that night, only to be blocked. He avoided his favorite place in their house, the garden room, where DePape broke in by smashing the glass. He did not sleep in their bedroom—where DePape had awoken him—unless Pelosi herself was there.

“I still struggle with passing through the entry hall, where the attack occurred,” Pelosi wrote.

In her statement to the federal court, Pelosi said the “signs of blood and break-in are impossible to avoid” in their home.

A general view of the home of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi where her husband Paul Pelosi was violently assaulted after a break-in at their house, according to a statement from her office, in San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2022. Carlos Barria/Reuters

Paul’s injuries were significant, and Pelosi writes that he looked “like Frankenstein’s monster” in the hospital. Part of his skull had to be removed and reshaped, and plastic surgeons had to reconstruct his left hand. He also suffered from “post-concussion syndrome,” fainted due to vertigo, and had to avoid electronic screens.

“If I had known what we were signing up for, if I had known this was where it was going to go, I would never have given you my blessing thirty-five years ago,” Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, told her after the attack, according to the book. Pelosi says she sought her then-minor daughter Alexandra’s approval in 1987 before she first ran for Congress in San Francisco.

“I would never have done it if I thought it would one day cause [Paul] to risk his own life,” Pelosi writes.

Criticism of the Media and Republicans

In the chapter on the attack, Pelosi devotes significant space to describing the news media’s response, with implicit criticism. She laments the speed of its coverage, which led her family to learn about the attack before Pelosi could inform them, as well as its invasive presence outside her home as Paul—affectionately known in the family as “Pop”—recovered. She writes:

“In a matter of minutes after the attack, the media had already tracked down all kinds of reports both about the assault and about Pop being at the hospital. Some members of the press had information before we did and before we could reach everyone in the family. That meant that the first person who told some of our family was not me but a reporter, even possibly a reporter hoping for a comment. ... It created a terrible and very difficult reaction for our family. The reporting was often incorrect and incomplete, and it would grow worse as the hours dragged on.”

Of her family, Pelosi says it was “painful and devastating” for media reports on Paul’s attack to inform her family of the news, especially since “there was no time for us to even process in private what had happened.” Though she is no stranger to media attention, Pelosi writes critically of the media for its coverage of Paul’s return from the hospital on Nov. 3, 2022.

“Rather than return to an atmosphere of peace and quiet at our home, he was met by a media barrage outside: reporters, cameras, even a helicopter noisily circling overhead. It was a bombardment of light and sound, bright and loud—exactly what his doctors had directed him to avoid. This media onslaught outside our home continued for days.”

Pelosi also recounts public responses to the attack, which she says pained her. While most elected officials condemned the incident and expressed sympathy for Pelosi, a few questioned the official version of events, suggesting that DePape may have been known to Paul. She writes:

“A true horror was the dehumanizing jokes ... cruel jokes and misrepresentations about the attempt on Paul’s life. ... It was equally horrible to hear crowds laugh, cheer, and applaud or ‘like’ these cruel remarks. ... Sitting vigil at his bedside, we found their mockery of Paul and our family deeply painful.”

Pelosi goes on to lament political violence and demonization in America, specifically calling out vandalism of her home and Republican political rhetoric against her, which she claims will dissuade more people from seeking public office.

“We cannot ask people to serve in public life if the cost is risking the safety of their families. ... I pray that another family will never know the fear and pain that ours did that morning,” Pelosi concludes.