Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said it would be a “very hard thing” to watch videos of a violent attack on her husband inside the couple’s San Francisco home. The footage is set to be released Friday morning.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Pelosi said her biggest concern is her husband’s well-being, adding that they are taking his recovery one day at a time.
“I don’t even know if I will see it,” Pelosi said of the footage. “I mean, it will be a very hard thing to see an assault on my husband’s life.”
Earlier this week, a California judge ordered the release of body camera footage of officers who responded to the attack, defying the San Francisco District Attorney Office’s requests to keep it secret.
Prosecutors had warned the video could be exploited by conspiracy theorists, while news organizations argued that does not override the public’s right to access the material. The footage was previously shown during a preliminary hearing.
The video will be made available to accredited media early Friday morning, along with other evidence in the case, including Paul Pelosi’s 911 call, footage from the surveillance cameras Capitol Police had installed in the property and the alleged attacker’s police interview, the San Francisco Superior Court said.
Paul Pelosi, 82, was assaulted with a hammer inside his home in late October. David DePape allegedly broke into the property in hopes of kidnapping Nancy Pelosi, who at the time was second in line to the presidency.
Paul Pelosi managed to call 911 during the break-in. When officers arrived at the home, they witnessed the two men fighting over a hammer, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said DePape refused to drop the hammer at the police’s instructions and struck Pelosi in the head, rendering him unconscious in a pool of his own blood.
DePape allegedly later said he had plans to target more lawmakers.
He is now facing federal and state charges over the attack. He has pleaded not guilty.
The former speaker estimated it will take at least another three months before her husband, who underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his hands and right arm following the assault, is fully recovered.
The couple has made limited public appearances in the time since the attack, including when President Joe Biden welcomed the Golden State Warriors to the White House. “He’s been out a bit because the doctor said he has to have something to look forward to,” Pelosi told CNN’s Chris Wallace earlier this month.
Pelosi announced in November that she would step down from her leadership role in the House, ending her historic tenure at the top of the caucus.
“I was probably going to go anyway,” she told The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd in a recent interview when asked if her husband’s assault factored into her decision. “Say we won by 20 votes and it was a big thing, I might have stayed.”
Republicans won control of the House with a very narrow majority following an underwhelming performance in last year’s midterm elections.
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