Nancy Pelosi opens up about attack on her husband in emotional interview

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave an emotional interview to CNN on Monday, describing how she learned that her husband, Paul Pelosi, had been attacked at their San Francisco home and giving more detail on the extent of his injuries. 

In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Nancy Pelosi said her husband was hit twice on the top of his head by a hammer, which cracked his skull. Doctors had to remove his skull, reshape it and then put it back in place, she said, adding that Paul Pelosi's brain was not pierced during the assault. 

"He's doing OK," Nancy Pelosi said. "It's a long haul, but he knows he has to pace himself. He's such a gentleman that he's not complaining." 

Nancy Pelosi said she has not discussed with the attack in detail with her husband because "any revisiting of it is really traumatizing." 

"One of the hardest things all week was to go back into the house for him, and the entrance, which is of course where he was hit, and of course, upstairs in the bedroom, where that person made his entrance, shall we say," she said. 

The suspect, David Wayne DePape, allegedly broke into the couple's home in the early morning on October 28 and awoke Paul Pelosi in their bedroom, demanding to know where his wife was. Paul Pelosi was able to call 911, and a dispatcher sent emergency services after hearing someone being threatened, according to law enforcement. When police arrived at the home, they saw the two men struggling over a hammer inside the entryway before the suspect attacked Paul Pelosi, law enforcement said. 

"For me, this is really the hard part, because Paul was not the target and he's the one who's paying the price," Nancy Pelosi said Monday. "It's really sad because it is a flame that was fueled by misinformation." 

Nancy Pelosi said she has not listened to the 911 call or watched police body camera footage of the incident. When asked whether she wanted to hear it, she said, "I don't think so." 

Nancy Pelosi said that she was asleep in Washington, D.C., during the assault. She said she had traveled from San Francisco the night before and was awoken by Capitol Police ringing her doorbell and banging on her door at 5 a.m. 

"So I run to the door and I was very scared to see the Capitol Police and they said, 'We have to come in to talk to you,'" she said. "And I'm thinking my children, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul, because I knew he wouldn't be out and about, shall we say. And so they came in at that time. We didn't even know where he was or what his condition was. We just knew there was an assault on him in our home and now they were taking him to a hospital." 

Pelosi, who noted during the interview that she was close to tears a number of times throughout, said the attack on her husband will impact her political future and whether or not she decides to retire. 

In:
• Nancy Pelosi
• Paul Pelosi

Caitlin Yilek

Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital. Reach her at caitlin.yilek@cbsinteractive.com. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hausofcait

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