Nancy Pelosi said this week that it is the fault of Republicans and their “politics of personal destruction” that led to the 2022 attack on her husband Paul Pelosi at their home in California.
The former speaker of the House was appearing on MSNBC to talk about her upcoming book titled “The Art of Power” as well as the looming presidential election in November.
At one point during the interview, the host, Andrea Mitchell, brought up the attack that happened when a home intruder burst into her home in San Francisco back in 2022.
Pelosi wasn’t home at the time of the intrusion, but her husband Paul was. The intruder had a hammer in his hand and repeatedly asked Paul where his wife was. The man then hit Paul Pelosi repeatedly with the hammer.
In May, the man who attacked Paul Pelosi, David DePape, was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
During Wednesday’s interview, Mitchell asked Pelosi whether she blamed some of the people who demonized her as House speaker and who targeted her many times, including former President Doanld Trump as well as his followers.
Pelosi responded:
“I think they share some responsibility for that.”
She added that Republicans have a very long history of engaging in “politics of personal destruction.”
Pelosi said:
“The Republican Party with cloven feet, head horns. … Really, actually, they started under Clinton, Hillary [Clinton] and Bill Clinton, the politics of personal destruction and then they transferred it to me.”
Pelosi further claimed that Republicans targeted her during her time as the head of the Democratic Party in the House because she was “effective [at] getting bills passed.” As such, the GOP had no choice but to “take [her] down.”
She didn’t expand on what she was referring to when she referenced the Clintons, though she likely was talking about the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton that happened after he lied under oath about having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, who was a White House intern at the time.
During the interview with MSNBC, Pelosi also slammed some Republicans who have made “a joke” out of the attack on her husband Paul, as well as other members of the GOP who she said fanned the “flame” that ultimately incited the attack on her husband — which was initially meant for her.
As Pelosi said about GOP members:
“When they were doing it, they went into a different territory of political debate and it fed a flame, it fueled a flame.”
When DePape broke into the Pelosis’ home in 2022, he intended to take Nancy Pelosi hostage. When he found out that the speaker wasn’t home at the time, he ended up attacking Paul with the knife he had with him.
DePape was re-sentenced on May 17 of this year by District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, after a judicial error required that re-sentencing to take place.
He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the two counts he faced, which was the maximum for both charges. Those sentences will run simultaneously, though.
