Oct 31(ABC): The man who clubbed US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in the head with a hammer, shouting “Where is Nancy?” after forcing his way into the couple’s San Francisco home, faced charges of attempted murder and other felonies a day later.
Police have not offered a motive for Friday’s assault on Paul Pelosi, 82, who according to his wife’s office underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his hands and right arm, though doctors expect a full recovery.
President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Delaware on Saturday, said the attack appeared to have been “intended for Nancy.”
The incident stoked fears about political violence less than two weeks ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 8 that will decide control of the House of Representatives and Senate, coming amid the most vitriolic and polarized US political climate in decades.
The 82-year-old House speaker herself, a Democrat who is second in the constitutional line of succession to the US presidency, was in Washington at the time of the assault.
She flew to San Francisco hours after the attack to be with her husband, and released a statement on Saturday expressing dismay that “a violent man broke into our family home, demanded to confront me and brutally attacked my husband Paul.”
“Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop,” she said in the brief statement, addressed to her congressional colleagues.
