Comment Dealing with trauma she likened to “survivor’s guilt,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the aftermath of the October attack on her husband, Paul, by a gunman who was looking for her, has left the Democrat’s family reeling of California. “If he had fallen or slipped on ice or had an accident and hurt his head, it would have been horrible, but for him to have been attacked because they were looking for me is really — they call it ‘survivor’s guilt’ or something,” Pelosi told the Thursday in her most detailed comments yet on the aftermath of the attack. “But the traumatic effect on him, it happened in our home.” “He made our house a crime scene,” he added. Pelosi told reporters that her husband “is fine” but faces a long recovery, and noted that the trauma extends beyond herself and her husband — her children and grandchildren are dealing with it as well. The speaker, who announced Thursday that she will not seek leadership in the next Congress, also addressed Republicans who mocked her and her family after the attack. ‘I feel balanced about everything’: Nancy Pelosi reflects on two decades at the top “If your husband was in a situation where other people were making fun of it, taking it as a joke, raising bail money for the perpetrator, coming up with a conspiracy theory about what was going on — it’s so horrible to think that the Republican Party has come to that, and no real pushback from anyone in the party,” he said. “It’s so sad for our country.” During a campaign event, former Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake drew laughs from the crowd after joking that the Pelosi home “doesn’t have a lot of protection.” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) also made light of the situation at a campaign rally the day the news broke, saying that while “there is no room for violence anywhere … we will send [Nancy Pelosi] back to be with him in California.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) shared a Twitter thread from a far-right activist challenging the idea that the alleged shooter was a militant right-winger — even though the shooter’s blog appears to be deeply involved in election fraud and political CONSPIRACY THEORIES. On Thursday, Pelosi thanked her GOP colleagues for standing by her, saying most of them “have been great to me.” “I feel very comforted by many of my fellow Republicans here,” she said. “So I don’t paint everyone with the same brush.” Democratic colleagues hug House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) as she leaves the House floor on November 17. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Elizabeth Frantz/The Washington Post) Paul Pelosi, 82, underwent surgery on his skull after police say a man with a hammer broke into the Pelosis home, yelling “Where’s Nancy?” — a chant reminiscent of what was heard during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters who wanted to stop the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election. David DePap, 42, has been charged with both state and and for federal crimes in connection with the attack. The attack on Pelosi’s home comes after a dramatic increase in threats against lawmakers and government officials in recent years. Three men were convicted in November of aiding in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In a separate case, a man was convicted in late October of threatening to kill Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.). Earlier this year, a man with a gun was arrested near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Cavanaugh after threats were made against the justice. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries poised to become first black lawmaker to lead party in Congress Nancy Pelosi revealed in a Nov. 7 interview with CNN — her first televised sit-down since the attack — that Capitol Police woke her up in Washington to alert her of what happened. Capitol police officers “said we have to come in to talk to you,” Pelosi said in the interview. “And I think, my children, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul, because I knew he wouldn’t be out, let’s say.’ “Paul wasn’t the target, but he’s the one who paid the price,” he told CNN. It’s a sentiment she echoed Thursday when she described how difficult it was when the violence hit so close to home. “People tell me that people — if you were in an accident, you’d walk miles to avoid going past the accident scene,” he said. “Or if, if you had a serious health problem, you wouldn’t go near the hospital where you were being treated, because it would bring back that trauma.”
