House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued on Sunday that Republicans’ “disgraceful” reaction to the attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi, inside their San Francisco home drove voter turnout in favor of Democrats.
“Madam Speaker, you alluded to this when I asked about your husband,” anchor Dana Bash said to Nancy Pelosi on CNN’s “State of the Union. “But I just want to ask specifically in kind of point blank about the fact that there has been such extremism, such political violence. And what happened to your husband was horrific. Do you think that that had an impact on voters as they cast their ballots?”
“I know what people tell me — that’s anecdotal — and we always say the plural of anecdote is not data necessarily, but it is a trend and what I’m hearing,” Pelosi said. “But it wasn’t just the attack. It was the Republican reaction to it, which was disgraceful. And that I think really the attack is horrible.”
“I mean, imagine what I feel was the one who was the target and my husband paying the price and the traumatic effect on our family. But that trauma is intensified by the ridiculous, disrespectful attitude that the Republicans and there is no nobody disassociating themselves from the horrible response that they gave to it.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at a press conference. (Getty Images)
“That turned voters off?” Bash asked. To which Pelosi responded, “They tell me so.”
Also asked about the attack on her husband during a separate appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, the Speaker said Paul Pelosi was slowly recovering before alluding to the attack’s impact on voter turnout as well.
“We’ve been so comforted by the outpouring of prayers and good wishes and even people saying, ‘I wasn’t going to vote but now I’m going to vote because this has gone too far,'” she said.
A federal grand jury indicted David DePape, 42, on Wednesday after he allegedly broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco residence on Oct. 28 and violently attacked the Speaker’s husband with a hammer.
Court documents allege DePape intended to take Nancy Pelosi hostage because he was “sick of the insane f—ing level of lies coming out of Washington, D.C.”
Republicans, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, faced backlash for their remarks regarding the attack while campaigning before the midterms.
Paul Pelosi was allegedly attacked by a man looking for his wife, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Photo by Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images)
Youngkin, whose remarks came at a rally for GOP candidate Yesli Vega, afterward sent a handwritten apology note to the House Speaker. A spokesperson for Pelosi told Fox News that she accepted the apology.
Also on CNN on Sunday, Pelosi resisted Bash’s urging for clarity on whether she will run for Speaker again if Democrats retain control of the House while agreeing again that family and her husband’s recovery would have an impact on any political decision. Pelosi, stressing that it remains too close to call if the Republicans will take over control, admitted that she does not believe Minor Leader Kevin McCarthy is Speaker material.
House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, with her husband Paul Pelosi, attending a Holy Mass for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul lead by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica. (Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“You’ve talked about the need for a vibrant Republican Party. If House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy. He’s working the phones probably as we speak, trying to firm up the votes he needs to become speaker if Republicans do, in fact, take the House. As somebody who has been speaker for a combined eight years, do you think Kevin McCarthy has what it takes to be speaker of the House?” Bash asked.
“Let’s just get through the election. Okay. They haven’t won yet,” Pelosi said, trying to dodge.
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“You are uniquely qualified to understand what it takes to be Speaker of the House,” Bash insisted. “Does he have it?”
“But why would I make a judgment about something that may or may not ever happen? No, I don’t think he has it,” Pelosi admitted. “But that’s up to his own people to make a decision as to how they want to be led or otherwise.”
