A man who clubbed U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband over the head with a hammer, shouting, “Where is Nancy?”, faced charges of attempted murder and other felonies a day after the violent break-in at the couple’s San Francisco home.
Police initially declined to offer a motive for Friday’s attack on Paul Pelosi, 82, who according to his wife’s office underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands, though doctors expect a full recovery.
But the assault 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 U.S. political climate in decades.
The 82-year-old House speaker herself, a Democrat who is second in the constitutional line of succession to the U.S. presidency, was in Washington with her protective detail at the time of the assault.
She flew to San Francisco to be with her husband.