On Oct. 28, a man broke into former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s California home at around 2:30 a.m. According to The New York Times, the assailant possessed a hammer, which he used to forcefully hit Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, in the head. Police officers arrived on site and called for medical backup.

Upon arrival at the hospital, Paul Pelosi was immediately rushed into surgery, as he suffered from a deep skull laceration and fracture as well as severe injuries to his hands and right arm, according to Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill. Thankfully, he is expected to make a full recovery. 

The suspect has been identified as a 42-year-old male named David DePape who intended to interrogate Nancy Pelosi. He has been charged with six felonies: attempted murder, residential burglary, elder abuse, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment of an elder and threatening family members of public officials, according to San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins.

Evidence of antisemitic sentiment and extremist views can be found throughout DePape’s social media presence, particularly on his blogs. His initial intent, however, was to attack the former House Speaker herself. In an interview with police officers, DePape admitted to wanting to interrogate Nancy Pelosi about a political issue, which was not specified. 

Further, Depape told officers that if Pelosi were to respond with an answer he would have deemed as the truth, he would have set her free, but if he deemed her response as a lie, he “intended to break her kneecaps,” forcing her to be wheeled into Congress as a lesson to other Democrats.

On the same day of the attack, Pelosi received threats from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. 

“There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her back to be with him in California,” Youngkin said during a campaign speech.

 Local news source NBC4 reported scattered laughs from the crowd during Youngkin’s campaign speech, but his comments were later criticized for lacking sufficient sensitivity regarding the violent attack. 

In a later statement, Youngkin attempted to clarify his intent: “My full intention on my comments was to categorically state that violence and the kind of violence that was perpetrated against Speaker Pelosi’s husband is not just unacceptable, it’s atrocious. And I didn’t do a great job with that.” 

In the same statement, Youngkin said that he sent a personal letter to Speaker Pelosi in order to further apologize and “reflect those sentiments.”

This incident has raised much concern regarding the safety of older political officials. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has known Paul Pelosi for his entire life, expressed concern.

“This heinous assault is yet another example of the dangerous consequences of the divisive and hateful rhetoric that is putting lives at risk and undermining our very democracy and Democratic institutions,” he said in a statement. 

Students have also expressed concern.

“At the end of the day, we are still one united country, and the fact that we’ve gotten to the point where we’re attacking people based on their political views is sad,” sophomore Rowan Drant said. “It’s scary that we’ve got to the point where each party can’t have the decency to respect and keep each other safe,” he added.