CBS News
Nancy Pelosi opens up about traumatic attack on her husband, and her advice for Kamala Harris on running against Trump
Until now, Nancy Pelosi has not discussed the trauma of October 28, 2022, when a man broke into her house in San Francisco and hit her husband, Paul Pelosi, then 82, in the head at least three times with a hammer. Surgeons had to remove part of his skull to save his life.
“My husband and I have never talked about this,” Pelosi said. “The doctors have supported that, because they don’t want him to revisit it.”
The assailant was targeting Nancy Pelosi. “He was looking for me,” she said. “Imagine the guilt of all of that – it’s just a horrible thing.”
She describes the horror in her new book, “The Art of Power.” In it, she quotes her daughter, documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, who tells her, “You have to give it up – the Speakership, Congress, everything in your public life.”
CBS News
Asked whether her daughter blamed her, Nancy Pelosi said, “Well, I blame me. I mean, not blame me. I was the target. My family, frankly, blames certain elements of the Republican Party who had been demonizing me for about 20 years, every election and the rest – cloven feet, horns on the head, a horrible person, in flames, a devil, and all of that. The sad thing about my husband’s assault was that they just made a joke of it. They thought it was funny. And people laughed. So, [Trump] was an instigator of violence and then made light of it.”
There have been reports that Pelosi orchestrated a coordinated effort to squeeze President Joe Biden to drop out. Asked what she told Mr. Biden, Pelosi replied, “Well, I’ve never shared any conversations with a President of the United States publicly, no.”
“It’s said that he’s furious at you,” said Stahl. “Is he?”
“Well, he knows that I love him very much,” replied Pelosi.
“I understand that you don’t want to own this. But it is so well-reported that you were the leader of a pressure campaign.”
“No, I wasn’t a leader of any pressure party. Well, let me say things that I didn’t do. I didn’t call one person. I did not call one person. I could always say to him, ‘I never called anybody.’ What I’m saying is, I had confidence that the president would make the proper choice for our country, whatever that would be, and I said that. ‘Whatever that is, we’ll go with.'”
Stahl asked, “Had you seen a decline in Joe Biden? And did you think he needed to step aside?”
Pelosi said, “No. My whole point was, whatever he decides, but we have to have a more aggressive campaign.”
She mentioned Mr. Biden’s many accomplishments, including his forceful leadership of the NATO Summit with other Western heads of state. “He was in a good place to make whatever decision – the top of his game,” Pelosi said. “Such a consequential President of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of President of the United States.”
Stahl asked, “Are you really saying that he belongs up there on Mount Rushmore? Lincoln and Joe Biden?”
“Well, you got Teddy Roosevelt up there, and he’s wonderful. I don’t say take him down. But you can add Biden.”
If there were a Mount Rushmore for Speakers of the House, Nancy Pelosi would certainly be up there, commemorating her 20 years as a commanding leader in Congress, until she relinquished Democratic Party leadership a year ago.
Simon & Schuster
In “The Art of Power,” Pelosi, now 84, looks back at some of the battles she’s most proud of.
She stresses it is not a memoir: “There’s certain episodes of our history that I played a major role in. So, I wanted to write about that just to show my side of it, what happened in the room where it happened, where I was.”
She wasn’t just in the room. She was working the room … usually running it, as during the financial bailout, COVID relief, the Affordable Care Act … and the dark day of January 6.
She writes about hearing the crowd attacking the Capitol saying “Nancy, we’re coming for you, bitch.”
Stahl said, “You knew what was happening that day was directed at you.”
“And the vice president,” Pelosi said. “It was an insurrection instigated by the President of the United States. He now tries to disassociate himself from it, blaming it on me and everybody else. But that’s the way he is. This was instigated by him.”
Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Also from Pelosi’s book: in response to Trump saying he was going to march to the Capitol, Pelosi remarked, “If he comes, I’m gonna punch him out for trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m gonna punch him out, and I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.”
“I knew that I would have to pay a price, to go to jail,” Pelosi said, “but I would be happy to do that.”
Pelosi is now turning her toughness to defeating Donald Trump. She calls him “the best organizer and fundraiser for the Democrats, because people know he should never set foot again in the White House – never should have, and shouldn’t again.”
Asked if she thinks Trump made a mistake in choosing Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate, Pelosi laughed: “I think it was a great choice!”
Stahl asked “What is your bit of advice for Kamala Harris on how to run this campaign against Donald Trump? Does she instigate a fight? Does she bait him?”
“Let me just say this, and this is what I tell everybody all the time: Just be yourself,” Pelosi said. “It’s the same advice I give to women – be yourself.”
Stahl said, “The opposition – the Trump people and he and JD Vance – are trying to portray Kamala Harris as being ‘weird.’ ‘She’s a radical, left-wing, San Francisco crazy lady. She’s weird and she’s nuts.'”
Pelosi said, “Well, the thing is, there’s no question that they understand I make people laugh at them. And that’s what they don’t like, is to be laughed at. On the other hand, what I have always said about Trump and now – I don’t know that much about Vance, but what we do know is menacing.”
So, what should Harris say? “Just talk about kitchen-table issues – ignore him,” said Pelosi.
No longer part of the leadership in the House, Pelosi is still running for re-election for her seat from San Francisco.
Asked if she had ever been asked to run for president, Pelosi replied, “I haven’t been asked, but I was encouraged to put my name in there sometime for vice president. I said, ‘Why would I wanna be vice president?’ I’m a legislator. I love legislating. People have to understand it’s serious work. I mean, you really have to listen. What is the judgment you bring as to what priorities can prevail? What is your strategy to get it done? It’s constant. It’s constant. And it’s being respectful of all kinds of points of view – inside maneuvering, outside mobilization. It’s great. I love being a legislator.”
READ AN EXCERPT: Nancy Pelosi on “The Art of Power”
For more info:
Story produced by Gabriel Falcon. Editor: Joseph Frandino.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.