NBC News pulled a report Friday that claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband didn’t let on that he was in any danger when cops showed up at his home just prior to the hammer attack on him.
The now-deleted clip said Paul Pelosi, 82, answered the door for cops who responded to a 911 call at the San Francisco home, but the officers were “seemingly unaware they had been called to the home of the speaker of the House.”
Pelosi didn’t “declare an emergency” or try to leave, but instead walked several feet back into the foyer toward armed attacker David DePape, who had broken into the home last Friday and was carrying a hammer, sources told NBC.
The report, which cited sources familiar with the matter, said it wasn’t clear what Pelosi’s mental state was or if he had already been hurt.
The NBC report from Friday was taken down with the explanation, “The piece should not have aired because it did not meet NBC News reporting standards.”
The report contradicted court documents filed in DePape’s case that said Pelosi “nervously but calmly greeted” officers in a dimly lit foyer where both men stood.
An officer asked what was going on and DePape responded “everything’s good” before a flashlight revealed he was holding a hammer with one hand and Pelosi’s arm with the other. The account in the NBC report did not say whether DePape was holding Pelosi’s arm when cops arrived.
“Mr. Pelosi had his hand on the top of the handle near the hammer itself,” court documents said.
An officer yelled for DePape to drop the hammer and the madman replied, “Um nope” before he wrested the hammer free from Pelosi’s grip, stepped back, and lunged at the elderly man to strike him in the head, full-force, according to court papers.
It was only then that cops stormed into the house and tackled DePape, according to the allegations.
Pelosi was knocked unconscious and was unresponsive for three minutes until he woke up in “a pool of his own blood,” the documents stated. He suffered a fractured skull and was released from the hospital Thursday.
The court documents also outline how Pelosi — who was woken up by the intruder after 2 a.m. — tried to keep the attacker calm and even assured him cops wouldn’t be coming. He placed a 911 call where he appeared not to try to alarm DePape, according to the narrative. A dispatcher sent cops on a top-priority wellness check.
DePape had smashed his way into the home through a rear door looking for the House speaker, who was in Washington, DC. He was on a “suicide mission” and planned to take Nancy Pelosi hostage and break her kneecaps if she lied to him, he later told prosecutors.
The attacker is facing federal and state charges for the alleged attack.