Nancy Pelosi’s daughter has said she would not have given her “blessing” for her mother to run for Congress if she knew the price her family has had to pay.
Alexandra Pelosi, a documentary filmmaker, spoke about the threats her family have faced, including an attack on her father Paul, who was left with a fractured skull after a man hit him with a hammer in his home.
She told Sky News that she had encouraged her mother to run for Congress when she was 16.
“Then 35 years later when we were sitting in the ICU and my father looked like Frankenstein, I said to my mother I never would have given you my blessing to run in the first place if I had known that this where it was going to land and if I had known the price my family had to pay for all of this,” she said.
“So I think for people who are thinking of serving in public life, there is a certain price your whole family has to pay.”
Mr Pelosi was attacked in October by a man accused of breaking into the family’s San Francisco home in an attempt to kidnap the former US House Speaker.
Ms Pelosi described the political landscape as “toxic” and warned that the attacks are “real”.
She said she hopes that threats towards her family will “step down” now that her mother, 82, has stepped down as Speaker.
Read more:
Suspect in attack on Paul Pelosi wanted to ‘break’ Speaker’s kneecaps
Pelosi stepping back but her influence will remain
“The attacks are real, the social media stuff trickles down to very unwell people,” she said.
“It’s a really scary time for people who are serving in public office. Luckily my mother stepped away so I’m hoping that the threats against our family will step down, but they’re all still real.”
Ms Pelosi was also with her mother during the January 6 riots in 2021 when thousands of Trump supporters violently stormed the US Capitol.
Footage of the Speaker that day as the chaos unfolded appears in Ms Pelosi’s HBO new documentary about her mother.
Pelosi in the House documents decades of her life in and out of politics from behind the scenes.
Ms Pelosi said the film is “not a traditional biopic” and was mostly filmed on a series of iPhones.
Her mother has served as Speaker twice during her time in Congress and was the first woman to take the role when she was elected in 2007.
