When House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and her husband attended the Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson show at Shoreline Amphitheatre a few weeks ago, they sat in section 102. I sat in 101.
The Pelosi entourage arrived right before Dylan came on. The sun remained just above the horizon, prompting dozens of peaceful, joyous fans to stand up and snap photos of the Pelosis. The poignant moment seemed a testament to humanity and life itself, since earlier that same morning I had just read the first 34 pages of Pelosi’s new book, The Art of Power.
In harrowing detail, the opening chapters described the October night in 2022 when a deranged far-right conspiracist broke into the Pelosi home in San Francisco armed with a hammer and twist-ties. The attacker told Paul that Nancy was his intended target because she was the “leader of the pack” against Donald Trump. He later bludgeoned Paul over the head three times, nearly killing him. Thankfully, Paul survived, but more than a year later, Nancy’s husband still suffers from headaches and dizzy spells.
Trump, along with his offspring and several high-profile Republicans, reacted with jokes about the attack. Some of them are still cracking jokes.
In The Art of Power, Nancy writes that her house remains a target thanks to Republican-led ecosystems of hate speech and conspiracies. Similar behavior is on the rise outside the homes of elected and appointed officials throughout the country.
“Amid this poisonous rhetoric, I also do not hear serious, sustained calls by the other side saying that threats of political violence and personal demonization are unacceptable,” Nancy writes.
When she speaks to young people about running for office, especially to young women, too often she hears a reluctance to put their families in harm’s way.
“What they most often mention now as their greatest fear is the attack on Paul—and that something like that could happen in their own homes,” she writes. “We cannot ask people to serve in public life if the cost is risking the safety of their families and those they love.”
Speaking of safety risks, the congressional leader provides many details about Jan. 6 in The Art of Power. The mob of Trump supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” as they ransacked the hallways of the Capitol. Many also chanted “Where the fuck is Nancy?” During the insurrection, 138 officers from the Capitol and DC Metropolitan Police were injured and 15 were hospitalized.
Rioting Trump fans hit officers on the head with lead pipes and sprayed them with chemical irritants. They beat officers with stun guns, fists, sticks and clubs. One officer sustained two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs. Another was stabbed with a metal fence stake.
And this: Assuming they would not survive the violence, many congressional staff and even members of the vice president’s own security detail called their families to tell them goodbye.
“Watching the insurrection, which Trump had instigated, begging him to provide the National Guard—as we did and which he refused to send—and taking into account my own worries about the basic security of Vice President Mike Pence, hiding inside the Capitol complex, and the important role he had to play, I knew we had to prevail,” Nancy writes.
Prevail they did, although 121 Republicans, including Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, couldn’t admit out loud that Trump lost Arizona, so they voted against the certification of that state’s electoral votes. Even after a violent mob defecated inside the Capitol and smashed everything in its path, some Republicans still sided with the mob.
The chapter about Jan. 6 is titled “That Our Flag is Still There.” Even as rioters waved Confederate flags and wore “Camp Auschwitz” T-shirts, Old Glory still flew on the Capitol after the insurrectionist mob was removed and Congress played its constitutional role in certifying Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election.
Following Bob Dylan’s set at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Willie Nelson headlined the evening with a huge American flag behind him. Approximately 17,000 joyous and peaceful fans cheered him on. Dylan, 83, and Willie, 91, have done more to keep America great than any flag-clutching MAGA malcontent. I’m glad Nancy and Paul Pelosi were alive to witness the show.
