House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Monday night to discuss a wide range of issues including the recent hammer attack on her husband Paul, Tuesday’s midterm elections, and her future as a leader of her party. While she was moving when describing the suffering her family has gone through since the still-unexplained assault, she didn’t waste a lot of time before getting political and blaming Republicans for inciting the assailant, David DePape.

On Paul’s recovery from skull surgery:

He’s doing okay.  He is – it’s a long haul.  But he knows he has to pace himself… We’re concerned about the traumatic effect on him.  But again, he’s on a good path with excellent care from San Francisco General and his health care providers.

She went on to describe the operation as a success, but said, “it’s only one part of the recovery. The dramatic, drastic head injury. It takes some time.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi describes the moment she learned about the attack on her husband, in her first sit-down interview since the violence in their home https://t.co/5EnEAdoRM6 pic.twitter.com/LW0aUmDw4A

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 7, 2022

I’ll just say here, one can put aside political differences to feel empathy for the Pelosi family as they recover from this trauma.

That being said, Pelosi didn’t take long to get back to politics:

For me, this is really the hard part because Paul was not the target… But it really – it’s really sad, because it is a flame that was fueled by misinformation and all the rest of that, which is most unfortunate.  It shouldn’t – it has no place in our democracy. [Emphasis mine.]

As of this writing, there is no evidence to support that this attack was caused by “misinformation.” What we do know is that the assailant, David DePape, was a drugged-out hippie with long-standing mental health issues who was in this country illegally. He seems to have wild political views that cover the spectrum, from BLM to conspiracy theories to radical nudist activism. But like so many others, Pelosi blames Republicans:

…I do think that there has to be some message to the Republicans to stop, to stop the disinformation, because that is, without any question, a source of what happened on January 6th, and then the denial of all of that, and then the source of what is happening to me right now. [Emphasis mine.]

Democrats have spent years accusing the Right of mis- and disinformation, yet President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and virtually every major left-leaning news outlet in the country has blamed Trump and his rhetoric for the Paul Pelosi incident—without evidence.

Trump certainly can throw flames, but what about New York Senator Chuck Schumer’s threats to the Supreme Court? Biden’s divisive angry speech when he claimed that half of all Americans are a threat to Democracy? California Rep. Maxine Water’s exhortations to riot in the wake of the George Floyd killing?

"In our democracy there is one party that is doubting the outcome of the election, feeding that flame, and mocking any violence that happens," says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her first sit-down interview since her husband's attack. "That has to stop." https://t.co/5EnEAdoRM6 pic.twitter.com/EhEmsGYCuM

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 8, 2022

The above claim—that there is only one party that doubts election results—is simply not true. Watch this truly amazing video compiling all the Democrats who denied elections:

Talking about her legislative achievements, Pelosi went on a frankly rather bizarre bout of boasting:

…I’m very effective.  I’m a great … master of the legislation.  And on the policy side, on the political side, I’m an outstanding, shall we say, a master of the resources necessary, intellectual, financial or political, to win elections. And so they have to put a stop to me, right?

Well she certainly has the ego for the job. As to her future, she was coy, saying that would wait to see the outcome of the midterms and: “Well, I have to say my decision will be affected about what happened the last week or two [the attack on her husband].”

The decision may not be entirely in her hands, though, as a group of top House Democrats met in September to discuss replacing her as the leader of the Democratic Caucus. RedState‘s Bonchie has thoughts:

Spoiler: Nancy Pelosi was always going to retire after the election. She only stayed to keep a united front. Her claim that she’s only entertaining it now because of her husband’s attack is nonsense.

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) November 8, 2022

Again, what happened to Mr. Pelosi is terrible, but it’s craven how quickly she pivots to using the attack as a political tool and is able to quickly blame it on her opponents, despite the evidence not backing that up. While I hope Paul makes a full recovery, I also hope this is the last we see of Nancy in a leadership role.