Following Friday’s attack on their San Francisco home, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, says that although her husband Paul is making recovery, their children and grandchildren “are heartbroken and traumatised.”

Her letter to every member of the House of Representatives on Saturday night contained her first remarks since the attack.

Also read: Where’s Nancy: Suspect who attacked Paul Pelosi asked after breaking in

“Yesterday morning, a violent man broke into our family home, demanded to confront me and brutally attacked my husband Paul,” Pelosi wrote. “Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop.”

The attack has heightened concerns about political violence ahead of the midterm elections on November 8.

According to reports, the suspect, 42-year-old David Depape, wanted to see Nancy Pelosi.

US President Joe Biden called the incident “despicable” and blamed the rise in violence on a hostile political environment.

Also read: Who is David DePape, suspect arrested for attacking Paul Pelosi, husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

The US government sent a statement to law enforcement in all 50 states a few hours after the incident, warning of a “heightened threat” of domestic violent extremism directed at candidates and election officials by those with “ideological grievances.”

Police investigating the assault on Pelosi, which they have classified as an attempted murder, informed reporters that they were still trying to figure out the attacker’s motives.

Also read: Paul Pelosi attack: Dispatcher’s intuition saved Nancy Pelosi’s husband, says police chief

Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington DC on the opposite side of the country when the attack happened, took a flight to visit her husband in the hospital.

Paul Pelosi was attacked early on Friday morning, according to a spokesperson for the senior Democrat, “by an assailant who acted with force, and threatened his life while demanding to see the Speaker.”