High-profile US Democratic politician Nancy Pelosi has recalled being awakened by pounding on the door as Capitol Police rushed to tell her about the assault on her husband at the family’s home in San Francisco.

“I was very scared,” Ms Pelosi told CNN in an interview.

“I’m thinking my children, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul.”

The House Speaker opened up about the brutal attack on the eve of the midterm elections as her party struggles against a surge of Republican enthusiasm to keep control of Congress amid threats of violence against lawmakers and concerns over the US election.

Ms Pelosi’s husband Paul was bludgeoned with a hammer 11 days before the election by intruder authorities said broke into the family’s home looking for the speaker before striking the 82-year-old in the head at least once.

The intruder told police he wanted to talk to Speaker Pelosi and would “break her kneecaps” as a lesson to other Democrats.

Mr Pelosi suffered a fractured skull and other injuries in what authorities said was an intentional political attack.

Ms Pelosi said she was sleeping at her apartment in Washington, having just returned from San Francisco, when there was a “bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,” on her door at 5am on the morning of October 28.

“We didn’t even know where he was or what his condition was,” Ms Pelosi said, in excerpts of the interview that is scheduled to air later Tuesday (AEDT).

“We just knew there was an assault on him in our home.”

David DePape, 42, is being held without bail in San Francisco after pleading not guilty to attempted murder and other charges in San Francisco.

He also faces federal charges of attempted kidnapping of an elected official.

The fringe activist who followed conspiracy theories broke into the Pelosi home, woke up Mr Pelosi and demanded to talk to “Nancy”, authorities said.

When Mr Pelosi told the intruder his wife was out of town, Mr DePape said he would wait.

After Mr Pelosi called 911, officers arrived to see the two men struggling over a hammer before Mr DePape struck Mr Pelosi at least once in the head with the hammer.

Mr DePape later told police he wanted to kidnap the speaker and threatened to injure her “to show other members of Congress there were consequences to actions”.

The authorities’ stark narrative laid out in court filings in the case comes in contrast to the jokes and innuendo that conservatives and some Republican officials have spread about the couple in the aftermath of the attack.

Ms Pelosi has said little since the attack on her husband, cutting short her campaign appearances but spoke in a virtual call to grassroots activists late last week after Mr Pelosi was released from the hospital.

“People say to me, ‘What can I do to make you feel better?’ [and] I say, ‘Vote’,” Ms Pelosi told those on the call.

Her voice cracked at times as she said of her husband’s recovery: “It’s going to be a long haul.”