Speaker Nancy Pelosi Press Conference Transcript September 24

Nancy Pelosi: (00:00)
Good morning.

Audience: (00:06)
Good morning.

It’s the first time we’ve all been together since losing the notorious Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Such a sad passing for our country. My understanding from the Jewish faith is that when you leave on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, you are in a special category of the righteous. May she rest in peace. People ask me some stories about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the rest, and one I want to tell you this morning is something that is remarkable. I mean, tomorrow we will be gathering in Statuary Hall, where she will be the first woman to lie in state in the capital of the United States. Actually, our prayer will be led by a rabbi, the first Jewish person to lie in state in the capital of the United States. So we have a lot of cause for, I don’t want to say celebration, but observance of a historic time for a historic woman. Did more for the equality of women than anybody in our history.

And a couple years ago we honored, in the capital, in Women’s History Month, the women members of the Supreme Court. Being the senior member, Justice Ginsburg spoke for the group to receive the honor. And she told the story of a woman named Belva Lockwood. Belva Lockwood is a New Yorker, Chuck Schumer keeps reminding me, Leader Schumer keeps reminding me. Belva Lockwood in 1876, long time ago, she applied to practice law in the Supreme Court. The vote against was 6-3. There were nine justices then, as now. 6-e. Because she was a woman, they turned her down. So she didn’t take no for an answer. She campaigned, advocated for change with the Congress of the United States. And she won. Congress passed a bill saying that women with the qualifications must be admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court.

And Ginsburg then goes on to say, “It is my favorite example of how sometimes the Congress is more in touch with changing times and expansion of idea of equality than the Court is.” I remind you that when the Court, in now current history, ruled against women in the workplace by ruling against in the Lilly Ledbetter case, the dissent was written by Justice Ginsburg. Her dissent became the basis for the Lilly Ledbetter Pay Act, which was passed in the Congress and the first bill to be signed by President Barack Obama. His very first bill to sign. Once again, the Congress more in touch with changing times and expansion of equality in country. The first time was, I think it ended up at 1879 by the time it was finished.

In any event, her passing is like just a death in so many families in our country, because so many people pinned their hopes, heeded her guidance, admired her stamina, her love of the arts, bringing civility to her relationships in the court and in the country. At the same time as we observe her passing, we observe the deaths in the family of 200,000 Americans from the conversation. We mourn every one of them. I had the opportunity to be invited the other day, a couple days ago, when the number was exceeded actually, where there were 20,000 flags on the Mall in front of the Washington Monument. 20,000 flags. Just if you saw the optica, the visual of that many flags representing each one of them, 10 people who had died. 10 families, 200,000 families suffering this loss and some of them not even able to give a hug goodbye or be close to their loved ones as they passed on from this.

It did not have to be this way, but Trump’s contempt of science and the health of the American people, including the cover up of the catastrophic nature of the virus and his resistance to mask wearing, distancing and other science-based steps to slow the virus has led to an historic national tragedy. Terrible, immoral failure on the part of this President. We advanced a science-based proposal to crush the virus in the HEROES Act. That was four months ago. But our insistence on testing began March 4th. That was our first bill that we passed on coronavirus in the Congress. March 4th. Testing, testing, testing. Now, it was in other bills a long way, bipartisan bills. But not implemented. The HEROES Act had not only the resources, but the strategic plan set forth by the Energy and Commerce Committee and its Chairman, Frank Pallone. But ignored science. Science, testing, tracing, treatment, isolation, sanitation, mask wearing. That could have saved many lives. Not all, but many. Either the GOP does not understand the gravity of the situation or do not care about meeting America’s family’s needs.

Again, sadly within hours of Justice Ginsburg’s passing just… Well, they had it planned in advance you know, because we barely heard that she had passed when McConnell said that they were going to approve a justice soon. May she rest in peace? Any sense of decency? I guess not. But you know why? You know why? And this is really important. People talk about this and do that and that. It’s important for the American people to know with that statement and the President’s statement as well, what they’re saying is, “We have to put somebody there.” They’ll never replace Justice Ginsburg. “We have to fill that seat so that we can overturn the Affordable Care Act.” People have to know why this matters to them in their lives. If you have a pre-existing condition of which 150 million families in America do, say goodbye to the benefit. Overturn the benefit of the pre-existing condition.

If your children, and millions of children are, on their parent’s policy. That’s over. Medicaid, Medicare, all of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act to strengthen those initiatives and in terms of Medicaid, if you have a senior member of your family who needs long term care and benefits from Medicaid, pretty soon they’ll be living in your house with you, because that benefit will be gone. And if you’re a woman, the Affordable Care Act said no longer will being a woman be a pre-existing medical condition, something that many of us can speak of first hand, when women paid more, if they could even get the coverage.

So these are just some of benefits that affect America’s families. Kitchen table issues about how they maintain their health and their financial health because healthcare is expensive. So it just goes on and on about what will be gone. That’s the method to their madness. “Let’s just get in there and overturn the Affordable Care Act. And at the same time, we can mess with the elections.” But the thing that matters in people’s personal lives is the Affordable Care Act. And if I just had to say it in one sentence, the pre-existing condition benefit. President’s been in office nearly four years. He keeps talking about supporting pre-existing condition. He doesn’t done anything about it. We would very much been willing to work with him to remove all doubt that if you have pre-existing condition or if your baby is born with some physical needs that area pre-existing condition for a lifetime, and in Affordable Care Act, there is no lifetime limit on what you can receive in terms of benefits.

So this, I’m a little proprietary about the Affordable Care Act and we have defended it to 10,000 events of people telling their stories. That’s how we saved it. That’s how we passed it and that’s how we saved it and that’s what is at risk right now. And that’s why they were in such a hurry.

Yesterday, we had the heartbreaking report, the news breaking that justice was denied of Breonna Taylor and her family. Just think if it were your daughter, your sister, your cousin, your relative, your friend who was murdered by the police and the charging decision held no accountable for her death. In June, the House passed the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act to bring accountability to our justice system. I call upon the Senate to vote upon it immediately. We owe it to Breonna Taylor, to George Floyd, Philando Castile and so many others. To so many others. The provisions in the bill would’ve prevented this from happening.

With all the respect in the world for our men and women in blue, there has to be respect for our police, but respect for doing the job in a way that has justice for all. I was told by one of your cameramen the other day that in the Black community, there’s a saying. “Justice, not just us.” And so we don’t there to be two systems of justice.

This week we had a big bipartisan vote on the CR. I was very pleased that we’ll avert a shutdown, enable us to continue the work of passing elements of the HEROES Act so that we can save lives, livelihood and the life of our democracy. For the children, nearly $8 billion in direly needed nutrition. Assistance for seniors prevented what would’ve happened if we didn’t act. Up to $50 per month expense of [inaudible 00:11:54] the premium hike. And it’s now like four or five dollars, versus the 50. We saved the Republicans from themselves because we know what we’re doing.

And for our communities, includes a one year surface transportation authorization and for our farmers, boost accountability to the Commodity Credit Corporation, which now prevents and also prevent… Imagine that they were going to use money saying, “This is for the farmers.” Well, we want it to be for family farmers, not necessarily corporate farmers, so we wanted to have clarity and accountability and transparency and all of that. But imagine that they had announced that they were going to spend $300 million from the CCC, which is for farmers, to give a bail out to big oil. The bill prevents that from happening.

And now that the CR’s done, we hope that the administration will come forward with the resources to meet the needs of the American people. We came down a trillion dollars in our $3.4 trillion bill. Then we offered to meet the Republicans halfway. We still haven’t heard back about that. But you know what? Since then, the needs have not decreased, because the President is, again, disdainful, if not contemptible of science. We have not reduced. In fact, some of the needs in terms of the coronavirus are increasing. And we need, related to that, more money for education and we need more money for small businesses, restaurants, airlines and many other key priorities, so we’re going to even need more money, or else we’re going to have to cut some more things down further to stay.

But I’m eager to hear what they have to say when they come, but we’ll be hopefully soon to the table with them, but very soon showing you where our money would be spent. Again, the airline industry, September 30th is fraught with meaning for them. Children in school right now, need more money for children to be there safely in terms of spacing or if it’s virtual, to have the technologies, so that they can learn.

I was very proud yesterday, a few of you were here, when we unveiled our Protecting Our Democracy Act, a robust reform package to address the President’s staggering litany of abuses and ensure that they can never happen again by anyone and any Presidents. Our Chairs, very proud of their work, have crafted robust reforms that can stand up to and prevent, for example, an assault on our democracy, including the abuse of pardon power, of soliciting of foreign interference in our elections, retaliatory attacks on whistleblowers, politicization of tools of justice, abuse of office for personal enrichment, and contempt of Congress’ oversight powers, including our subpoena power.

It’s really sad, because that is central to the genius of the Constitution, the system of checks and balances. Three separate branches of government, a check and balance on the other. It is sad that the President’s actions have made this necessary for us to do. We had no choice but to repair and strengthen our democracy. We cannot look the other way and enable its erosions. Our founders, they figured there could be a rogue President someday, so they built guardrails in to the Constitution. But they didn’t figure we’d have a rogue President and a rogue Senate that would let him get away with all of that. Hence, this is necessary.

In closing, I’ll just say this. 40 days until the election. 40 days. For some of us, in our faiths, 40 is a number that is fraught with meaning. 40 days. 40 days of contemplation, 40 days of prayer, 40 days of resolve, 40 days for the American people to give voice to their concerns and have an election that is about the peaceful transfer of power, which is such a beacon of democracy and hope to the rest of the world. 40 days. Thank you. Any questions?

Speaker 3: (16:23)
Madam Speaker, do you have absolute confidence in the institutions of this country to ensure peaceful transition to the next presidential term and that if, in some extraordinarily unlikely circumstance, the election were still being contested when President Trump’s term ends in January, that he would have to leave office and that whomever is Speaker would become President?

Well, that’s an outcome we don’t want. We want the peaceful transfer of power, and again, this is about something you’ve heard me say again and again. We don’t agonize, we organize, and we want to make sure that the American people know how important their vote is and how they can vote safely, without risking their health. And it is very sad that you even have to ask that question. A real testimony to the need for protecting our democracy that we put forth yesterday. That a President of the United States would place in doubt the idea of a peaceful transfer of power is… Well, it’s no surprise, again, because the President has been contemptible of science and governance and so you see 200,000 people have died.

But I have confidence in the American people, and I have confidence that he won’t get away with saying, for example, “I won with the vote on the ground, the vote in the mail doesn’t count,” and the rest of that. What am I missing here about people just not saying, “Hold it, calm down, Mr. President.” Now, we do know who he admires. He admires Putin, he admires Kim Jong-un. He admires Erdoğan in Turkey. He admires people who are perpetuating their role in government. But I remind me, you are not in North Korea, you are not in Turkey, you are not in Russia, Mr. President. And by the way, you are not in Saudi Arabia. You are in the United States of America. It is a democracy. So why don’t you just try for a moment to honor your oath of office to the Constitution of the United States?

Speaker 4: (18:42)
Madam Speaker?

But yeah, I have confidence and it would not be a good thing for our country for our election to be ignored by the President so that a solution as the Constitution provides for, but nonetheless one that does not, in my view, constitute a peaceful transfer of power.

Yes, sir?

Speaker 5: (19:05)
Along the same lines, President Trump has made past provocative statements and you guys have been up here at the podiums and said they’re horrible things to say and then gone about the business. Is there anything more formal that you want to do to make your opposition to what he said yesterday known. Censure, resolution. [inaudible 00:19:28] took up a resolution after Charlottesville?

I don’t think he’s worth the trouble at this point. We have 40 days until the election. He is trying to discredit mail in voting, which is hurting, as you’ve heard some of the Republicans say, this has been an important part of our electorate success, mail in voting. He’s discrediting that, vote by mail. And so the answer to it all, the antidote to almost every ailment that I have named is the vote and so right now, our point is, it’s no use our orchestrating one thing or another when what really matters, in terms of a peaceful transfer of power, is that people vote and that they’re vote is counted as cast, whoever they vote for, whatever the outcome. If he honestly gets the majority of the electoral college and is the next President, that’s the peaceful continuation of power.

So this isn’t we just want it if it’s going to be Joe Biden on January 20th. I feel quite certain that it will be. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say. Iwillvote.com. Go there, you can find out how to vote by mail, in person, if you’re registered, how to register. Tell a friend. We have something called the Sojourner Truth Women’s Vote Project. Which Sojourner Truth was a suffragist, she was a slave and she was an abolitionist, and she was very much a part of women getting the right to vote. I dedicated a statue to her… Speaker last time in Emancipation Hall. Very proud of that. So we had this project named for her. And every Tuesday, we have Truth Tuesday, Sojourner Truth. Truth Tuesday to talk about how people can vote and sometimes people say, “I’m not going to vote,” because they just haven’t voted or they don’t know how to vote. We have to remove all those barriers.

Instead, we have a President of the United States who wants to discredit people’s vote. Really? Really? What would our founders think? And what are these Republicans going to say to their children and their grandchildren when they ask them, “What did you do to strengthen our democracy when it was questioned as to whether an election was the proper way to transfer power in our country?”

Speaker 6: (22:06)
Madam- [crosstalk 00:22:07]

Right now, 40 days, we just want to get out that vote.

Speaker 5: (22:11)
But you understand, there’s a lot of people, particularly in your party and the liberal side of it particularly, found last night to be pretty important remark.

You know, I have the privilege of being a leader in the most diverse party in every possible way, including opinion. A large number of people outside, not in the House, but outside, wanted me to shut down government because of what they’re doing on Justice Ginsberg. Shut down government? I’m not a big believer in shutting down government, but when the West is on fire and the South is battered, storms, and the whole country is suffering from a pandemic and we have a down turn in our economy, and the people we need so that we can do our jobs, public employees, we’re going to shut them down? No, I don’t think so.

So again, the beautiful diversity of our party is that we are not a rubber stamp. We have all kinds of opinions in the party and the fact is, I was very proud that we were able to achieve what we did the other day and have big, strong bipartisan vote to keep government open.

Audience: (23:26)
Madam Speaker, Madam Speaker. [crosstalk 00:23:27]

Yes, ma’am?

Speaker 7: (23:28)
Do you agree that Article Six, which bans religious tests from being qualification for office, do you think that that should apply to Supreme Court nominees as well?

I’m not going to get into anybody’s interpretation of one thing or another. The confirmation is the work of the Senate and I trust the judgment of our Democrats there to honor the Constitution.

Speaker 7: (23:52)
So you think a religious test is okay?

Yes ma’am?

Speaker 8: (23:54)
Madam Speaker, do you have a contingency plan for after the election if the President does not recognize a Biden victory and goes to the courts to try and contest the election? Have you talked about impeachment? Would you impeach him again? What can Congress do if he were to do something like that?

I have a pretty good idea of the method of his madness and what he might try to do to undermine the Constitution. It always is stunning to me to see how complicit and enabling the Republicans are of such a thing. I was pleased that Leader McConnell put out a statement this morning that seemed to go in the direction of protecting the Constitution of the United States. That was a real change. But let me just say that there are three stages to elections. One, everything that happens before, and you see what he’s trying to do. Dismantle the Post Office, discredit mail in voting, all of the [inaudible 00:25:00] that they’re doing. Involvement in [inaudible 00:25:02] elections. All the thing [inaudible 00:25:07] undermine integrity of [inaudible 00:25:12].

[inaudible 00:25:12] and now at least 20 states right now are voting. So we’re in this area where for some it’s still pre-vote time and for others, the election is on. And again, we want people to be able to vote without jeopardizing their health and that’s why we want to have the money in the bill to do just that. It doesn’t seem the health of the American people, as their exercise to vote, does not seem to be of interest or any level of priority to the Republicans. But that discussion goes on.

So we have that. And then we have the election. The actual voting as we get closer and to protect the integrity of the vote and to stop… The President’s even said it, that he’d have people there, the intimidation of the voter. I don’t know why the press doesn’t make more of this, to be very honest with you. I mean, if he says the people swallow Clorox, and we hear about it for the rest of our lives, but he’s trying to have the Constitution of the United States swallow Clorox, and I appreciate these questions that all of you have this morning, and I guess provoked by the arrogance and the disregard for the Constitution with the President’s statement last night.

So I have a pretty good idea of every step of the way, of the danger that he places our Constitution and our elections in, and then he’ll try to say, “Well, I won because I won the votes that turned out that day. Vote by mail doesn’t count.” Really? And there are more elections on the ballot than just his. I’m sure some of these Republicans who win with absentee ballots have a different view, as they have said. And then we’ll just have to make sure the integrity of the electoral college is retained. That is to say, if, as our democracy calls for, if the President wins a state, then those votes go to the President or if the Vice President wins the state, those votes go to the Vice President.

But as with most elections, we have a lot of lawyers at work, because for a little while now there’s been some interest on the other side of undermining the election. We have more now and I won’t go into all of them because… You cannot ignore it because it’s there, but you cannot panic over it. So again, we don’t agonize, we organize. To protect our Constitution, the integrity of our elections, which he has been after for awhile and that was one of the impetuses for the impeachment of the President.

But as of now, 40 days to go. It’s up to the people and we want them to be able to have confidence in their vote. So while we acknowledge, you can’t ignore his ridiculous statements, but you must ensure the people know, you should vote, it will count. Iwillvote.com.

Audience: (28:25)
Madam Speaker, Madam Speaker.

[crosstalk 00:28:26] I’m going to have to go. I got to go back to my day job.

Audience: (28:31)
Madam-

No, that’s it. Thank you.

Audience: (28:33)
Thank you, Madam. Thank you.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi Press Conference Transcript September 24

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