Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference Today

WASHINGTON, June 29 -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued the following news release:

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference today. Below is a transcript of the press conference.

Leader Pelosi Opening Remarks

Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here.

I'm honored this morning, or now afternoon, to be joined by the distinguished Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. Congressman Thompson has been a champion for protecting the homeland of our country and really has been a persistent advocate, dissatisfied sometimes in what has happened. He'll talk about that.

But as we go into the Fourth of July weekend, we're here to talk about something about our democracy and what our Founders sacrificed for us to be able to have the sacred right to vote, how that has been fought for over the years for women for the African American community, for women later, and what it means now to have an assault on it by a foreign power.

Before I yield to Mr. Thompson, though, I just wanted to say something about the health care bill. As you know, [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell is postponing the vote on this bill, and it's a setback for them, but it is not a victory for us. This is progress in terms of exposing the bill for what it is, but more needs to be done.

And, again, the Republicans will probably go behind closed doors, as they are, to write a bill, and we'll know what it is when we see it. But if they do as the House did, they will only make matters worse.

And what does that mean? Higher costs or fewer benefits, a terrible age tax, undermining Medicare, stealing from Medicare and Medicaid I should have said, and gutting key protections.

That's what they want the American people to swallow. As they do this, they're making an assault on Medicaid, which is, again, very dangerous to children and other living things should they succeed. If you are a senior in a nursing home, if you're a child with a severe disability, a complex diagnosis, the list goes on and on.

One in 10 veterans takes advantage of Medicaid. One in 10 of our veterans. So they hurt children, seniors, veterans, families in our country. Every sector of the health care system is opposed to their bill. You wonder, how could they cook this thing up?

Well, you know, all of this is, again, to give a tax cut to the wealthiest people in our country while they take health care away from America's working families. The biggest transfer of wealth in our country's history, $700 billion, $800 billion from working families to the wealthiest and corporate America.

Here we are. It's the end of the first two quarters of the year, but, say, almost 6 months that the Republicans have been in this session of Congress, over 5 months since the President has been in office. No jobs bill, no infrastructure bill, no tax reform bill, no health care bill, no legislation to uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America. No nothing except, again, taking away protections for clean air and clean water for our children. So, again, it is a poor record that they have, and one would wonder why they can't get something done.

And one of the things that they have not done is paid sufficient attention to the assault on our electoral system that the Russians perpetrated in the last campaign, for one example. They're doing it in other countries. They may have done it here before.

They hacked our democracy. Twenty-one state and local election systems were penetrated. Unless we act, they will do it again. The integrity of our democracy is at stake. And on this weekend, as we go into the Fourth of July, we think it is our patriotic duty to honor the Declaration of Independence. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness: that's what our health care bill is about. Our democracy, the integrity of our elections: that is essential to a democracy as well.

So we couldn't be better served in protecting the American people, the oath we take to protect and defend our Constitution, the American people globally, here at home, and the rest, than by our distinguished Ranking Member on the Homeland Security Committee, Mr. Bennie Thompson, whom I introduced earlier - not introduced; you know him, but whom I presented earlier. He is going to speak for himself, but I want to say how much we appreciate his relentless, strong leadership in protecting every aspect of the American people, including the integrity of our voting system.

He has the idea and we all support it of a task force, and he is joined by [Congressman] Bob Brady, the Ranking Member on the Homeland Security Committee. So it is A Task Force on Election Security. To tell us about it, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Thompson.

Congressman Bennie Thompson Opening Remarks

Congressman Thompson. Thank you very much, Madam Leader.

Our system of democracy is admired by people all over the world. How we select our officials is something most countries would want to emulate. But, finally, there's broad admission that Russians have had something to do with how that process of selecting our officials works.

And so we've looked at it. Committees have finally decided to begin the process of looking backward in terms of what happened. Some of us are concerned that we are not looking forward. We have elections in 2018. We don't know to what extent the Russians have really compromised our systems.

We feel that something should be looking at that, those 21 States that have been identified so far as having some intrusion on their system. And since we have, from Secretary Johnson's standpoint, identified our election system as critical infrastructure and we have offered assistance to states to look at it and see whether or not we can be helpful, we think it's important that this task force, made up of Congressman Brady with House Administration and myself and a number of other people that we will hear from, as we look and really try to find out exactly what has happened and how do we recommend corrective activity, corrective action.

So, on our committee, we've done a resolution of inquiry asking for data as to what is going on, and obviously that resolution of inquiry failed on a partisan vote. The Republicans voted against it. Democrats voted for it.

So, basically, this task force is the only option available to us right now to really collect the data, talk to witnesses, have hearings, bring in state officials, local officials, experts in cyber as to what's going on and with the end result of publishing a report that we hope that can become the basis for legislation.

And hopefully we can correct whatever inaccuracies or intrusions that have gone on for our 2018 elections. And it's not proper for the leadership in the White House to sit and try to blame President Obama for not doing something and here we are, latter part of June, going into the Fourth of July recess, and there's nothing definitive from the White House addressing this.

So we think now is the time to act. And the establishment of this task force is what we propose to do. Hearings, collection of data, talking to witnesses is how we propose to do it. If Republicans decide they really want to come and join us, they are absolutely welcome to do it. But we think, in light of no activity, we're left with no choice but to establish this task force and move forward.

Thank you.

Leader Pelosi. Thank you very much, Mr. Thompson.

Thank you very much. Any questions on the task force first, on how we go forward with that?

Well, again, I'm very proud of the ongoing efforts that Mr. Thompson has been making in this regard. And, again, we are finding out things that we didn't even know before. For example, is it how many states have been compromised in all of this -

Mr. Thompson. Twenty-one.

Leader Pelosi. Twenty-one states. And some states don't even realize that they have been yet.

So the confidence in the electoral process and confidence that people's votes will be counted as cast is very important. But if we have a disruption of the system because of foreign intervention, that's an attack on our country. It's an attack on our democracy.

So thank you, Mr. Chairman, and we'll be announcing when we'll be having some meetings soon. I informed the Speaker this morning of the fact that you have taken the lead on this and that you have the support of our caucus as we go forward. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

* * *

Q: Madam Leader, you talked about the agenda being tripped up, jobs bill, health care bill -

Leader Pelosi. All of it.

Q: All of it. But when you hear or look at the President's tweets this morning, do you view that as get them tripping over themselves because they are having trouble legislatively and then the President tweets some very controversial things like he did this morning and that that adds to their problems because they have to keep answering these questions on the other side about what the President is tweeting?

Leader Pelosi. Well, the President is such a prolific tweeter, I don't know what tweets you're referring to.

Q: The Mika Brzezinski [tweets] this morning.

Leader Pelosi. Well, that really saddens me because it is so beneath the dignity of the President of the United States to engage in such behavior. I just don't know why the Republicans, they can tolerate almost anything: a candidate beating up a reporter and then cheering (him) on as he arrives in Congress, the tweets of the President of the United States. They set a low standard for public officials in terms of their demeanor. It's really sad, though. This is the President of the United States. Something is wrong there.

Yes, ma'am.

Q: On the health care bill, yesterday, you said that ignoring the needs of God's creation is to dishonor the God who made us.

Leader Pelosi. Yes.

Q: Do you believe that defunding Planned Parenthood dishonors God?

Leader Pelosi. Excuse me?

Q: Do you believe that defunding Planned Parenthood would dishonor God?

Leader Pelosi. I think defunding Planned Parenthood disrespects every woman in our country, disrespects her judgment to make her own decision about the size and timing of her family, within her family, with herself, her doctor, her God, her family, and so I think that respect, respecting the dignity and worth of every person and their ability to make decisions to answer for their behavior.

Yes, sir.

Q: You are the highest ranking elected woman in our country's history. And following up on Chad [Pergram]'s question, I'm just curious to know whether you agree with Senator [Dianne] Feinstein who suggested that the tweet was sexist. Do you think that, on its face, that that was a sexist tweet from the President?

Leader Pelosi. I think it's so blatantly sexist. I don't even know that there's a question about it. But sad to say, I am still the highest-ranking woman. I thought that was all going to be resolved in November. Instead, we have a person in the White House who not only doesn't happen to be a woman but happens to disrespect women. That's too bad.

Yes, ma'am.

Q: [Department of Homeland Security Secretary] John Kelly was at Speaker Ryan's press conference today and said that some of the Members of Congress had threatened him. He didn't name any names, didn't take any questions. But I know that, when he met with House Democrats, it was a little, you know there was some tension there.

Do you know of any of your Members threatening the DHS Secretary, and what's your overall response to that, both you guys, if you could answer?

Mr. Thompson. Well, you know, we've had him before our committee on two different occasions, and he has been before the Democratic Caucus. You know, to have a difference of opinion on a matter is not a threat. I'm not aware of any specific threats.

I think if the Secretary feels that he was threatened, I think he should make our leadership aware of it. And if he genuinely thinks it was a physical threat, he should report it to the authorities.

But beyond that, I just think that his characterization of the meetings that I have been in did not warrant a threat. It's just a difference of opinion.

Leader Pelosi. Well, generals are used to a level of deference that Members of Congress are not necessarily used to bestowing on Cabinet officers. And so, perhaps, being asked questions in a follow-up question seems threatening to him, but that's the democratic way. And certainly there's no there was never any kind of an attempt to do that, but it's strange that he would say such a thing.

Yes, sir.

Q: Madam Leader, what is your take on the holdup with the Russia sanctions bill? The Speaker said before it's a constitutional technicality. The Senate has already said today, just a few minutes ago, that they're prepared to vote on it again.

Are you concerned that there's pressure being put on by the White House to water down the bill, or do you agree with the Speaker that it's just a technicality that they're trying to iron out?

Leader Pelosi. When we were asked by the President of Ukraine to be aggressive in terms of sanctions on Russia, the Speaker said, 'Oh, yes, the Senate passed the bill; it's just a blue slip problem.'

If it's just a blue slip problem, that can be resolved. If they get into substance, that's a problem. And this bill passed the Senate 98 to 2. How much more bipartisan can you get to that? Ninety eight to two.

And when it came here, okay, it had a blue slip. That's a process question. Most people in the country don't know what that means and nor should they waste their time figuring it out. It's only that it has to go back with a process change in it, and then the Senate will vote on it, and then it will go to the President's desk.

If, in fact, they are using process as an excuse for substance, that would be a problem. But if the Speaker said to you today that it's just process, then we should be able to even do it today.

Q: Do you think it should be voted on before the President goes and will likely have a one-on-one meeting with President Putin?

Leader Pelosi. It should have been done already. It's overdue. It's not like we're doing anything around here that the calendar is so full of activity and legislative accomplishments. And this is something that came, again, with strong bipartisanship in it.

And I think the blue slip the Speaker says it's a reason it can be resolved right now. If it's an excuse, who knows how long that would take.

But it would certainly send a strong message to Vladimir Putin that we are serious about these sanctions.

Again, I always say, you know, what is it that the Russians have on Donald Trump, politically, personally, or financially, that we have to pussyfoot around when it comes to sanctions on Russia?

Q: Madam Leader, tonight, certain provisions go into effect of the President's travel ban. Perhaps, Mr. Thompson, as well as you, Madam Leader, could comment your thoughts. Is it actually going to improve security in the United States?

Mr. Thompson. Well, you know, they released the information yesterday, and I think a lot of us are concerned about the direction in terms of who actually can come in. Grandparents can't come in, but professors can.

We're not sure if fiancees can come in. We don't think they have. We asked for the written directions that's been provided to State Department, and we have yet to receive it.

But I think there's some things that need to be fleshed out. I don't think any of us are concerned about not wanting bad people to be kept out of this country. And so we will work with this Administration on anything they come forward with as long as it passed legal muster and as long as the directions are clear. And I think some of that, even from what the court said, is yet to be determined.

Leader Pelosi. And as we go into the Fourth of July, for as long as, as you said, legal muster, as long as it's constitutional. I was concerned because they wouldn't let grandchildren in. You can imagine how that affected me.

Thank you all very much. Happy Fourth of July to all of you. If we don't see you sooner, see you when we get back.