CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Nancy Pelosi

Interview

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That said the mandate literally only covers so much, the problem of testing, of course remains very real. Joining us now the speaker herself, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California.

Madam Speaker, thank you so much for being with us.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Thank you.

COOPER: This new mandatory mask mandate that you've instituted for the House chamber, it's my understanding doesn't apply to the House office buildings or hallways. Would you like it to and do you think it should extend to both chambers, frankly or the entire Capitol Complex?

PELOSI: Well, yes, the proclamation that I made today applies to the whole of the House. The members cannot come on to the floor of the House, unless they have a mask and I, as Speaker have directed the sergeant-at-arms, the Capitol Police to refuse entry into the hall if people don't have on a mask, a mask and we have masks there for them.

The sergeant-at- arms will issue the regulations and the rest, probably tomorrow and with it, what goes with it for the other rooms in the Capitol or other -- what happens in the other office buildings that are on Capitol Hill. So that expanded announcement will probably happen tomorrow.

COOPER: The Minority Leader McCarthy said today, quote, "Testing would be critical at the Capitol," quote, "Because people can be here and have it and would not know." Obviously, that is factually correct. It also applies to the entire rest of the country who still cannot get easily tested.

I don't know if it's ironic that he is saying this, but the problem of testing, I mean, it's extraordinary to me that we're still in this situation where people can't get tests, and it takes two weeks for people to get results.

PELOSI: Well, when the White House originally suggested that they had enough tests to send us, I consulted with a Capitol physician, and really we are not -- it's just not the Members of Congress, it's for Members of Congress and support staff and that's a fair amount of people.

We can't say well as members we should get tested, but the other people shouldn't, but it points to the challenge that we have in the country.

We have the tools at our disposal: testing, tracing, treatment, isolation, mask wearing, sanitation to hold this virus in check, to try to beat it. Hopefully we will have a vaccine or some therapies that will be helpful, but we don't have them to a full extent now, certainly not a vaccine.

[20:20:36]

PELOSI: And until we do, we have to do what we can. Other countries have done it. It works. But in order for us to do it in the Capitol, with a full -- with everybody there, as well as in the country, we need more equipment.

And the reason everybody isn't tested because there isn't enough equipment to test everyone and then we don't have enough equipment to get rid of results of the test. Sometimes it takes a week to get the result, almost useless by then.

And then we need the PPE, the personal protective equipment for the people administering the test on our healthcare providers, and teachers and others to have that equipment.

So we've asked the president to have the Defense Production Act, go into action to insist that our businesses produce this equipment -- this equipment -- he just won't do it. He hasn't done it.

We have this plan in our Heroes Act. This is a way for us to open our economy, facilitate opening our schools by reducing the rate of infection in our communities. But in order to do that, we have to know what it is and that requires testing, tracing, treatment, et cetera.

So again, when it comes back to us what we should have. Well, I leave that judgment up to the Capitol physician about whether we have the equipment and the rest to just test members, that doesn't seem enough, but it is -- there is great cause for alarm in the Capitol when people found out that Congressman Gohmert had been tested the way he had and participated in two hearings yesterday, largely without a mask. Very, very irresponsible on his part, and members were very unhappy because he interacted with other members, but other staff as well.

COOPER: Yes. Is there any progress on any kind of further steps toward -- coming to a consensus on what happens next in terms of helping working people, helping people on unemployment and helping people who are in desperate straits right now? PELOSI: Well, central to all of that is to get rid of this virus and

that's why I keep coming back to the fact, we can open our economy, we can improve the situation if we follow science, but if you don't believe in science, and you don't believe in governance as they don't seem to, then that makes it more problematic.

So in terms of our conversations, we have to fundamentally agree that central to solving our problem is solving the virus to the extent that we can.

We have a big -- we have three main pillars, that is state and local government are our heroes, our healthcare providers, our first responders, sanitation, transportation, food -- all of the services that people need that are provided by state and local. They've said zero. Zero. It can't be. It can't be.

And by the way, it's much less than they spent to give tax cuts to the top one percent in our country, 83 percent of the benefits going to the top one percent. Now all of a sudden, it's the money.

In addition to that, we have the testing which I described, and then put money in the pockets of the American people.

Well, they have a distain or sort of a condescension toward working people, it seems because they don't trust, how they might use the $600.00. That kind of thing, oh, they have money to pay the rent, they're just not paying the rent.

Well, we cannot operate if we are not even stipulating to basic set of facts. The people are hurting. The unemployment is high, and that we have a way to address this in terms of honoring our heroes, testing, tracing treatment, as well as money in the pockets of the American people, being respectful of them and understanding their needs.

People are hungry. Millions of children are food insecure in our country, and we can't get them to do food stamps and women, infant and children feeding programs, and the rest of that.

So we have -- we still have a long way to go. But we are determined that we will try to find common ground and we need the public to weigh in about the need to support state and local government and all the people who serve the community.

We can open schools. State and local governments supply over 90 percent of the funding for schools.

[20:25:22]

COOPER: Yes.

PELOSI: So it is all connected. It's all addressed in the Heroes Act. And I hope that they would come closer to our thinking on that than some of the -- it's over 10 weeks since we passed the bill.

COOPER: Yes. PELOSI: Leader McConnell said we need a pause. Then it came back this

Monday was a piecemeal. Well, that's not what -- this is as big as it gets. A plague that has an impact on our economy and it's about the lives of the American people, the livelihood of the American people and the life of our democracy.

COOPER: Speaker Pelosi, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

PELOSI: Thank you. Thank you.

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