CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Interview
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[17:17:34] BLITZER: Welcome back.
Hope have a new economic stimulus bill before Election Day three weeks from today is quickly fading as the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has rejected the White House offer of a $1.8 trillion economic package.
The Speaker is joining us right now.
Madam Speaker, thank you so much for joining us. And as you know there are Americans who are being evicted from their homes, they can't pay the rent, many Americans are waiting in food lines for the first time in their lives. Can you look them in the eye, Madam Speaker and explain why you don't want to accept the President's latest stimulus offer?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Well, because -- Thank you very much, Wolf, and I hope you'll ask the same question of the Republicans about why they don't really want to meet the needs of the American people. But let me say to those people, because all of my colleagues, we represent these people.
I have for over 30 years represented my constituents. I know what their needs are, I listen to them. And their needs are not addressed in the President's proposal.
So when you say to me, why don't you accept theirs? Why don't they accept ours?
Our legislation is there to do three things primarily to honor our workers, honor our heroes, our health care workers, our police and fire first responders, our teachers, our transportation, sanitation, food workers, the people who make our lives work, we couldn't be doing what we're doing without them. Many of them have risked their lives so that they -- and to save lives and now they will lose their jobs because --
BLITZER: But they really --
PELOSI: -- Mitch McConnell says that the states go bankrupt.
BLITZER: Excuse me for interrupting --
PELOSI: That the states go bankrupt.
BLITZER: Madam Speaker, they really need the money right now. And even members of your own --
PELOSI: I understand that. But if --
BLITZER: But even members of your own caucus --
PELOSI: -- you ask me a question --
BLITZER: Even members of your own caucus, Madam Speaker, want to accept this deal, $1.8 trillion, Congressman Ro Khanna for example. But let met just quote Ro Khanna, a man you know well. I assume you admire him. He's a Democrat.
And he just said this. He said "People in need can't wait until February, $1.8 trillion is significant and more than twice the Obama stimulus. Make a deal, put the ball in McConnell court."
So what do you say to Ro Khanna?
PELOSI: What I say to you is, I don't know why you're always an apologist. And many of your colleagues, apologist for the Republican position.
Ro Khanna, that's nice. That isn't what we're going to do and nobody's waiting till February.
[17:20:08]
I want this very much now because people need help now. But it's no use giving them a false thing just because the President wants to put a check with his name on it in the mail, that we should not be doing all we can. Tell people pay the rent, put food on the table, then enhanced benefits that they don't lose their jobs if they're state and local.
That they -- that this -- we're talking about the consequences of a pandemic, that the symptoms of a problem that the President refuses to address. And that is --
BLITZER: But you know, Madam Speaker --
PELOSI: And that is the coronavirus.
BLITZER: We know --
PELOSI: That is the coronavirus.
BLITZER: We know the problem out there, but there are millions of Americans who have lost their jobs, they can't pay the rent, their kids need the food --
PELOSI: That's right. And that's what we're trying to get done.
BLITZER: One point eight trillion dollars and the President just tweeted "Stimulus go big or go home." He wants even more --
PELOSI: That's right.
BLITZER: -- right now. So why not --
PELOSI: That's right.
BLITZER: -- why not work out a deal with him?
PELOSI: That's right.
BLITZER: And don't let the perfect, as they say, here in Washington be the enemy of the good? PELOSI: Well not let the wrong be the enemy of the right.
BLITZER: What's wrong with a $1.8 trillion?
PELOSI: You know what, do you have any idea what the difference is between the spending that they have in their bill and that we have in our bill? Do you realize that they have come back and said all these things for child tax credits and earned income tax credits are helping people who have lost their jobs are eliminated in their bill?
Do you realize they pay no respect to the fact that childcare is very important for people whose children cannot go to school, because they're doing remote learning, and yet they minimize the need for childcare, which is the threshold with which people, mothers and fathers can go to work if they have that? Do you have any idea of how --
BLITZER: That's precisely why, Madam Speaker --
PELOSI: -- they're concerned?
BLITZER: That's why it's so important right now. Yesterday, I spoke to Andrew Yang who says the same thing, it's not everything you want --
PELOSI: Yes. But you know what --
BLITZER: -- but there's a lot there.
Participant: OK. Honest to God, you really -- I can't get over it. Because Andrew Yang, he's lovely. Ro Khanna, he's lovely. They are not negotiating this situation.
They have no idea of the particulars. They have no idea of what the language is here.
I didn't come over here to have -- so you're the apologist for the Obama, excuse me, God forbid.
BLITZER: Madam Speaker --
PELOSI: Thank God for Barack Obama.
BLITZER: -- I'm not an apologist, I'm asking you serious questions, because so many people are in desperate need right now.
PELOSI: I'm saying to you --
BLITZER: Let me ask you this.
PELOSI: OK.
BLITZER: When was the last time --
PELOSI: Let me respond to you --
BLITZER: Well, let me ask you --
PELOSI: If you're going to answer your own question --
BLITZER: -- when was the last time you spoke with the President about this?
PELOSI: I don't speak to the President. Speak to his representative.
BLITZER: Why not call him and say, Mr. President, let's work out a deal. It's not going to be everything you want. Not going to be everything I want. But there are so many Americans right now who are in desperate need. Let's make a deal.
PELOSI: What makes me amused if it weren't so sad, is how you all think that you know more about the suffering of the American people than those of us who are elected by them to represent them at that table.
It is unfortunate that we do not have shared values with this White House, and that they have in their bill, why don't you talk about their bill, a tax break for the wealthiest families in the country while they cut out the earned income tax credit for the poorest families in our country and the poorest children in our country. That we have to fight with them to get them to address the coronavirus crisis, because they have said it was a hoax, it was magical, its miracle was going to cure it, it hasn't. And that's why we find ourselves in this situation.
I feel very confident about the knowledge that I bring to this. But more importantly, the knowledge that my chairs, our chairs of jurisdiction, science based, academically documented, institutionally suggested in terms of what the cost would be to do it, and to do it that way.
And about say, we talk about childcare, yes. We talk about safety in the workplace, safety in the workplace, that's a very important issue especially in the time of pandemic.
So what I say to those people is, we're going to get a deal, and when we do, it will be retroactive. It will be retroactive.
BLITZER: Here's what you wrote in a letter to House Democrats, Madam Speaker, and I asked these questions only, as you know, so many millions of Americans are suffering.
PELOSI: But you quote two people who know nothing about the agreement.
BLITZER: Well --
PELOSI: There is no agreement. But what the suggestions are as if there's some authority on the subject. Please, give equal way to 12 to all of the chairman on the committee who have written this bill.
BLITZER: But so many of your fellow Democrats in the House, they want a deal right now.
PELOSI: No, there isn't --
BLITZER: The problem solvers, they all want to deal right now. And
here's what they're complaining about because you wrote a letter to House Democrats and you said this.
[17:25:03]
PELOSI: Yes.
BLITZER: Let me read a line from the letter you wrote. "The President only wants his name on the check to go out before Election Day and for the market to go up." Is that what this is all about, not allow the President to take credit if there's a deal that will help millions of Americans right now?
PELOSI: No, I don't care about that. He's not that important. But let me say this with all due respect, with all due respect, and you know we've known each other a long time, you really don't know what you're talking about.
If the plural of anecdote is not data, yes, there's some people who said this or that, overwhelmingly, my caucus wants, what is right for the American people. Overwhelmingly, our chairman who wrote the bill, read their statements, they'll put out their own statements, when they saw what the White House was proposing. So do a service to the issue, and have some level of respect for the people who have worked on these issues, written the bill to begin with.
Now, let me just say this in terms of the numbers, I want people to do the math, we had 3.4, which would meet the needs of the American people for a sustained period of time, so that there was some certainty and what would happen. The Republican said, no. And so we took it down a trillion dollars, by cutting the time. We took it down another $2 trillion 200, excuse me, $200 billion, so we're now 1.2 hundred billion dollars down. We came down to 2.2.
At the same time, since tomorrow will be five months since we passed the bill, at the same time, the small -- because there was no resolution, Mitch McConnell said, let's pause, the virus didn't pause. And now we're at a place where we need more money.
We need more money for PPP for our small businesses. We need more money for our airlines. We need more money for our schools. So we have absorbed nearly a half a trillion dollars more of expenses still within the 2.2 --
BLITZER: I understand all of that. And I have only the greatest respect to you.
PELOSI: -- by cutting that. So do the math. We have come down --
BLITZER: Madam Speaker, I have only the greatest respect for you.
PELOSI: -- we have come down 1.6 or seven trillion dollars.
BLITZER: I just want to point out $1.8 trillion, $1.8 trillion is a lot of money. The American people need that money ASAP, because they're suffering right now. And I'm not saying it's perfect, but I'm saying --
PELOSI: And you don't care how it's spent? And you don't care how it's spent.
BLITZER: I care of course how it's spent. But why don't understand is why not --
PELOSI: Well, you don't even know how it's spent.
BLITZER: Why not --
PELOSI: You don't even know how it's spent.
BLITZER: -- talk to the President, personally call him up and say, Mr. President, let's get a deal tomorrow.
PELOSI: Look, let me say this, the President has sent Mr. Mnuchin to negotiate. That's what we've done with the other presidents. This isn't unusual.
With President Bush, we had -- we did this quite a bit, because that's how you negotiate. And then you take it to the President.
This, Mr. Mnuchin, I think he has integrity representing his position.
BLITZER: Who wants a deal.
PELOSI: May I finish, please? But he has integrity representing his position. But his position has no integrity. They do not share our values.
Have a little respect for the fact that we know something about the subjects. And there's a big difference between Democrats and Republicans and whether they want to give a big tax cut to the wealthiest people in the country in their bill. In the CARES Act, we tried to take it out in this bill. Instead they took out earned income tax credit, child tax credit, expanded health benefits to UI benefits to the extent that it was agreed to before.
BLITZER: All right.
PELOSI: So this is -- I have every confidence in what -- in the arguments that we make, because it's based on science and documentation. Our chairs know their stuff. They know what they're doing, with all due respect to the kind of people you were referencing.
And I welcome their enthusiasm. I welcome their interest. I welcome their originality of their thinking. But the fact is, we have a responsibility to meet the needs of the American people in a retroactive way so they're not at a total loss, they are at a loss because the President has ignored the virus.
I wish he would spend time on the fact that if he had not ignore the virus, we wouldn't be in the position we're in. But we are at what we are. And let me say about that also, I hope that -- I'm pleased that these pharmaceutical companies are taking the responsible position to halt and hopefully then resume because we want the public to have confidence in whatever therapies or whatever vaccines come along that they will take that.
BLITZER: All right.
PELOSI: And do people say well, I don't trust Trump on that. If we trust the Food and Drug Administration for what they are doing, the scientists, they've been working 24-7 for months and months and months. Excellent science, the science would call the shot. And when they do, we should all trust it.
[17:30:00]
BLITZER: And let's hope they get more treatments. Let's hope they get a vaccine.
And Madam Speaker --
PELOSI: Yes.
BLITZER: -- I certainly respect you, but I also respect Ro Khanna, I respect Andrew Yang, I respect members of the Democrats, who are members of the problem solvers. They want a deal because so many people right now are suffering.
PELOSI: Well, the problem solvers, by the way, don't have any earned income tax credit or child tax credit in their proposal either. But let's not go into that.
BLITZER: But it doesn't -- yes, we've gone through that.
PELOSI: You evidently do not respect the chairman of the committees who wrote this bill.
BLITZER: I respect all of you.
PELOSI: And I wish you would respect the knowledge that goes into getting the -- meeting the needs of the American people. But, again, you've been on a jag (ph) defending the administration all this time with no knowledge of the difference between our two bills. And I thank you for giving me the opportunity to say that to you in person, --
BLITZER: All right. Madam Speaker --
PELOSI: -- virtually.
BLITZER: -- these are incredibly difficult times right now and we'll leave it on that note. Thank you so much for joining us.
PELOSI: Yes. No, we'll leave it on the vote that you are not right on this, Wolf, and I hate to say that to you.
BLITZER: All right.
PELOSI: But I feel confident about it and I feel confident about my colleagues and I feel confident in my chairs.
BLITZER: It's not about me, it's about millions of Americans who can't put food on the table, who can't pay their rent, who were having trouble --
PELOSI: And represent them, and we represent them.
BLITZER: -- who are trouble getting by --
PELOSI: And we represent them.
BLITZER: -- these long food lines that we're --
PELOSI: And we represent them.
BLITZER: I know you were --
PELOSI: We know them.
BLITZER: I'm just saying --
PELOSI: We represent them and we know them.
BLITZER: As we say --
PELOSI: We know them. We represent them. Yes.
BLITZER: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, as they say --
PELOSI: It is nowhere near perfect.
BLITZER: Madam Speaker --
PELOSI: Always the case, but we're not even close to the good.
BLITZER: All right, let's see what happens because every day is critically, critically important. Thanks so much for joining us.
PELOSI: Thank you for sensitivity to our constituents needs.
BLITZER: I am sensitive to them because I see them on the street begging for food, begging for money, Madam Speaker, thank you so much.
PELOSI: Have you fed them? We feed them, we feed them.
BLITZER: We'll continue this conversation down the road for sure. We'll take a quick break, we'll be right back.
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