ABC "This Week" - Transcript: Interview with Nancy Pelosi

Interview

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We're going to address it all this morning.

And we begin with the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

Madam Speaker, thanks for joining us this morning.

And I want to start with the January 6 commission, the investigation that you are -- you have launched in the House. I know that this came about because the Republicans rejected a bipartisan independent commission, also rejected a Senate commission as well.

But your decision to reject Congressman Jim Jordan and Jim Banks from the committee has drawn fire from Republicans. The Freedom Caucus is seeking to depose you as speaker, and Liz Cheney is now the only Republican member of the committee.

Are you concerned about the Freedom Caucus threat? And are you confident that the committee's work can be seen as credible, if most Republicans won't participate?

PELOSI: Well, thank you. First of all, thank you for the opportunity to be with you this morning. We have many challenges, and it's my honor to discuss them with you.

First of all, no, I'm not concerned about any threat from the Freedom Caucus. We get those every day of the week. Our confidence that we have in the work of our bipartisan committee that we have now, select committee, led by Chairman Bennie Thompson, bipartisan, with the participation of a very courageous number of Congress, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, is high. My confidence is high.

I do believe that the work of this committee, in order to retain the confidence of the American people, must act in a way that has no partisanship, is all about patriotism. And I'm very proud of the members of the committee. And I'm certain that they will accomplish that goal.

We have to, again, ignore the antics of those who would -- do not want to find the truth. We will find the truth. That truth will have the confidence of the American people because it will be done patriotically and not in a partisan way.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Will you be appointing more Republicans to the committee, like Congressman Adam Kinzinger?

PELOSI: That would be my plan.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, when will that be announced?

PELOSI: Perhaps after I speak to Adam Kinzinger.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you believe...

PELOSI: But I'm not about to announce it right this minute.

(LAUGHTER)

PELOSI: But you could say that that is the direction that I would be going on. He has -- he and other Republicans have expressed an interest to serve on the select committee.

And I wanted to appoint the three -- three of the members that Leader McCarthy suggested, but he withdrew their names. The two that I would not appoint are people who would jeopardize the integrity of the investigation.

And there's no way I would tolerate their antics as we seek the truth.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Even relatively moderate Republicans, like Senator Portman, who's my next guest, have said your decision will fuel even more division in the country.

Are you worried at all by this precedent, that Republicans will do the same thing when they are next in power?

PELOSI: No.

What we have -- look, we have had an unprecedented action, an assault, an insurrection against our government, an assault on the Capitol Building, which is an assault on the Congress, on a day that the Constitution required us, by the Constitution, to validate the work of the Electoral College.

So, this was not just any day of the week. This was a constitutionally required day of action for Congress.

So, you know, I can -- the Republicans will say what they will say. Our select committee will seek the truth. It's our patriotic duty to do so. And we do not come into our work worried about what the other side, who has been afraid of this -- maybe the Republicans can't handle the truth, but we have a responsibility to seek it, to find it and in a way that retains the confidence of the American people.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Portman is also one of the negotiators around this proposed bipartisan infrastructure deal. They expect a deal this week but are you sticking by your decision to hold any vote on that deal until after the Senate passes a much larger infrastructure package through reconciliation?

PELOSI: Yes. Let me just say as I respond to you, I hope that they will pass the bipartisan legislation. Infrastructure has always been bipartisan for all the years that I've been in the Congress. They diminished the bill when President Obama was president, but nonetheless the bill was passed, the leadership of Senator Barbara Boxer, working the senator in a way -- in a bipartisan way.

So I'm enthusiastic about the fact that they will have a bipartisan bill. I hope that it will be soon. But yes, I stand by, because the fact is, is that the president has said that he wants to have a bipartisan bill, and we all do.

But that is not the limitation of the vision of the president. He wants to build back better. He wants to do so in a way that, again, involves many more people in the prosperity of our country. We say build back better with women. That's why we need childcare. That's why we need home healthcare funding. That's why we need family and medical leave.

So, building the human infrastructure is really a part of building the physical infrastructure. So that's why we will have something further to add.

The deal is not as green as I would like it to be, the infrastructure bill, and I think that it's something we could have passed a long time ago, even before the climate crisis was readily known to everyone. But nonetheless, I hope it will pass. I won't put it on the floor until we have --

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you have --

PELOSI: -- the rest of the initiative.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you stick by that decision you could end up with nothing. Senator Lindsey Graham has threatened that Republicans will walk out of the Capitol if necessary to prevent any action on reconciliation, just like the Democrats did down in Texas.

PELOSI: Let me just say, you talk to Lindsey Graham about what he says. I'm telling you what's going to happen in the House of Representatives. And that is that we are rooting for the infrastructure bill to pass, but we all know that more needs to be done if we're going to build back better.

And we're very proud of President Biden for the leadership that he has provided taking us down this path, starting with the rescue package earlier in the spring, putting vaccines in the arms of the American people, money in their pockets, children prepared to be safely back in school, many people back in the workplace safely.

And congratulations to him for his leadership on that, and I'm grateful to our members for their courage in putting that forth. The infrastructure bill is a very important step in building back, but we want to do it better, and that's what we intend to do.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It also means the Democrats might be forced to raise the debt limit on their own. You heard Senator McConnell this week say that it would have to be done through reconciliation. Republicans are not going to vote for it. Do you have the votes to raise the debt limit with Democrats alone?

PELOSI: Well, it's interesting about Senator McConnell. We raised (ph) -- the debt limit had to be addressed three times under President Trump and Democrats cooperated two of the times, and then the third time was just a change of the date. And it's so funny because he's always been there to be an obstruction to a Democratic president.

The full faith and credit of the United States is never to be placed in doubt. It is in the Constitution and it will be respected. With Republican obstinance in years gone by, even our credit rating was in question and reduced because of the question.

Let there be no question, we will address the debt limit.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, I do want to ask you about COVID. We're seeing this Delta variant sweep through the country. Now you've had some outbreaks in the House as well.

Is it time to mask up again in the House? And will you be wearing your own mask more often?

PELOSI: Well, I wore my mask here. But as to whether we do so on the House floor, that is a decision of the House -- the Capitol physician. And he will give us his recommendation about it.

But let me once again praise President Biden. Right from the start, the president has been just on the job, making vaccine available in every nook and cranny of our country, available every place, urging people to be vaccinated. It's really important that that happen. And he has made that happen by having an abundance of vaccine -- vaccines available for that.

This is a vaccine -- you know, I've been working on vaccines for a long time because of COVID. And this is a virus that is -- because of COVID, yes, but also because of HIV and AIDS. For 30 years, I've been working on that subject in the Congress.

These viruses are very resourceful. They mutate. And they mutate by transmission.

So, if people would get vaccinated, there'd be less transmission and, therefore, less mutation and less danger.

But we are, I think, very well-prepared to protect the American people. Let's just hope that they follow science. Some of these decisions are regional about requirements of masks and this or that.

But if you're asking me, I think that we should mask. But in terms of officially for the House floor, that's up to the Capitol physician.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Madam Speaker, thanks for your time again this morning.

PELOSI: My pleasure. Thank you. Good morning.

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