CNN "State of the Union with Jake Tapper" - Transcript Interview with Nancy Pelosi

Interview

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Joining me now to respond is the Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Let me just start with what just happened in my interview with the president's chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow. He said that the White House didn't know how many states would contribute to the president's plan to supplement unemployment insurance or how long it would take for those payments to kick in.

What's your response?

PELOSI: Well, first, good morning, Dana. It's nice to be with you on a Sunday morning. Let us all be prayerful that we can meet the needs of the American people, especially as we all watch the angst that is associated with sending children back to school.

What the president's adviser said is -- really shows the weakness and the meagerness of what the president proposed.

[09:25:01]

First of all, he is saying states have the money. No, they don't. They have expenses from the coronavirus. They have lost revenue. Because of that, they may -- they are firing health care workers, first responders, teachers, and the rest, sanitation, transportation workers, because they don't have the money.

Second of all, he -- everything is left out, our assistance to the schools, feeding the hungry, helping people who are going to be evicted. The president...

BASH: Well, what about...

PELOSI: ... didn't even do a moratorium. He just did a study or a look at a moratorium.

So, again, something's wrong. Either the president doesn't know what he's talking about -- clearly, his aides don't know what he is talking about -- and -- or something's very wrong here about meeting the needs of the American people at this time.

BASH: Well, let's talk about what he did do or what he said he did with these executive actions.

Are they legal? And if you don't think they are, are you going to sue to block them?

PELOSI: Well, the fact is, is that whether they're legal or not takes time to figure out.

I associate myself -- remarks with Senator Sasse, who says, they're unconstitutional slop. I think that's right.

BASH: But will you sue?

PELOSI: Well, right now, we want to address the needs of the American people.

As the constitutional -- my constitutional advisers tell me they're absurdly unconstitutional. But, right now, our focus -- and that's a parallel thing.

Right now, the focus, the priority has to be on, again, meeting the needs of the American people, sufficiently allocating resources to send children to school, not threatening schools that, if they don't have actual attendance, they won't get the federal dollars.

BASH: So, given that, are negotiations going to resume?

PELOSI: Well, I hope so.

BASH: Or are negotiations dead?

PELOSI: I hope so.

We -- look, we have a big difference, and here's why. For example, millions of children in America are food-insecure, and their families as well. But I always like to focus on the children.

In the -- in our bill, we have tens of billions of dollars to address the hunger needs in our country, which are there normally, but exacerbated during the pandemic. We have tens of billions of dollars.

They have $250,000, $250,000.So, do they care?

I have a prayer that I say, let's pray for those who are hungry; let's pray harder for those who will not feed them.

BASH: So...

PELOSI: Then we go to -- the Princeton Lab, Eviction Lab, says that we need resources, there are going to be this many millions of evictions.

BASH: So, given that...

PELOSI: And the president is going to study it, going to look at it.

BASH: Right. Right.

So, given that, you are the speaker of the House. You have enormous power. You have been in these negotiations.

PELOSI: Yes. BASH: Given what you just said about people hungry and worried and

very, very fearful, why not get back in that room and come up with a compromise on some of these core issues?

PELOSI: That's right.

BASH: I understand -- I understand you want to get the best possible for people, but, at some point, you have got to work with the other side, right?

PELOSI: Well, that's right.

And that's why we said we will come down a trillion, not that we cut out any of our priorities, but we shorten the length of time in which they would be in effect. And next year, we can extend them again. And they could add something.

I mean, tens of trillions, $60 trillion, actually, $250,000 -- there's a long way for us to come together. But we will come down a trillion, you go up a trillion, we will find our common ground here. Let's go to the table.

BASH: OK. So, why aren't you...

PELOSI: But we can't accept what they have there.

BASH: So, why aren't you at the table, then? Why aren't you guys working all weekend, then, to try to figure that out?

PELOSI: Well, we said, come back -- come back when you want to put up some more money. But we can't accept the meager pass that they have there.

And, by the way, this is really a thing -- an issue that takes a lot of our time, opening up our schools. We have the data that shows that, if you open up actually, if you open up virtually, and if you open up hybrid, it costs just about the same amount of money.

And so what we have seen is, of the 100 largest school districts, 62 are opening 100 percent virtual.

BASH: Right. So...

PELOSI: And yet the president is saying, unless you open up actual, we're withholding federal dollars.

BASH: So -- OK.

So, I want to talk specifically about this extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits that expired.

Two top Obama economic officials, Tim Geithner and Jason Furman, wrote in June that extending $600 would -- quote -- "does not make sense now."

You're standing firm on that number, on that $600. [09:30:00]

PELOSI: Yes.

BASH: Why are you insisting on that, as opposed to having a compromise with the Republicans, so that people out there who are hungry, who desperately need that money could get something, rather than nothing, which is what they have now?

PELOSI: Well, let's just say that the $600, many economists tell us -- I didn't even see that on their part -- many economists that that has kept many, many millions of people out of poverty, A.

B, what they put on the floor of the House Senate last week was $200, $200. And it represents..

BASH: OK. So, you have $600. They have $200. What about $400? I mean, that seems like a pretty clear compromise.

PELOSI: Yes, but what the president proposed -- what the president proposed yesterday at his country club, surrounded by his people who must have spent thousands of dollars to join, is something that won't even work.

He is talking about, well, I will put up $400, and the states will put up $100. They have the money.

They don't have the money.

BASH: Right. He's talking about executive action, which is questionable. I'm talking about doing it the right way.

PELOSI: But I'm saying that what he put forth is not -- is not even workable.

BASH: Would you do $400 extra...

PELOSI: I'm not negotiating that right here. It depends on what else is in the bill.

BASH: ... legislatively?

PELOSI: It depends on what else is in the bill.

When they have $250,000 for food, nothing for elections, withholding funds from schools who want to open up virtually and the rest, again, no money for those who will be evicted, because that's the same -- that's the same kitchen table. I either get this money and I can help me pay the rent, or I don't get this...

BASH: I understand you don't want to...

PELOSI: And I get no money to pay the rent.

BASH: I understand you don't want to negotiate with me. But my question is, are Republicans right when they say you will not

come off of your $600 number, you will not come up of other figures, other policy initiatives that you want, and that's why you're at stalemate?

(CROSSTALK)

PELOSI: Yes. No, that's not why we're at a stalemate.

We're at a stalemate because the Republicans have, from the start, never understood the gravity of the situation that we are in. They have called it a hoax. They have called it -- their -- delay, denial, extortion of this pandemic.

And we cannot open our economy or open until -- our schools safely unless we address the pandemic. So, the basic thing is, they have ignored that. The problem has grown. And it has become an enormous economic problem.

And the fact is -- the fact is, others...

BASH: Do you take any responsibility, Madam Speaker, for the fact that this is stuck?

PELOSI: Others have said, the chairman of the Fed, other economists have said, pay now or pay more later.

So, what we're saying is, let's get -- let's help those who need it the most. Let's send our children safely to school. Let's make sure they have food, make sure their families are not evicted, make sure that their grandparents are not getting...

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Right. But, right now, they have nothing, as you well know, because those things expired. So...

PELOSI: Well, what do you think they would get out of a $250,000 food designation in the Republican plan? In other words, you are acting as if there is some great big thing that they're proposing.

BASH: No, no, no, I'm not. I'm asking if there is -- if there is room for compromise on your end.

PELOSI: Of course. Of course there is room for compromise, but you have to see the entire package.

BASH: OK. So, I want to ask about -- I want to ask about that.

The next spending deadline, as you know better than I, for Congress to take action is September 30.

PELOSI: Yes.

BASH: So, is it possible that Americans will have to wait until late September, almost two months from now, without any congressional relief?

PELOSI: On September 30, to do what? I'm sorry. I missed your...

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: So, that's the next deadline, when you all have to act on spending.

PELOSI: Right. That's right, the end of the fiscal year.

BASH: Is it possible that -- right. So, is it possible that this stalemate is going to last until then, that people aren't going to get relief from you all in Congress until then?

PELOSI: Oh, these are two separate issues. What we do on the appropriations process to meet our fiscal year deadline is one thing. We have...

BASH: And you -- so, you're confident you're going to get back to the table and figure this out?

PELOSI: Well, we have to. We have to.

And that's why we were willing to say, we will come down a trillion. That doesn't mean the needs of the American people have gone down. It just means that we recognize that they have a disdain for the needs of the American people.

That's why they question whether people even need the $600. That's why they question -- they say to me, "Some people just don't want to pay rent."

We're like: "Well, you know what? Most people do."

BASH: OK. So, I want to ask -- I really want to ask you about something different, but it's so important, and that is the security of American elections.

A top elections official in the office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed on Friday that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Joe Biden, while both China and Iran don't want President Trump to win reelection.

[09:35:03]

You suggested in a statement that the threats posed by these three countries are not equal.

PELOSI: That's right.

BASH: Tell us more about that, please.

PELOSI: They're not equivalent.

And that's why Senator Schumer -- excuse me -- Leader Schumer, Chairman Schiff, and -- I don't know what they call him in the Senate -- I think it's vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, Warner, have sent a letter to them saying, the American people need to know what Russia is doing to interfere in this election.

BASH: What can you tell us, about somebody who's privy to that intelligence, without...

PELOSI: Well, we can -- no, we can tell more than what the intelligence community put forth.

They responded positively, put more information out there, but there is more that needs to be put out there. No sources and methods. Nobody understands that better than us.

BASH: Can you lean into it a little bit more, for the sake of voters wondering what's going on?

PELOSI: Well, I can't divulge information that is classified. That's why we want them to do it.

But I will say this, that, for some reason, they have tried to have some equivalence. I take second place to no one on my criticism of China for over 30 years. They have -- I have said to my staff the other day, they say I'm the most unliked American in China -- disliked American in China.

They say, no, they don't say that. They say you're the most hated American in China, because of their human rights violations, their trade policy, their proliferation of weapons and that.

BASH: Right.

PELOSI: But -- so, I have no -- take no criticism for saying this.

BASH: So...

PELOSI: But the Chinese, they -- what they said is, China would prefer Joe Biden.Whether they do -- that's their conclusion, that they would prefer Joe Biden.

Russia is actively, 24/7 interfering in our election. They did so in 2016, and they are doing so now. And they say that to a certain extent, but they need to tell the American people more.

The American people, I believe, think they should decide who the president of the United States is, not Vladimir Putin making that decision for us.

BASH: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, I really enjoy -- appreciate you coming on this morning.

PELOSI: Thank you, Dana. Thank you, and good morning.

BASH: Thank you.

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