State of the Union: Interview With Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Interview
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First, let me thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Congratulations to on your 30 years.
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It seems impossible.
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But, nonetheless, how wonderful.
The president is not above the law. I'm afraid what I heard the vice president say earlier, as much as I admire him -- he was a hero that day. Mike Pence was. The president is not above the law.
We saw what happened. It was very clear. It's heartbreaking, because my motto for all these things, and the flag was still there, being from Baltimore, national anthem, written there. And the flag was still there. We always have to make sure that it's about the rule of law and about freedom of speech and all of that.
And he has -- I mean, the courts will act. He has -- innocent until proven guilty.
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Well, justice has to be something that relates to the facts and the law. What are the facts? What is the law? Now make the case. And I have been through this so many times in the Congress on ethics
cases and the rest of that, nothing about rumor, nothing about reputation, nothing about hearsay, the facts and the law.
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Yes.
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Well, the president was impeached because we had no choice. He had undermined our national security, jeopardized our well-being of our country.
I was very careful about bringing any impeachment forward. But when the president made that phone call in terms of Ukraine, there was no choice. We had no choice. He must be impeached.
Kevin is, you know, playing politics. It's not even clear if he constitutionally can expunge those things. If he wants to put his members on the spot, his members in difficult races on the spot, that's a decision he has to make.
But this is not responsible. This is not about the flag still being there. This is about being afraid. As I have said before, Donald Trump is the puppeteer. And what does he do all the time but shine the light on the strings. These people look pathetic.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Well, a lot of it's about messaging, of course. I'm so proud of this president. In the two years that we were in the majority working with him, he broke all records, on the level with a Lyndon Johnson or a Franklin Roosevelt, in terms of the caliber of legislation that he passed for the good of the people, lowering prescription drugs, again, cutting in half -- as you indicate, cutting in half unemployment.
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Almost like 14 million jobs.
It has to be messaged. It is a legitimate question I ask myself all the time too. This president did such a remarkable job. He is a person of such knowledge, such vision for the country, such knowledge of the issues, such strategic thinking and such a legislator, and, on top of it all, a person who connects with the American people.
He just has to get out there. It's a busy job being president. I can say that as being speaker. You're doing your work. But he's just going to have to make sure the American people know at that kitchen table what this means to them, in terms of jobs and pay, reducing inflation, as you indicated, lowest in the whole Western world.
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Yes.
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Well, I'm hoping that the Hollywood -- the writers strike and the actors strike will find a path, because --
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Well, they're far apart, but the fact is, is that these people have to be paid for their creativity. And, again, we want to -- we like the creativity on the management side as well. They have to come together.
In terms of UPS, I'm close to UPS. For 100 years, they have been a union shop. And so I respect that. And I also want to make sure that everybody understands what the -- what is happening there.
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I'm hoping that we don't have a UPS strike.
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I'm hoping -- I'm not as familiar with the United Auto Workers strike, but I am familiar with the UPS strike.
And I think that that's within range not to be a strike. And I would hope so, because these people work very hard. And some of the terms are a difference between temporary workers and former work -- all -- there's no use going into all of it.
But the fact is, there has to be a path, so that there isn't a strike. Respect for workers. And I'm hopeful that that will be the case.
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Well, it was a -- since you reference the hearing, what a ridiculous clown show, again, on the part of the Republicans.
Here was a purpose that you described. What did they do? Bring in Joe Kennedy talking about censorship, that he's being censored, as he's talking to the world in a congressional hearing, and showing pictures that had nothing to do with the essence of it.
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Excuse me. I'm sorry.
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Robert.
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Well, the district -- the U.S. attorney was a Trump appointee, a Trump appointee.
Now, I'm -- I have respect for whistle-blowers, but the fact is that, from the basis of that hearing, they -- they didn't even have a fair shot at what they came to say, in light of the clown show that was going on with pictures, and Robert F. Kennedy -- Robert Kennedy, with his ridiculous presentation.
No, I'm not -- I'm not confident of -- about what the whistle-blower said. The U.S. attorney was a Trump attorney. This is their opinion. It was not the opinion of others there.
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Right.
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That's ridiculous. That is so completely, totally ridiculous.
I have a great deal of respect for Eric Holder, who's the head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. He's not a partisan. He's just saying, let's have an objective redistricting.
Terri Sewell, our member of Congress from the area, in the district they drew earlier in the week, they took her out of Selma, they took her out of Montgomery. She's an iconic figure there, and, of course, John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr --
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-- and took her out of that.
So, something is wrong with that picture, and it's larger. You see the racism that is happening in our country. They had an article in the paper this morning about a black man who was elected mayor of a Southern town, and the whites said, you can't serve.
So it's getting to be pretty blatant. So, maybe they intend to take this back up to the Supreme Court, but they cannot. They cannot. And that's why we have to pass the Voting Rights Act. When I was not even speaker, I was a leader, we passed -- we wrote it in our office, with the Republicans, bipartisan way, the Voting Rights Act.
We -- first, the senator -- leader in the Senate, and I walked down the steps. In the House, we had 400-and-something votes.
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Not -- unanimous in the Senate.
What has happened to the Republican Party that they have taken it to this?
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I'm not making any political plans here today, but I'm enjoying my service with the members.
The -- our new members are wonderful, our leadership, Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, Pete Aguilar.
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But, anyway, it's lovely to see you.
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Again, we must make sure our flag is still there.
Our -- all of our values as a country are at stake because of what Donald Trump has put forth.
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He's not above the law.
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My pleasure. Thank you.
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