Speaker Pelosi’s Remarks at Weekly Press Conference

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference today in the Capitol Visitor Center. Below are the Speaker’s remarks:Show more

Speaker Pelosi. Good morning. I just left the Floor voting for the bill – called the ‘Red Flag’ bill, but the Extreme [Risk Protection Order Act] – the legislation to give people the authority, the power. Why wouldn't you – if you knew that a family member or someone else made disturbing comments to you or menacing comments on the internet – why would you not make sure they did not have access to guns to do harm to themselves or someone else?

It will be bipartisan – in addition to the legislation which we passed yesterday. I was very proud of the bipartisan work that was done to pass this legislation. Of course, we're prayerful about what the Senate may come up with and are eager to hear what that is and to work together with them to turn it into the law of the land to protect the children. It's always, as I say, of, by, and For The Children.

Little did we know when all of this started so many years ago that children would be testifying to – bearing witness to murder in their classrooms and the measures that they had to take to protect themselves. So, For The Children, we were pleased that yesterday we were able to pass legislation to [raise] the age for someone buying an assault weapon.

Now, mind you, to buy a pistol you have to be 21 years old, but to buy an assault weapon you have to be 18. So it is a handgun, a handgun, 21 – an assault weapon, 18. Raise the age – raise the age so that everyone has to be 21 years old, and we take assault weapons out of the hands of teenagers.

Again, we were very pleased to have the legislation passed in a bipartisan way for the safe storage of guns, banning high‑capacity magazines, which are designed to massacre. We're glad to have the two bills that – two pieces, initiatives that were executive orders under President Trump – the bump stock loophole, closing that, and under President Biden, the ghost [guns], enshrining both of those into law rather than just as executive orders.

So we're very pleased at the progress that was made on the Floor of the House and are eager and prayerful as to what the Senate, in a bipartisan way – for legislation that can pass the Senate, that can make a difference to save lives For The Children.

I'm also pleased that the Senate had a bill to proceed with the PACT Act. This is so important to our veterans and therefore to our country. The PACT Act is legislation that we passed in the House and sent to the Senate. They had 86 votes to clear the way to proceed, and hopefully that – they will proceed soon.

What that is, is to say that our veterans, our men and women in uniform, who have been exposed to burn pits will now have an opportunity to have the respect, the care and the opportunity they need to help – help them. Many of them have cancer. So in other words, not to have to have them prove to an almost impossible degree that they were there and that it happened. Jon Stewart has taken the lead on this. You probably saw some visibility about it. We passed it a while ago, but the Senate overwhelmingly, in a bipartisan way, has voted now to proceed.

We are also working – now, next week, we will be having legislation on the Floor that will talk about how we lower cost, how we address inflation and how we reduce the deficit.

I'm very pleased that we'll be bringing up the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which is a bill to address the supply chain shortages that we have. When supply is short, costs are up. That important legislation has already passed the Senate, so we will be passing it in the House. We had our own version here, but in the interest of proceeding, we're going to take up the Senate bill that lowers costs for American consumers.

We are also dealing with issues that relate to agriculture coming out of the Ag Committee, whether we're talking about more competition and a spotlight on what's happening in poultry and meat and all the rest of that. When we are talking about lowering cost at the pump, we have already done our price gouging legislation and market manipulation legislation, but we will also be doing more in terms of legislation to lower the cost of – to make further action to lower prices by making it cheaper, cleaner, Unleaded 88 more available. And again, that's something that springs from a large number of Members in our Caucus that, in many states, has already been making a difference.

So it is, again, inflation, lowering cost, reducing the national debt – very important. Addressing the needs of our veterans, which is an ongoing responsibility that we have. But there's absolutely no question that this week has been very much about gun violence. If you go back a month or so, you might not have predicted that that would be all‑consuming now. But it should be all‑consuming all the time, because as – people talk about this as happening again and again and again. It really isn't. It's happening once, continuously. It's always happening, and we have to make it stop.

And this legislation that we passed yesterday is very powerful in making a difference. Hopefully, some of it will be part of the – what the Senate does. But we don't know. It's their negotiation, and we look forward to it.

We have great confidence in Chris Murphy, our former Member of the House. He has made this his life's work – part of his life's work in Congress, having suffered the Newtown massacre in his district, as I say, where little children practically just out of diapers were shot down.

So we talked about gun violence, protect our kids, what we did yesterday.

I just want to say this, because I don't know if you saw the hearing yesterday – and you wonder why anybody who had seen the hearing might not be more supportive of stopping the violence. But Miah Cerrillo, she covered herself in her friend's blood so she could pretend to be dead during the Uvalde shooting. A little girl. A little girl.

Again, in my own district, a fifth grader – she lost both of her parents in gun violence. Separate instances, fifth grade. She spoke at a rally about stopping gun violence. Little children are testifying.

But yesterday, again, Zeneta Everhart, her son, Zaire, was shot four times. He survived, almost killed – he survived what they viewed as a racist massacre.

And I'll just close by saying, we were so honored to have the presence here this week of Gabby Giffords, such a heroine for us in our country, such an inspiration, challenging the conscience of the Congress to do something. And in our own Congress, Lucy McBath, who suffered the loss of her own son, being such an inspiration and challenge, again, to the Members to do the right thing. I think that both of them made a big difference in our success yesterday and as we go forward.

Any questions?

***

Q. Madam Speaker?

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

Q. On January 6th, the Committee tonight, do you believe the Committee will be able to reach the big chunk of Americans who have decided they just don't care about this anymore?

Speaker Pelosi. I don't think that that's the case. First of all, let me just thank the Members of the Committee. They have been hard at work doing their patriotic duty to seek the truth, and we will see that revealed.

I don't know – I've kept my distance from the Committee, so I'll be watching just as everyone else is to see the presentation. I believe that tonight will be sort of an opening of the narration – the narrative of what happened as an assault on our Democracy, on our Constitution, on our Capitol, on our Congress in a very violent way for a specific purpose: to undermine the Constitution of the United States on a day set aside for the peaceful transfer of power.

Q. Can I rephrase that then? Do you worry – let me rephrase that then. Do you worry at all that there is this chunk of people who have decided the work of this Committee isn't particularly important –

Speaker Pelosi. I don't know – I don't know that. I do not know that. I know that there are people who would like it to go away, some of them in this very Congress. But I don't stipulate to what you have said, no.

Q. Madam Speaker?

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, what have you got?

Q. Madam Speaker, I was wondering what the status of the Senate bill that protects Supreme Court Justices is in the House?

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah. Well, we –

Q. And your thoughts on Justice Kavanaugh and what this will –

Speaker Pelosi. Right. We had – well, the Justices are protected, as you all know. We are awaiting language from the Senate so that we could be completely up to date as to what they wanted to do. That's in the works. Mr. Hoyer is running that show. And we had hoped that we could do it today, but we certainly will do it the beginning of next week.

Q. Madam Speaker? Madam Speaker?

Speaker Pelosi. Yes, ma'am.

Q. Cassie Semyon with Spectrum News. California had very low turnout on Tuesday for the election.

Speaker Pelosi. Oh, you're talking politics now?

Q. Oh, yes, we're talking politics.

Speaker Pelosi. Okay. Well, we do that at a minimum under the Dome. But anyway.

Q. But I ask you if you worry that the Democrats' message is getting lost when it comes to voters. Kind of talking about what Garrett mentioned, you know, do you think people are disinterested in politics due to what's happening –

Speaker Pelosi. No, I don't at all. In fact, what I see is something quite different.

Now, sitting here in Washington, D.C., you may draw some conclusion based on sitting here in Washington, D.C. But what we see around the country is real interest in what comes next.

They're very concerned about our Democracy. They're very concerned about our freedom, whether we're talking about a woman's right to choose or the freedom to walk down the street without – or send their children to school without being endangered.

They're very interested in the kitchen table issues, which have always been the heartbeat of the Democratic Party: how we're going to pay the bills, pay the rent, pay for food, pay for education, whatever the subject is. The issues that keep people awake at night are the decisions they make at that kitchen table.

So we see something quite different. And I don't stipulate to your characterization of the public mood or yours.

I do know that elections that happen now have a lower turnout than those that will happen in November, and we expect to have a big turnout in November. And we have absolutely no intention of losing the House.

Q. Madam Speaker?

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah. What have you got?

Q. Madam Speaker, the most recent bills that passed yesterday passed on a bipartisan basis. And on top of that, you just had the red flag legislation that –

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, and that's bipartisan.

Q. Right. And that's bipartisan, too. What – how do you think that that portends for the future of the bills in the Senate that they could pass on a bipartisan basis? Are you in any contact with any of the Senators about it?

And how confident are you that one piece of legislation – because it looks like the red flag legislation is going to pass, or there's going to be some red flag law in the Senate. How positive that –

Speaker Pelosi. Well, you know more than I do. I don't know what will come out of the negotiations in the Senate.

Q. But how positive are you about this?

Speaker Pelosi. But I have confidence in those who are negotiating in good faith on both sides of the aisle, and we're eager to see what that will be. Hopefully, it will contain some of the measures which we think are life-saving in our legislation. But I don't know what their negotiations are because they are privy to the Senate.

Yeah, Jake?

Q. Madam Speaker, could we drill down on that a little more. They seem to be talking about red flags, school safety, mental health, bolstering the mental health network, incorporating juvenile records into background checks. That's the broad outline of what they've said.

Speaker Pelosi. Is that right?

Q. Yes, it is.

Speaker Pelosi. You know more than I do, because I don't – I speak – I don't – I don't have that knowledge about what they may do. But I will say this: that if it's life-saving and can make a difference and they have bipartisan support for it, then we would welcome it even though it won't be everything that we want.

But we cannot have subterfuge. We can't have them say, ‘Well, it's about this and it's about that.’ No, it's about guns. And it's about other things, too. But we cannot avoid the fact that it's about guns: their availability, at what age and what condition in terms of the person who's – yes, sir.

Q. Do you think that – in light of these hearings that are coming up, do you think that, in the fall, that democracy, that what happened last January is on the ballot, or is it these kitchen table, pocketbook issues that you mentioned that a lot of Americans are dealing with right now?

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you so much for asking a substantive question. It's so refreshing.

[Laughter]

Who let you in here? I don't know. I think it's always about the kitchen table issues because these are the – what moves somebody to vote? Yes, it's about our Democracy. That is on the ballot. They assaulted the Capitol. They are undermining the elections by under – by voter suppression and nullification of elections and the rest. And people expect us to take care of that. But they really want to know what we are doing in their interest and how they can manage for their families. It's always been about that. It's always been about the kitchen table issues. And that's what the Democratic Party is – no boardroom, corporate boardroom table, but the kitchen table.

So as you have seen, we have passed legislation in the rescue package that put money in people's pockets with the Child Tax Credit – got children safely in school, people safely back to work, shots in arms – at a time when we had to move quickly to do so. And again, now what we're talking about is how we can lower cost. When you have – this President has overseen eight million jobs created. Now, the private sector plays a major role in that. But this is historic.

No [other] president can make this claim: that in this short period of time, nearly eight million jobs were created. Unemployment was reduced in half. Wages have gone up. Many families now say – into the 70’s – they no longer fear a $400 emergency. It was that high before – that they did fear a $400 emergency would upset their whole monthly budgeting.

So things have improved. But inflation has gone up, and we must address that because the cost of food and the price at the pump – now, the price at the pump is affected by shortages, some of it caused by Putin. Part of this is Putin's Price [Hike] at the pump, not all of it, but most – much of it. When you have lower supply, you have higher cost. That's just the way it is. So we have to recognize it. We have to mitigate for it.

And that's part of what next – we have been doing, but we'll continue to do next week when we address the cost of food and agriculture, making it less expensive for farmers. For example, fertilizer. Fertilizer largely comes from Russia and places like that, so it's more expensive to farmers to have fertilizer. It increased their cost. It increased the cost of food. So it's all – so much of this is connected. You cannot separate what's happening in Ukraine from the price at the pump or the cost of fertilizer. On the other hand, you have to address it. And I think elections, to your question, are always about that.

Our responsibility is to protect our Democracy. It's the oath of office we take: to protect and defend the Constitution and all that that implies, the freedoms that go with that – whether that's a woman's right to choose or all of the other things that are exposed because of this decision, where they're questioning the value of privacy in our Constitution, whether they're questioning precedent in terms of actions of the Supreme Court. It's important, dispositive of the vote, is what happens at the kitchen table.

Q. So it sounds like you think that's going to be a bigger issue for voters, the referendum on how Democrats have handled these issues, as opposed to whether or not the former President –

Speaker Pelosi. It's not as opposed. No, it's not as opposed.

Q. But a bigger – a bigger role –

Speaker Pelosi. No, it's not as opposed. I'm just saying, what people think about our country is one thing. Look at the polls. How many people support – how many people support raising the minimum wage – 75 percent, 80? How many percent – gun violence protection in terms of the legislation we're talking about – 75, 80 percent? How many people support so many things that we're talking about? Is it dispositive of their vote? That's really the question.

So yes, people are concerned. It may be – contribute to how they decide. But the – as James Carville said, ‘It's the economy, stupid.’ No offense to you. I'm just quoting him. Just quoting him.

[Laughter]

It is always what that is about. And this President has been just a champion for America's working families. He's been a champion on the kitchen table issues. And that's what campaigns are about, to get the message out. So we will be mobilizing at the grassroots level, owning the ground with a message of hope and optimism For The People and, again, with the intellectual, personal and other resources necessary to do so. I feel – I feel pretty positive about it all. I'm optimistic, and I always am. But I – it is essential that – not only that we win that argument at the polls, but we win that argument in the policy debate as well, because it is For the People, For the Children. Thank you for your question. Thank you.

Q. Madam Speaker, how can you say that the Justices are protected when there was an attempt on Justice Kavanaugh's life? You said the Justices are protected, but there was an attempt on Justice Kavanaugh's life.

Speaker Pelosi. And he's protected. He's protected. The Justices are protected. This issue is not about the Justices; it's about staff and the rest. The Justices are protected. You saw the Attorney General even double down on that, double down on that.

Q. But this is about security for the Justices. An armed man showed up near Justice Kavanaugh's house to try to –

Speaker Pelosi. We're working together on the bill that the Senate will be able to approve of, because that's what – we can pass whatever we want to. We want it to be able to pass the Senate. So I don't know what you're talking about, because evidently you haven't seen what the debate is – not debate, but what the language is. There will be a bill. But nobody is in danger over the weekend because of our not having a bill.