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Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports to discuss the more than 100 days since the House passed the Heroes Act, Senate Republicans’ emaciated COVID relief proposal and other news of the day.  Below are the Speaker’s remarks: 

 

Andrea Mitchell.  I'm joined now by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  

 

I know you haven't seen the book, I haven't seen the book.  I’m reading what The Washington Post is writing about this.  And, of course, Robert Costa and Phil Rucker, you know that they've read the book and are very familiar with it and have written about it in detail.  What is your reaction, Madam Speaker?  

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, it's just more of the same.  It’s projection, projection, projection.  Everything that the President says to belittle somebody else is really a description of himself.  Whether he's talking about President Barack Obama or whether he's talking about ‘see the hate,’ because he's projecting what he feels himself.  A very dangerous person.  

 

But let's get back to the threat to the economy and the good health of the American people.  When he understood, clearly, in – 

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Let me ask you – 

 

Speaker Pelosi.  What he said about the virus early on, he understood better than he let on, when he was calling it a ‘hoax,’ his delay, distortion about the, and denial, about the threat is responsible for many of the deaths and infections that we have today.  Not all of them, but many of them could have been prevented.  

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Again, I apologize with the satellite delay, I didn't mean to interrupt you.  

 

To expand on that, it's very clear from this reporting that the President knew and was briefed in great detail by late January, January 28, by his National Security Adviser, his Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger, that this was airborne, that it was deadly, that it was dangerous, that it was a threat.  And he was at the time downplaying it, denying it.  If you just compare what he was saying publicly, to say nothing of what actions he did not take to prepare this country for this deadly pandemic.  

 

Speaker Pelosi.  As we go forward, let's just talk about what we should be doing.  We should be passing the Heroes Act, which has within it – thanks to the leadership of Frank Pallone, our Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and so many Members – a strategic plan to crush the virus.  Instead of crushing the virus, the President used his time to crush the Affordable Care Act, where he is in court now, trying to crush the pre-existing condition benefit, and the list goes on.  

 

But we have a plan.  We listened to the scientists.  It's about testing, testing, testing, tracing, treatment, isolation, mask wearing, sanitation.  This is a way to curb the growth of this.  

 

When we passed the Heroes Act on May 15, Mitch McConnell pressed the ‘pause’ button, said there's no need to do anything.  Since then, 5 million people have become infected.  Over 100,000 people have died.  That same denial that the President has.  They don't believe in science, and they don't believe in governance to act upon what science says we should do.  So, again, this is, again, I’m more interest in – 

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Well, Mitch McConnell says – 

 

Speaker Pelosi.  How we go forward.  

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Well, going forward, Mitch McConnell has scheduled a vote for tomorrow on the so-called ‘skinny’ bill, which has some relief in it for people but does not have what you want for state and local governments.  It does not have all of the relief that you want for people.  It's trillions of dollars short of what you want.  Is it better to proceed with a vote?  He says he's got the votes and –   

 

Speaker Pelosi.  You know what, he doesn't have the votes.  

 

Andrea Mitchell.  The proof will be whatever we see tomorrow on the Floor.  

 

Speaker Pelosi.  He doesn’t have the votes. 

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Is it better to go forward with some – 

 

Speaker Pelosi.  No, it isn't.  Thank you so much for that question, because I hear it a lot and, clearly, it springs from all the good intentions we all have to help people as soon as we can.  

 

It does nothing.  There are millions of kids who are food insecure, millions, maybe 14 million in our country, food insecure.  He has nothing for that.  There are millions of families, victims of evictions because they can't pay the rent.  They don't care about that.  

 

In terms of attacking this virus, which will enable us to open our schools and our economy, that's just not – that's science and that's not where they're coming from.  State and local government, they're our heroes – hence the name – our heroes in fighting for health care, our health care workers, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers, our first responders, police and fire, our sanitation, transportation, food workers, who meet the needs of the American people.  

 

You cannot send kids to school if you do not have the assistance to state and local governments which pay for over 90 percent of the education of our children.  Not to mention what they don't want to do in terms of helping for the strictly coronavirus-centric needs of our schools.  

 

So, this is – this isn’t about, ‘We want to negotiate, let's just do a few things and that ought to do it.’  No, it's about the kitchen table needs of the American people.  Sending a check without all of the rest of this is a poor excuse for governance and again, a resistance to the science.  

 

So, don't be misled by thinking: ‘Oh, well, a little bit is better than nothing.’  No, it isn't.  It's a missed opportunity to do what is right for the American people.  And that's why Democrats are so unified in this.  And Democrats and Republicans across the country are urging us to stay strong and get the state and local as well as assistance for housing and assistance for food.  And if you want me to go into more detail on that, I certainly will.  

 

Andrea Mitchell.  No, I know you can.  Let me ask you again about the Bob Woodward book, because there are larger –  

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Yes.  

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Larger issues about the President's leadership.  And these are relevant today, as always, because they are his role as Commander-in-Chief.  Bob Woodward quotes former Defense Secretary James Mattis as saying to Dan Coats, the former head of National Intelligence, and then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that he had prayed at the National Cathedral because of what he felt were the President's incapacity to lead as Commander-in-Chief and said that there may be a time when we will have to take collective action and all resign.  

 

So, there were early concerns back in 2017, even, with the first Secretary of State about the President's capacity, by Jim Mattis and by Dan Coats, as quoted in this book.  

 

Speaker Pelosi.  That's very interesting, especially in light of the fact that the Republicans in Congress do nothing, do nothing to temper the bad policy that springs from that person.  The – you would think that the family or the Republicans would have some kind of intervention.  Clearly, the behavior of the President is not on the level.  

 

But the fact is, I'm very pleased that AstraZeneca has stopped their trial because they saw a problem that needs to be investigated.  I'm so proud that the pharmaceutical companies have said they won't market or promote a vaccine unless it is properly approved by the independent scientific advisory committees set up for such a thing.  They – I'm glad they're saying that, because I have concerns about what the President might want to do to the timing and politicizing of the research that is there.  

 

So, when we talk about his incapacity and whatever his mental state is, we have to be careful about how that impacts the health and well-being of the American people.  And I feel very sad that the Republicans in Congress – and I don't paint everybody with the same brush, certainly not Republicans in the country, many of them – with how willing he is to squander the health and well-being, the economic security, the food security, the housing security of America's families.  

 

For what?  For what?  Because he doesn't want to face the fact that his denial, his distortion, his delay has caused so much harm to our country, health-wise and economically, because he just couldn't face that reality.  Something is wrong there.  It's not on the level.  And the Republicans who condone it are accomplices to it.  

 

And, as I have said, they're going to have doggie doo on their shoes for the rest of their lives when their children and their grandchildren said what did you do at that time, when they were in denial about science in terms of the virus, when they’re in denial in science about the climate issue, when they would not pay attention to children's needs and denied scientific advice as to how it would be safe for children to go to school.  Five hundred thousand children with the infection, 500,000 children.  So, I'm all about the children, as you know, the lioness.  We will – you know, we will have our differences, but you hurt the children, be ready for a big fight.  

 

And this is – everything that Mr. Costa said that was said about – I mean, I'm one of the only Members of Congress still here who has been to Pyongyang, to North Korea, actually into North Korea, not to the border.  I have seen the cruelty with which the people there are treated.  This was when his father, Kim Jong Il, was the – was the President.  This is a brutal dictatorship.  

 

And for the President to speak in those terms about him, ‘Excellency.’  Thug.  Thug, Mr. President.  Thug.  And if you don't recognize that, it's a projection of your own lack of standards.  

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Madam Speaker, I also have been to Pyongyang, I know of what you speak, back when Kim Jong Il was also the Leader, back in 2000 and again in 2006.  

 

And the other major point I wanted to make before I let you go is about the military, because Woodward, in the Washington Post rewrite of this, quotes from the book, saying that the loathing of Donald Trump for his military advisers was mutual.  This is after talking about how Coats and Mattis were so critical of him privately.  The loathing was mutual.  

 

Quote of the President: ‘Not to mention my F-ing generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals,’ Trump told White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro at one point, according to Woodward.  

 

It goes on to talk about Jared Kushner.  The son-in-law and senior adviser, is quoted by Woodward as saying, ‘the most dangerous people around the President are overconfident idiots,’ which Woodward interpreted to mean Mattis, Tillerson and then former National Economic Adviser Gary Cohn.  So, there is a continual thread throughout this of conflict between the President's national security advisers and the President, to say nothing of the military, and of course most recently we've seen and heard what has been written about the President's private comments about the military, as well as his public comments, to say nothing of John McCain.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  You know, I have referenced our conversation in Normandy last year, when I brought plane loads of Democrats and Republicans to observe the seventeenth – 75th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.  We went there to praise and thank our veterans who are still coming, a smaller number each year, but nonetheless, still courageously coming to Normandy with their families. 

 

And you asked me, in front of the graves overlooking the water, if I would say something about the President.  I said I never criticize the President of the United States overseas.  Later, Fox News interviewed the President in a similar location, in front of the graves, and he made political attacks on some of us who were there visiting our veterans, our survivors who are still with us from the invasion of Normandy. 

 

So, again, that he would be political in front of the cemetery of our soldiers who gave – made the ultimate sacrifice at Normandy should have given people a clue of the lack of respect that he had for our service members.  Now, he's saying, ‘Well, the soldiers like me but the military – the higher ups don't.’  

 

Well, you know, we have eight weeks and a couple of days until we'll be able to count the votes in the election.  It's so sad that an election should have to be so crucial, that we should be even having a discussion.  This should be the most unifying thing we do, to praise our men and women in uniform and our veterans and their families who make such a sacrifice for our country.  It shouldn't be someplace where there's any division in any of it.  

 

I think for me, the defining moment was when he criticized John McCain.  I just couldn't – I thought, how could anybody elect somebody who is criticizing the sacrifice and the patriotism of John McCain?  John McCain, being on the other side of the aisle from me, we've had our differences, we've had our agreements.  But we all agree that he was a super patriot for our country.  And the kind of words that he said about President George Herbert Walker Bush too when he again was so brave and courageous as a very young man in the war.  So it is – in World War II. 

 

Again, something is not right here.  But what's really wrong is that the Republicans will not address it.  They will not address it.  Maybe they too are anti-science.  Maybe they too are anti-governance.  Maybe they're just afraid.  Why any of us thinks our job is more important, our being reelected is more important than doing what's right for the American people, no matter what president we might offend, is really stunning. 

 

But as I say, we don't agonize, we organize.  We want to look forward to see how we can work together to crush this virus, so we can open schools and the economy safely, so that we can meet the needs of the American people and really have the right to say thank you to our heroes, because we're not only saying thank you, we're allocating the resources so that they, as they risk their lives to save lives, are not losing their jobs because so many Members of the United States Senate Republican Conference do not want to spend one more dollar in the fight against this virus and to pull us out of this recession. 

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Madam Speaker, I well remember that day, June 6, 2019, when, try as I might, you refused to say anything at all that was critical of the President in front of the American cemetery, which is hallowed ground.  I know you have to go but one more thing, I just wanted to play.  This is courtesy of CNN.  This is tape of a conversation that I believe took place on March 19, where the President can be heard saying that he always wanted to play down the threat of the coronavirus when he was first warned about it initially on January 28th by his National Security Adviser.  Let me play this very brief segment for you and get your reaction. 

 

President Trump.  I wanted to always play it down.  I still like playing it down. 

 

Bob Woodward.  Yes.

 

President Trump.  Because I don't want to create a panic.

 

Andrea Mitchell.  So, the President's explanation is that he was trying to play it down because he did not want people to panic.  

 

Your comment about that?  That was taped on March 19.  

 

Speaker Pelosi.  The fact is, is that the coronavirus and the threat that it was is a reality.  

 

And a president should face that reality.  And the way to avoid a panic is to show leadership, to say, this is what the challenge is. We're going to use the best scientific evidence that is available to us to contain it.  We are going to make sure that we can stop the spread of it.  

 

That is what stops a panic, not ignoring it, and then finding out that 100 and – and then later saying, ‘Well, a couple of hundred thousand people, that's – that goes with it.  That's not that many compared to how many die of the flu in a few years,’ or whatever.  

 

So, I think that what he said there connotes two things.  One, his weakness.  He didn't know how to cope with a challenge to our country.  Secondly, his disdain and denial for science, which has the answers.  We could have contained this early on.  

 

But, bigger than all of that, bigger than all of that was his total disregard for the impact on individual families in our country.  Imagine losing a loved one to a virus that didn't even – you didn't even know about seven, eight months ago, the end of last year and to have a president use that as an excuse. 

 

What he was actually saying is, ‘I don't want anybody to think anything like this happened on my watch, so I'm not going to call any more attention to it.  It's a hoax.  We expect a miracle.  It's going to go away magically.’  Something's very wrong with this.  And it can be captured in the statement that the President made about that.  

 

I don't know – I mean, again, I just don't know why there isn't some kind of an intervention by those who are surrounding him professionally, or any goodwill on the part of his own family, to say, ‘Something is very wrong here.  We have to have an intervention for the good of our father, Donald Trump, and for the good of our country.’  

 

But it's all the more reason why we have to remove every obstacle to participation in the vote, because, as you see, they're carrying this crusade, this mission that they have, just that identifies with dictators and thugs as a – and, again, as I have said over and over again, Putin, his friend. 

 

He's Putin's puppet.  All roads lead to Putin.  What does he have, does Putin have, on him politically, personally or professionally, financially?  We will find out when we see his tax returns.  

 

But this is really sad.  It makes us wonder how we ever would be so competitive in races between Democrats and Republicans who just had a difference of opinion as to the role of government, when we see how distorted the presidency can be.  

 

I'm really excited about Joe Biden.  I think he's going to be a great president.  I never saw any hatred coming from Kamala Harris, and neither did the President.  But he's always projecting his negative attitudes on to the other people.  

 

But it won't be long.  In eight weeks, we will be celebrating the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, a Democratic Senate, a strengthened Democratic House of Representatives.  

 

And part of the cornerstone of what we do is to do so in a bipartisan way, to reach out to find common ground, to have transparency in what we do, so that the public can make its own judgment about us, and, when we do so, to do so as a result of a free and fair election, not to be frightened by anything that he says.  

 

Again, we don't agonize; we organize.  And that's what we intend to do.  

 

Andrea Mitchell.  Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, thank you very much for being with us today.  

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Thank you, Andrea.  

 

Andrea Mitchell.  With all this breaking news, thanks for your indulgence.  

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Thank you.  

 

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