One of the main reasons i wake up in the morning, my motivation is to have breakfast. Otherwise, it is like, what time is it . Lisa good morning. Our guest today is speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. It is her 13th appearance at a monitor breakfast. The first was in 1985 before she was even elected to the house. At that point, she was serving as the finance chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee, and i do not know how they figured out she was the future speaker, but i applaud my monitor predecessors for inviting her 34 years ago, so welcome back. Speaker pelosi has been in politics pretty much her whole life. Her father was a member of congress and then mayor of baltimore. After college, she married and moved west to San Francisco where she became a fixture in the state democratic party. She won a special house race in 1987 and has been a member ever since. Speaker pelosi is now in her second tour as speaker of the house, and we are delighted to have her here today. Now, the ground rules. We are on the record but please, no live blogging or tweeting. Kindort, no filing of any while the breakfast is underway. 9 00,he session ends at there is no embargo. That is me as well. We will be emailing pictures from the breakfast to everybody as soon as this breakfast ends. Please send me a signal and i will call on as many of you as time permits. Now speaker pelosi, would you like to make brief opening remarks . Speaker pelosi thank you, linda, very much, for the invitation to be here this morning. I did not realize it was this many times. In 1985, that is a while back. George mitchell asked me, because he became chair of the Senate Campaign committee, we were friends through all of that. He said, they asked me to be chair, but we are not a big fundraising state, so will you help with winning the senate . So i went to a number of our large significant establishments, forces in california, to say, i have been asked to do this, but i need to know that we will have the full force of california here. And, i do believe that we can win. That is a very important element. I do believe that we can win the senate for the democrats. This was a very big deal. Frankly, i was not a fundraiser organizer. But, you have to keep the doors open. So every night, i would think, how do i stay three months ahead with the payroll, utilities, rent, Political Activities . Like a small businesswoman, actually. Because you are organizing, you have to have the resources, hence the contact with the community. That was a necessity. I am an organizer, the essence of my being. Anyway, we did win. That was 1986. Then i came into the congress a few months later in 1987. I have a beautiful tray from leader,byrd, the then so had good rapport from the start, but never thinking that i would be from 1985 to now, speaker. Anyway, here we are today. When i first came here, this is a much smaller table in every way. Now, it is much bigger and much more diverse. I am happy to see many women here. Not that women are more so than men, but the beauty is in the mix. That diversity is important. I congratulate you for expanding the universe of those telling the story. Today is an interesting day, today is the day the administration will be eliminating one of the last vestiges of what president obama did to protect the environment. I think they are calling it a dirty power scam. Dirty power scam. That name just emerged this morning. This is fundamental for the air our children breathe and the water they drink and their safety. The integrity of our environment. Also today i am going to a war on poverty conference we are having with reverend barber on the hill and also today is the day that Prime Minister trudeau is coming. Perhaps we will talk about the trade agreement, he may want to talk about basketball but that is in the past. [laughter] also today, we are obviously Going Forward with our appropriations bill, and later today, we will have the meeting, a bipartisan meeting with the white house and how it relates to the debt ceiling. Just a few things that are happening today on the policy side. I would really rather hear what you want to talk about, but i do come here exhilarated, because this weekend, over 140 of our members participated in town halls or events, whether press conferences, townhall meetings, whatever, on the issue of health care. And the response was just spectacular across the country. It still remains the heart of the matter for americas families in terms of the good health, but also the Financial Security that having access to Affordable Health care. It is still a central issue, as it was in the campaign. It is one of the reasons i stayed, because Prime Minister trudeau is coming today thank you so much. He is coming today, i will see him tomorrow. Thank you, staff. [laughter] thank you. Appreciate that. Thanks very much. Temple markers. They are being great. This is what is happening today, this week, etc. Thank you for refining my temple marker. In any event, why dont we hear what you want to hear about . We are in a mode of legislate, investigate, litigate. Obviously, we take seriously the constitutional challenge that we have. We share some concerns about that with you, we are concerned about freedom of press, we believe you are the guardians of the gate of our democracy. We do believe that the president is undermining the heart of the matter of the actual constitution, before the bill of rights, in terms of separation of power, coequal branches of government, check and balances. That is a serious threat that we have responsibility to hold the president accountable. Our focus is legislate at the same time as we investigate and litigate. We are happy to take any questions you have. It is an honor to be with all of you. I dont even remember 1985, but i do remember a series of meetings. I must have been very nervous that day, can you imagine coming in as a volunteer and politics volunteer in politics to this very distinguished group of journalists . Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Linda i would ask that you limit yourself to one questions one question as there are so many of us. Speaker pelosi i want you to obey what linda had to say. Her son and daughter and mom. Linda at your last monitor breakfast in march of 2017, when President Trump had taken office, you told us that you were ready to retire to california because you thought Hillary Clinton was going to win but that obviously didnt happen. And you said it was really shocking that somebody like donald trump could be president of the United States, but he motivated me to stay. My question for you is, now that we have had President Trump for 2. 5 years, what are the stakes . Speaker pelosi i think i was right. But the main reason i stayed was to protect the Affordable Care act. It wasnt necessarily just about him, but about the Affordable Care act, because that is a pillar of health and Financial Security similar to social security, medicare, medicaid, the Affordable Care act. I knew that it would be under threat with this president. Forgetting any of the personal aspects of his behavior, from a policy standpoint. And so, really, i give credit to the grassroots. We had 10,000 events around the country. Of course, in his first two years of office, to protect the Affordable Care act. With all of our inside maneuvering, we can only go so far without the outside mobilization. Lincoln, public sentiment is everything, you have heard me say it 100 times. But it is still under threat, and it has made the difference in the election in 2018. Between 100 million and 150 million families are affected by preexisting conditions in addition to the people we added, the benefits there for larger tens of millions of families in , our country in terms of lifetime limits, access to health care. I wont go into the whole thing, but suffice to say, that was my motivation to protect the Affordable Care act from him. Is american democracy at risk . Speaker pelosi our country is a great country. Our founders, we were really blessed with our founders. Thank god they made the constitution amendable, so that we could expand even more freedoms than in the original document, including freedom of the press and the bill of rights but even beyond that later in terms of voting rights, etc. I have confidence in the American People. I have confidence in the strength of our democracy, that it could withstand this president. Linda jerry from the buffalo news . Speaker pelosi hi, jerry. [indiscernible] Brian Higgins reversed himself and called for an impeachment inquiry. His argument is really based on the fact from the administration stonewalling, the house investigation, using the term that there is a legitimate that there is no legitimate legislative purpose to the documents that were turned over and the testimony. What do you think of congressman higgins argument . Speaker pelosi i respect everybody and think there should be an inquiry, but i do not think you should have an inquiry unless you are ready to impeach. Again, i am not asking members what to do in their own time, what i believe is when we go forward, as we go forward, it has to run deep. It cant be the democrats impeaching. And the republicans exonerate in the senate. This president must be held accountable. I feel no pressure from my members to do anything, and i have no pressure on them to do anything. This is not about politics. This is not about partisanship. It is about patriotism, to honor the constitution of the United States. But i do think that it is important for the American People to see the purpose of why we would go forward. And now, this week, i dont know this was news last week, but we will be having access to a less redacted version of the mueller report. I have said originally, unless the country can see what they show us, we shouldnt see it, but i have when we had the offer of the less redacted for many more people than just the leadership, i accepted that, because i really do not trust the attorney general of the United States, and i am afraid that he may, depending on what is in there, try to, shall we say, deal with ongoing matters in a way that is not constructive for our constitution. I cant say anything more than that. Linda laura from npr . Reporter i have a question about legislation. Youre passing a whole bunch of bills, even if they cant go anywhere in the senate and members are getting frustrated they are not getting the same attention from the American Public that you would like. In order to get more attention for these bills, do you need to pick the bigger fight with Mitch Mcconnell . Speaker pelosi well, actually, we dont think that these bills are not going anyplace, because they have overwhelming support among the American People. Do we have the graveyard . Gravestone . I want to show you something we gave out at our caucus this morning. Yes, mitch has to be held accountable. Thank you. This is mcconnells graveyard. He has said he is the grim reaper, he takes pride in being the grim reaper. That is his political slogan, because my dear husband for some reason, gets the republican mailers and he brags about being the grim reaper as he is raising money. Here they are, for the people act. Protecting people with preexisting conditions, gun violence prevention, the equality act ending discrimination of the lgbtq dreamers, tps paycheck fairness, climate , action, saving internet act. To name a few. He has said they are dead on arrival in the senate. We are saying no, they are alive and well in the public. If you intend to not bring them up, there will be a price to pay. Again, i go back to lincoln, public sentiment is everything. With it you can accomplish anything, without it, practically nothing. We are ready to encourage our groups working with the democrats in the senate to insist this legislation we this legislation be brought up. Some of these things have 70 , 80 , 90 support in the public. We selected issues that we ran on. When we talk about Lower Health Care cost, lowering the cost of Prescription Drugs, the preexisting conditions, he will have even more legislation in that regard. Building infrastructure of america in a green way, cleaner government Lower Health Care, bigger paychecks, we think the president could be agreeable to legislation in those two areas. Cleaner government. I dont see any hope for that in terms of the president , but we do see it in terms of the American People. We will have legislation added to this list that talks about the integrity of our elections and the security of our elections, and that legislation is in the works. I think they will announce it in a day or two. We were hoping to also have republicans, and that is taking a little more time. We dont accept any fact that these will not see the light of day. However, in order for the public sentiment to weigh in, the public has to know. That is why we are having these town meetings and the rest on these subjects as we go around the country. Tomorrow, we will have a big event here on gun violence prevention. The bill is 80 , 90 popular even among gun owners and members of the nra. That is part of our fight. He is the point person who is standing in the way, and we have to make sure that people know. Yes to the second part, no i would say our members are not happy that these are being taken that these arent being taken up, but there are no frustrations from keeping us from doing even more and pushing even harder on all of this. Linda cheryl from bloomberg . Reporter you mentioned you will be going later to the white house to talk about the budget . They will be coming to the capital. Republicans want 750 billion for spending. Defense. Will democrats insist on 750 billion for nondefense spending . Also, the timing of the deal, do you need it now or are you going to wait until closer to the debt limit increase . Speaker pelosi two things come first of all we are not , talking about parity in terms of the amount of money, we are talking about parity in the amount of increase. The domestic nondefense discretionary defense nondefense discretionary domestic has to be increased commensurate with how the Defense Budget is increased. In that budget, the nondefense discretionary domestic, a third of it, 34 of it is veterans, homeland security, antiterrorism activity at the justice department, the state department, issues that relate to our national security. So, we have to listen up and we have additional initiatives that relate to our veterans. I dont necessarily love them to i dontission act necessarily love them to death, but it has to be paid for. It is the law and we have to pay for it. We are making the case that we need more money on the domestic side. That is what the budget agreement calls for. In terms of this, we want to do it as soon as possible so that the Appropriations Bills can move. Appropriations and intelligence, in those days, they were not so partisan. Devices ieir own , believe they can come to agreement on the bills. I am still optimistic about that. In terms of the debt ceiling, we said that we have to have an agreement, if we dont have agreement on caps, that is not a good thing for anybody. There are some in the administration that do not mind shutting down government, that is not a good idea. We have to recognize there needs to be compromise, but we have to have the budget agreement consistent with parity in the increases, not parity in terms of the amount, because defense is so far ahead of everything else. In terms of the debt ceiling, we will lift the debt ceiling. Full faith and credit of the American People is never in doubt. We have to have the agreement first so that we know we are on the same page as we go forward. Reporter my question is about china. The situation in hong kong. What do you think about the protest . Going forward, what is the most effective way for the u. S. To help maintain hong kongs legal autonomy . Speaker pelosi thank you. Is it just a beautiful sight to behold . A quarter of the whole population of hong kong was on the streets on this extradition law, which is appalling. You know what it says. If you were arrested in hong kong you would be tried in , beijing, and they can cook up any charge on any person, including journalists. 85,000 americans there doing business or reporting on it. Generationso three of hong kong democrats, martin lee, mr. Chan, joshua wong. They have all come through our office because we have been making this fight on human rights in china since tiananmen square. It has always been bipartisan. To your question, we have legislation that updates u. S. Hong kong policy. Under our law now, hong kong is treated as an Economic Zone for lack of a better word, and has other privileges separate from china. In this legislation senator marco rubio was introducing, and chris smith and jim mcgovern, i was part of the lead on it, it is very bipartisan, to pass the legislation that says that we no longer assume that china is operating under one country, two systems. We have to have the administration certify that that situation exists in hong kong in order for them to get the separate privileges. If they are just china, they dont get these privileges. I was pleased with the Administration Statement so far, such as they happen, pompeos statement on what is happening, this is a big issue. President xi has been really taking china backward in terms of repression. There could be 2 million, 3 million in education camps right now. I myself am taking a delegation to tibet to see what they are doing to suppress religion, culture, languages of tibet. All over china, there are incidences of suppression of human rights and democratic freedoms. Im not talking about democracy, just freedom of speech. I dont think what they are doing in hong kong is a very good message to taiwan, one country, two systems. Taiwans election is in january, and they always try to weigh in on that, but they do not do themselves a service. I can talk on this subject all day, because we live it all the time. Our office has had this priority for a long time. Linda john from newsmax. Reporter madame speaker, i just reread the part of your biography that has your first unique election to the house. Filbert. It was great. My question is this, if the house does impeach the president , could you still go ahead and work with him on a deal on infrastructure . Speaker pelosi yes, but again, we take this one step at a time. I dont think we have to wait for that for us to try to get a deal on infrastructure. 80 of the time i have spoken with the president by phone or in person since his election, he has talked about infrastructure. I really do think reporter 80 of the time . Speaker pelosi i will say there are a couple of incidences he has not brought it up, there are other subjects that took center stage at times, but i think you i think he would really like to do that. He goes back and forth on things, but with time to pay for it, use any excuse that would do to back away. The purpose of that meeting was to say what are you willing to do in terms of paying for it . Going forward, we cannot keep increasing the National Debt. If we had only the money he gave to 83 of the benefits to the top 1 of the country, they we could pay for great infrastructure bill but they chose to go that route. How do we at least pay for a good chunk of this . There are different ways to do it. We wanted to hear what he was willing to support. The president of the United States has his signature, he can persuade republicans in the congress to go down a certain route. I havent given up on that. The timing is now. On possible impeachment, we will see. Every day the president puts more grounds forward that says he is obstructing justice and that is what has affected members, that he is ignoring subpoenas, article three of the articles of impeachment president nixon, he ignored the subpoenas of congress. People still want to see the underlying. As we see what comes out in this less redacted mueller report, that may affect the timing. We will see. Reporter so youre still for infrastructure . Speaker pelosi it is more a question of if he is. But, 16. 5 months until the next election, we will see. I think that they have no accomplishments. Hr1, is for the people act, to end the rule of big, dark money in politics. Peoples interest, not be special interests are served. Tax cuts for the wealthy increasing the National Debt by , 2 trillion and then coming back and saying, maybe we can pay for it by cutting back on medicaid and medicare, social security, disabilities, benefits and the rest . From a policy standpoint, we love the campaign to be about policy. These are the choices, this is what it means in your life. That is why this meeting this weekend also important, because we were listening to what it means in peoples lives. Linda lisa from pbs. Shameless plug for the softball game that will go on tonight. Speaker pelosi you have a generational advantage. [laughter] a new face emerges on the scene. I brought my other shoes. Reporter my question is, last night, the Senate Appropriations committee and chairman reached a deal in principle on emergency supplemental for the border. What is your understanding of what is in that, and what needs to be in that other than funding for democrats to feel that the border and the treatment of immigrants is going the right direction . Speaker pelosi thank you for your question. This is a senate product. I have not seen it, because this is new. I trust the judgment of an appropriator. Left to their own devices the , appropriators can come up with a compromise that is necessary between the parties for this, but i do not know i am not at liberty. What i think is in there, is something they are just going to have to announce. Reporter but what needs to be in there other than funding . Speaker pelosi it is a funding bill. Reporter in terms of requirement of treatment of detainees, numbers of detainees . Speaker pelosi money is treatment. If there is money for the humanitarian assistance, money for the judges to expedite and facilitate the process in terms of people being able to stay or go, i do think it has to be based on a valuesbased decision. The president s statement that he was going to be deporting all these people right before his rally red meat, red meat, red meat. We do recognize that it is a bipartisan product. We certainly hope that it would be predicated on the fact that we have the dignity, and the worth of people, taking babies out of the arms of their mothers reporter from the l. A. Times. Thank you. Following on your comments earlier and looking at the other bipartisan bills in this congress, health care, ucma, theres limited time before the august break. Can you tell us a little bit how you would try to enact omething bipartisan now . Ms. Pelosi the president also said hed be interested in working together on allowing the cost lowering the cost of Prescription Drugs. Weve had positive conversations with the dministration. So that is one area where we think we have to go through our Committee Process on that but thats something we can put forward. Whether it would be done before the august recess, i dont know. Our priority is to pass the proceedings bill. One thing Congress Must do is pass the appropriation bills. Pace we y proud of the are on that and supplemental to that. By the end of june we want to have all that done. In addition to that we want to have i dont want to put a date on it but i think were making progress on the Prescription Drug bill. Yesterday we had a enrollment ceremony and i had the democrats and republicans on the Veterans Affairs committee for the blue water legislation had this address, the agent orange is specific but its a big deal in the Veterans Community and i was very excited about it because when i the vietnam vets were having a massive Hunger Strike in los angeles i spent a day with them and dick gregory was there who had been on Hunger Strikes before and he was giving them guidance, drink liquids, take showers, you must completely keep taking showers so your body isnt poisoned by the hunger the effects of unger. So being close to this issue for decades finally we passed the bill unanimously in both issues that re are enroll and address that john lewis has. We have legislation that will that the president s desk are not some of these issues but some of them make a difference in the eyes of the American People. In term of Mitch Mcconnell, youll have to ask him the question why would you not want to have the background check which is most agreed upon in the publics mind with extreme support. But, we will be working we dont separate things out so much as the break or this or that, we just try to for several pass all of our bills so by september 30, government will be open. That is our must do. We are hoping to have bipartisanship on election security, as well. Linda julie from the New York Times . Reporter in the category of bipartisanship, this year, the administration has been making positive, confident noises about the possibility that they will be able to persuade a large number of House Democrats to support the agreement and legislation to implement it, what is your sense of the prospect for that . Ambassador lighthizer was very complimentary of you to the senate. About the negotiations going on behind the scenes. Are you as confident as he is that is going to be able to get done in the short term or even the longer term . Speaker pelosi we all wanted to i myself voted for nafta. I was disappointed in how things were represented the representations that were made that were never fulfilled. You have leverage, because everybody wants an improved nafta. This is not the traditional trade fight. I thought this would be the easiest trade agreement that we could pass, however, these are the unresolved issues. First of all, enforcement. You can agree on any number of enforcements, but if you are not having agreement, youre just having a conversation and you will have the same problems ou had before. Secondly, that is the overarching issue. Enforcement. The three major categories are workers, we won any agreement to benefit americas workers, but you dont benefit American Workers by suppressing workers in another country. That is just an invitation for jobs to go to a place where workers do not get treated ell. So, again, there are good provisions in the bill, but if you do not have enforcement, you just have provisions in the bill. The second one is the environment. There has been disappointed about what happened on nafta and the environment, so those concerns i think can be worked out. Of course, as a californian, i know very well what some of the challenges are for the environment. The third, which has loomed as a big issue in our caucus, is the issue of pharmaceuticals. How pharmaceuticals are treated. So, the language is good on workers. The question is, is it really going to happen in mexico . We have more parity with canada on wages and things like that. Is it really going to happen in mexico . We hope so. That requires something this may be more than you wanted on the subject. In terms of the enforcement, ne of the proposals that has could forth is Sherrod Brown who has a standing with the community with labors, etc. And ron wyden, the two of them have a proposal that could be the answer for the enforcement piece. T is a way to make sure that enforcement takes place. We will see how that goes. I met with senator chairman grassley the other day, and we talked a little bit about that. We would like that to be esolved. It cant be, this is nafta, then nafta with sugar on top. That isnt that much of a change. The president could go out there and say see, we got a better flft are nafta when at this time not going to make a difference in the lives of the American People. Our people want a better nafta but we have to have enforcement and answer for the three categories i mentioned. Then, there will be some dogs and cats. There are some issues that are regional, and i do not say that in a negative way, we love our dogs and we love our cats. Linda the philadelphia nquirer . Eporter there have been suggestions about getting word of the filibuster, using executive action, cooperation. How do you think a democrat could get something done, can Mitch Mcconnell be coaxed or shamed into action, do you think . Speaker pelosi if youre talking about what happens, we just have to win. We just have to win. That is just the way it is. As i said earlier in two different answers, one, i believe in the American People, and two, public sentiment is everything. I think we have to take the conversation very forcefully to the American People so that they know what is in it, and these policy debates for them. And they have their apprehensions as well as their apprehensions and hopes and fears, and we need to connect with that. And i think that public sentiment will make a difference in the behavior of he senate. We could probably get into a discussion of the unicameral legislator, if we go down that ath. The wisdom that our founders stablished, what they did, whatever i dont know, protocol they decided. I dont really get into the rules of the senate. When we selected our fourpeople agenda, better paychecks, cleaner government, i dont know that the republicans are interested in that, but public sentiment is we were looking for areas where we had agreement, where we could be unifying. These are not divisive issues in terms of the public, none of these are. They knew that in our debates, which they had in a lively way at the beginning of our country, that is what a democracy is about. We had to try to always be uniting for our country and not dividing. That is what informs decisions about impeachment, decisions about selecting issues where you can find common ground. Nd hopefully, public sentiment, the goodwill of the merican people will not be continued to be ignored by the republicans in the senate even when we have a Democratic Senate and a democratic president. 16. 5 months from now. Linda 10 minutes to go, maybe we can have a lightning round . Christina from the wall street journal . Reporter stephen brooks, the head of the House Republicans recruitment effort, announced er retirement. The you take any message from that and do you want to see republicans recruit more women . Speaker pelosi i was sent to hear that, susan brooks is a wonderful member of congress. That bipartisan entity in the congress, she is gracious and lovely to work with, and smart and talented, and i think it is a real loss to the republicans. On that subject, the recruiter, i know that she probably would want to have more women in congress, so did we, and we made a decision to have more women in congress. When i went to women, there were 23 women, 12 democrats, 11 republicans. Now, we have 105 women in democrats. 95 democrats and 15 republicans. Youre not counting puerto rico and guam. 13 voting members. We count our delegates in our 91. We have two as well, so the 89 nd 13. That is a stunning thing, but it is a decision. It is a decision we made to increase the number of women. 60 of our congress are women, people of color, lgbtq. We are very proud of that. We go to the table to negotiate whether it is in committee or this or that, that we have different demographics from the other side of the aisle and bring a different array of nderstanding of the concerns of the American People. It is a loss for them that she s not running. I have not had a chance to speak with her, but i respect her a great deal. Linda from your home, San Francisco. Reporter he said it is about upholding the constitution, not politics. He also said pretty clearly the president is engaging in a criminal coverup, obstruction of justice. Where exactly is the line for you . When does it rise above all the other stuff . Speaker pelosi when we stop finding even more information. As i said, we are a few months deep, and every day we see ore, so why would we stop . If you are going to go down this path, you have to go down this path, you have to make it so clear, i say it all the time, if youre going to go down this path, you have to make sure that the public has an understanding of why. And that when the president , if the president is impeached, hat the senate understands that they either honor the oath of office to protect and defend the constitution of the United States, and if they dont, the ublic will hold them accountable for not holding the president accountable. Linda tom from real clear politics . Reporter Congress Writes immigration law, not the president. We do have record numbers of crossings at the border, humanitarian issues. We havent democrats propose any solution to the problem . Do you think the asylum laws as they currently sit are appropriate . Speaker pelosi let me just say, it is hard to do it rapidfire. We did pass two bills that address short fuse issues, the dream act, the temporary protected status, that offset a couple of Million People in our country. Hese are popular in the public and are a bridge, a confidence builder for immigration reform. In order to do comprise of immigration reform, we have to do that in a bipartisan way and with the administration involved. That is an obstacle that the president is saying he is going to send people out of the country, take babies out of the arms of their mothers. I agree with you, there has to be a bigger overarching plan on this, and it has to be ipartisan. Let me just say that the asylum issue the fact is that we do less in terms of asylum than any other country, especially ommensurate with our size. When we had a hearing on the muslim ban, people came in from the military saying you cant do this because it hurts our relationship, the diplomats, the advocates, and the muslim community, people of faith but what was most interesting to me was that the evangelical community, not an individual, but a person representing the merican association of evangelicals, came in and testified that the United StatesRefugee Resettlement program is the crown jewel of american humanitarianism. This is a big responsibility, nd people are treating it as if it is almost a nuisance. No, it is a responsibility. So, should we have more judges there so we can facilitate, hatever it is, the conversations, the process that people can stay or go . Should we try to improve situations of persecution . For example, in the northern triangle, we have to defend in a way that will be effective to end some of the reasons why people come. This is not about economic immigration, this is about wellfounded fear of death, persecution, whatever it is, in heir home country. The evangelical community has been the lead on this, so have the catholics and many people of faith. And they are exhausting their resources to deal with it in these communities, that is why we want to have a legislation that has more of the humanitarian assistance to go there. Should we subject any of our laws to scrutiny . Of course, how can we do this better . But this is not a bad thing that we have to get rid of. It is a humanitarian responsibility that we have. Linda so, we have reached 9 00, but we have started a little late, can you say two more minutes . Speaker pelosi i am here, i am not finished either. Linda emily from daily mail . Reporter alexandra ocasiocortez is under fire again from comments she made about concentration camps. Have you talked to some of the freshmen members about the power of their words and the use of their social media and you are thinking about this . Speaker pelosi these members of Congress Come and represent their district and their point of view. They take responsibility for the statements that they make. I am not up to date on her most recent one. I saw something in the news, but no, i have not spoken to her about that. I do have some comments to make to my caucus at large about the political nature of how politically charged the atmosphere is, so understand that while the republicans have no interest on holding the president accountable for his words, they will misrepresent anything that you say just if you have one word in the sentence that they can exploit. Linda so the two right there, you can both ask your questions . Speaker pelosi i will hear all three and answer them altogether. Reporter the president has threatened to fire the fed chairman and it came to light this week that he even investigated the legality of devoting him to a regular board. Do you do anything to maintain the independence of the fed . Speaker pelosi and then . Reporter are you confident that the president will not do something designed to purposely provoke a military confrontation with iran . Speaker pelosi and . Reporter i am surprised there is competition between some of your members and districts, that they are not as afraid as the media describes them to be of impeachment. For posteritys sake, historys sake, they think it might be important. They dont think this is a radioactive topic. Some have proposed censure that after exhaustive hearings and information search, if you could not actually impeach, that the house could for historys sake, pass a censure resolution that would force someone in the senate to Say Something about the president s conduct. Is this something you are considering . Speaker pelosi no. I think censorship is a way out. If you have to go, you have to go. Censure is nice, but it is not commensurate with the violations of the constitution. That is my view. There are some people in our caucus that say we could just do that, but that is a date at the beach for the president or his golf club or wherever he goes. The senate republicans, i think it is really important to note this there is not anything that the president is about that the Congressional Republicans have not been for longer and worse. Name any subject, gun safety, omens rights to choose, lgbtq, nondiscrimination, immigration issues, treating people with dignity and respect, fairness in our economy, name an issue. They have climate denial about science in every respect, including in terms of climate. They are not ever going to criticize him. In terms of policy, he is their guy. His is it. He crossed over to where they are. I dont expect the republicans to do anything but protect the president , unless the case is so clear in the public mind. In terms of iran, i am very concerned about miscalculations that could happen there. I dont think the president wants to go to war, he has told me over and over again in terms of iraq that was a mistake, it should have never happens. He criticizes that. But, im very, very concerned about this situation. When you write about these attacks on these ships, could you say the norwegian, saudi, and japanese the American People get the impression that these are attacks on u. S. Ships. Now, they are saying they shot a drone, an unmanned drone. This is disturbing. Were dealing with situations that are in terms of the iranians, theyre not going to lose face but also theyll only go so far and we shouldnt provoke them any further than that. Iran is a whole morning breakfast about the agreement and the rest and the mistakes that this administration has made. Make no mistake, House Democrats, congressional democrats, house and senate, have no illusions about iran, their behavior in terms of supporting bad actors in the region there, their Ballistic Missile transfers and the rest and we have sanctions on those. But to walk away from a Nuclear Agreement the way this administration did is very, very wrong but again we have to have a whole breakfast to talk about why. And then what was the first one . Oh, the fed. Fed independence is very important. I spent a number of years in the Banking Committee when i came here but then as an appropriator in terms of funding Different Things and i was fighting to protect the fed from the congress. Ed last thing we need is a policy involved in setting Interest Rates in our Monetary Policy and the last thing we need is a president threatening the chairman of the fed about whether he is raising or lowering rates in tune with the president s politics. This is so very, very wrong and again it is and i fought democrats who wanted to have more say about funding for the fed if they did this or that. Thats completely wrong. You have to have an independent Federal Reserve board and you would think that some republicans would say, mr. President , you shouldnt be doing that but we dont. Let me just close by saying i keep quoting our founders and hat they had in mind for us. For you, for all of you and for s, i just remind that thomas paynes, now are the times that try mens souls, i love these temple markers. The times have found us. They found our founders to do what they had to do to declare independence, fight a war, win it, establish a new country built on equality, something that had never happened before. The times have found us now and all of you as well. Not that we place ourselves in a category of greatness of our founders but in a time of urgency. The urgency of now that Martin Luther king talked about. The urgency to protect our constitution. The whole constitution. The bill of rights, the freedom of the press and rest, because these are tactics of authoritarians to go after the press, authoritarians to undermine the constitution of e United States and to do so in a way that gets red meat for certain folks. Im not saying everybody who supports the president is in all the at craft but let made crass support the president. The times have found us and we intend to live up to our responsibilities to protect the constitution when it comes to the check and balance on the branch of the presidency, we see the constitution, the we intend to use the courts in that regard. Time forn important our country and i count on all of you to be messengers of the andh and to go out there protect the freedom of the press. It is typical. You study authoritarians around the world and that is where they go because that is what they want to silence or kill. Us and ithave found is not time for any of us to chill including the fed in terms of the president s charges. Thank you for the opportunity at share thoughts. I appreciate hearing what is important to you in terms of your questions. Challengeis a new hopefully some sense within the Defense Department and our own military and notl antagonizing. We are dealing with the unknown on the other side of all of this. We are not dealing with the unknown here we have plenty to work with. Thank you for the opportunity. Let us think linda for managing all of us so well. Thank you for coming. [inaudible] let viewers make up their own minds. The doors to up policymaking for all to see bernie knew unfiltered content from congress and beyond. That has changed but today big idea is more relevant than ever. On television and online cspan is your unfiltered view of government ar. Brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. Heres a look at live coverage thursday. On cspan the house is back at 9 00 for general speeches. Members continue work on nearly 400 billion spending package for fiscal year 2020 that Veterans Affairs, justice, transportation, housing and other agencies. To the Senate Returns for more debate on legislation that sets 2020 defense policy programs. Senators will vote on a set of resolutions disapproving the trump administrations proposed arms of sales to saudi arabia. Cspan three the head of the u. S. Border patrol testifies on the Defense Departments recent deployment of military personnel to the u. S. Mexico border. Followed by an event from the Wilson Center on managing the and the border potential impact on trade policy. Caitlin emma joins us. She is a member of politico looking at spending. The house moves on to a second spending measure, what is the price tag of this package . In this latest package it is 383 billion measure and it is the second combination of spending bills that the house is looking to take up