Kevin good morning, all. Yesterday the country paused to recognize our nations veterans. On behalf of the entire republican conference, i want to express our heartfelt appreciation to every veteran who served our country. Their commitment to service and the love of the country exemplifies the very best of america. They deserve leaders in washington who will hold the line and do their part in protecting our individual liberties at home. That is why i could not be prouder of the House Republicans and those who are joining us in the next country. Congress. It will be the most diverse class weve ever had. Many have dubbed this year the year of the republican woman and couldnt be truer from that statement. We will are posed to have 29 House Republican women join our ranks, surpassing the previous record. Every democrat incumbent is a loss is a loss to a woman. Minorities or veteran republican. Meanwhile, democrats are set to have the slimmest democrat majority since world war ii. Pundits doubted us, polls were stacked against us and dont believe one person in this room believed wed win one race. The cooke report said wed lose 1520. The majority leader steny hoyer said days before the election that we would lose that they would gain 15 seats and republicans would lose them. Erry, the head of the dccc for a few days longer poised there would be double digits. The speaker of the house claimed she not only was winning the majority but having two election this is november, that it would be such a large victory, shed guarantee the majority for the next election as well. They were all wrong. Not one republican incumbent lost. Republicans won from miami to new york to minnesota, to alifornia. The only seat the democrats won was an open seat and then they claimed to have won a redistricting in North Carolina where republicans didnt even run. I heard the speaker call it a mandate. It was a mandate against socialism. It was a mandate against defunding the police. It was a mandate against wasting a majority that the democrats have done for the last congress. While the democrats praise socialism and abdicated to defund police, our members made a commitment to america, that they would restore the way of life, restore the economy and renew the american dream. We are eager and ready to show up for work. Unlike the democrats. Yesterday chairperson lofgren signed signaled the democrats have infrastructure in place to ensure democrats continue to get paid for not showing up to work. Something americans across this country dont have the privilege to do. Millions of americans have already returned to work and millions more want to return. If theyre willing to show up in person, so can we. It can be done in a safe manner to minimize the risk for members, for staff employees and for you, the press. Just as we did with the proxy voting scheme, House Republicans will stand up and defend the constitution. Even if it gets in the way of the democrats boat vacations and road trips to rocket launches. We believe congress is essential. We believe you spent millions saying youll be the voice for all of you in your district. Should show up and be that voice. Like in mae when i put myself and tom cole and rodney davis gave a plan to open up the house safely with testing which the speaker denied, the ability to have rooms separated and distanced so we could have hearings in a safe manner. Even to this day the speaker has no plan of how to have the house safely open up. Our success is already threatening democrats. Instead of planning to work with us, theyre already plotting ways to silence the Minority Partys voice in congress. As many of you know, they want to change the rules to the motion to recommit, the m. T. R. As many of you know it. Its the only way that a legislative body allows a minority just to have one amendment to a bill. Its the only way the Minority Party can use the influence to improve legislation and serve as their constituents voice in d. C. We wont let them silence us. This election cycle has made one thing clear, the Republican Party is now the party of the american worker. That is the actual mandate we had from the voters. Were going to fight them, push back against democrats radical policies and continue to put america first. With that, lets open it up for questions. Yes, sir . Reporter with regard to the election, nancy pelosi and leader schumer have said basically that with all these lawsuits that all it is doing is jeopardizing the democracy of america. What is your reaction . Not at all. You have a hand recount going in georgia. Every recount needs to be finished. You have challenges inside courts. Every challenge needs to be heard. Regardless of who you support in this election, the end of the day we want america to be united. Regardless how this outcome is, you want to be able to trust the election. If there was something that was wrong in this election, we do not want to repeat it for the future either. Just as we watched in the race in 2000, it carried out more than 37 days because there were court cases. They were heard. I think when you have more than 150 million americans voting, lets make sure we get this right. Yes, maam. Reporter texas is concerned. Democrats had pinned hopes on about 10 seats, i think. N republicans now say that texas is red and Going Forward for the next two cycles or no . Kevin i think every place is going to be competitive in the future. The country is very divided we watched in the all the races. The democrats said theyd flip texas and the cooke report had it as a tossup. They believed theyd win all the open seats and defeat incumbents, not only in texas they did not defeat one republican incumbent who ran for reelection. And the open seats they only won one in the large number of open seats. In texas, no, they didnt defeat one down there. Just like in every other state on this win, well have some make some amazing women who will add to the delegation of texas and the Republican Party. Reporter as to all these women, the republicans now coming in, the 29, how concerned are you about the Marjorie Taylor green and marjorie bogaerts who supported creating controversy for your conference . Margey taylor walks around kevin did the president hand you this question . Reporter margely taylor looked for people to lead and omar said they needed to swear on a bible and not the koran. How are you dealing with it . Kevin our party is very diverse and you mentioned two people who will join our party. And the only thing i would ask of you in a press, these are new members, give them an opportunity before you claim what you believe they have done and what they will do. I think its fair for all. Yeah . Reporter do you feel any of the legal efforts or the recounts will change the results in any single state or overturn anything related to the overall election . Kevin the folks heavily on the house races. I follow data numbers and i thought early on arizona based on the number of votes left out could switch back to President Trump. Dont know if thats going to be the case. I see things narrow. Let me give you an example more on a microlevel because its very difficult. I have in my own race in my county we have two congressional seats. They tell me theres proximate 150,016 and its approximate but cant tell me in which district they are. I just watched a race in new jersey that the a. P. Called and probably called way too soon. Tom contain is coming back up tom cain is coming back up. Because of the manner of this election is different than ears. A lot of vote by mail and some mailed it to everybody. When they counted, some counted certain votes coming in and would be disproportionate. Democrats more likely voted in the absentee portion and republicans overwhelmingly voted on election day. Each area doesnt count them the same. In this case in new jersey they counted the votes based on when they came in so it looked like a member had a really high margin. Now were seeing it trick down. So the new ones that are counting, tom cain is winning by 63 . So your answer to your question is one could. And its best because everybody took the time to go vote. Lets wait until we have all the information. Theyre going to recount by hand in georgia. Thats going to take some time. Thats a close race. We had a close race in the last president ial. Lets let all of them carry out and yeah, some of them could switch. Reporter the women in the country have more than the democrats have. What is your plan to continue to increase diversity. Kevin exactly the plan i told you two years ago, i believe the Republican Party is much more diverse than what reflects on the floor and this election proved it. You look at who ran and who represented the party and where they represented it from. When you look at the results and the outcome, its only in this room when we get a new record for number of women, more diverse and only makes us stronger. Its what makes america strong, were reflective upon that. Think about where we won. We won two seats in miami. Maria salazar and carlos imen ezz jimenez. Maria defeated a congresswoman who was former secretary of health and Human Service who called herself a pragmatic socialist. When i listen to the Democratic Caucus on twitter, theyre all burning up, were not socialists. They literally claimed to be and lost over it. We defeated a sitting chairman of a committee. Been here more than 30 years. The d triple c own chair had to put 1 million in her own race the last week and questioned on Election Night whether she was going to win. One day you should at least let us have what took place that night. It was an unbelievable night for republicans in congress. Something we told you about two years ago that we would be more diverse, exactly the way we look at it across the party. Those people had to run and they put their name on the line. Not only if you take us from two years ago, only 44 women won the primary. This time 94. More women ran as republicans than any time in the history of the Republican Party before the cord was 143, 225 ran this time. So were doing fabulous and going to continue it. Weas going to happen with the success of the women, the success of the diversity, its going to empower others to see you can do it, i can do it, too. Maybe ive been quiet about my beliefs in this party but i know this party has a place for me so theyre going to join. Yes, sir. Reporter talk a little bit about a twopart question, what do you want on covid relief in the coming months because presumably youll have some say. Mcconnell said he wants a targeted small package. And next congress, youre going to have a pretty powerful minority, im curious how you think about that in 2009 when you were in the minority, you guys didnt participate much with obama and argued he wouldnt participate with you. Were not having that conversation but curious about your orientation going into next congress if biden is the president which seems obvious to most people. Kevin the first thing i want it to have happen is i want politics to end on the covid. Ive been in all the discussions with the leaders. Ive never watched one leader play politics more than anything else than nancy pelosi. She played politics from the very first time we did the cares act. You watched her delay it a week. You watched her and ive watched her time and again inside the meetings. She had one mission and one mission only. She was willing to sacrifice her own members. Remember what she said prior to departure when we were talking about covid and problem solvers had put the plan up. What did she call the problem solvers . Theyre all irrelevant. She knew her only members would lose. But her whole focus, her tunnel vision was it didnt matter what the issue is but if i can make President Trump weaker for an election, im going to do it. What she did in that instance was she sacrificed our economy and people who were hurting. The election is now over. I think it is very clear she should end her politics about it. And we should be able to get into a room, weve got money sitting there. What did the republicans do . We put on the floor 37 times to be able to vote for money for covid, for p. P. P. There is more than 137 billion sitting there. Its only the date why you cant keep going out. She disbursed congress because she was afraid id do a motion to recommit and she changed how we voted to the floor. Our continuing resolution, simply because she was afraid people would have got resources and help. So the number one thing that has to happen, the only thing thats standing in the way in my view is speaker pelosi. [inaudible question] kevin yes, yes. We have more information today, we have more than 100 billion sitting there for states. This is money already appropriated. Why is it being held up . People need some relief and we can provide it. That money, the p. P. P. Goes to Small Businesses and doesnt go to the owners but the employees. It pays the rent. Its every small city we know, the person who had a dream and took a risk and let them stay around. Thats haul that has to get done. Working on the other side and thinking about the next congress, i put a lot of thought into it. Im first going to wait to see who holds up to become speaker. As you know, ive been to those battles and theyre not easy. It takes 218 on the floor. There were 15 democrats who voted against the speakership of nancy pelosi last time. 10 of those 15 democrats will be back. If 10 democrats vote again against nancy pelosi, shell not be speaker. You see, the numbers are different. It is the smallest democrat majority since world war ii. From every reporting im seeing, im just reading twitter, from the conference chair to congresswoman a. O. C. , doesnt seem theyre getting along very well. Theyre fighting on the fundamental of who they are. For what they champion and what they lost over. And they had the exact same Leadership Team they lost last time with. I dont know in history has there ever been a Leadership Team to lose the majority twice. If they elect the same, well know for sure whether that will be in history. Chuck grassley says joe biden said access to classified briefings to prepare for the transition. Do you believe joe biden has access to classified briefing . Kevin only because i knew that you were coming and wanted to make sure i knew, too. Im a gang of eight and i trust our intel community. And i want to continue to trust it. Joe biden said in regards to this, look, access to classified information is useful but im not in a position to make any decisions on those issues anyway. So as i said, one president at a time. He will be president until january 20th. It would be nice to have it but its not critical. I think i kind of stand with joe biden. Ill trust the intel community. Hes not president right now. Dont know if hell be president january 20 but whoever is will get the information. Thank you all very much. Look forward to spending time with you later. Eastern, up at noon financial regulators will be testifying about their role during the coronavirus pandemic. Later this afternoon, the Federalist Society hosts a discussion on the rule of law and the presidency. Also on capitol hill today, newly elected members of congress are attending freshman orientation meetings. Heres a look at some video earlier of the freshman orientation checkin. Call,ing to roll briefings start tomorrow and will continue into the postthanksgiving second phase of orientation. Members will hear about office