Transcript of Pelosi Interview on CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Contact: Speaker's Press Office,

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Stephen Colbert. Folks, my guest tonight is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Please welcome back to a Late Show, Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Madam Speaker, thank you so much for being here.

Speaker Pelosi. I wish I could say my pleasure. I always would look forward to this, except, as you say, as you listed earlier, a hurricane that is described as perhaps unsurvivable, and California fires described as Armageddon, a pandemic affecting so many people. And, again, what happened in Kenosha just breaks your heart.

I love what John said, ‘We have to have our prayers in the air,' very prayerful time, so sad.

Stephen Colbert. It absolutely is, and it's – it's people of goodwill and people of conscience to think about how far they're willing to go in the direction that our country is being dragged right now. I want to thank you for being here. I don't ever want to take for granted that we have the opportunity to speak to the Speaker of the House. So, thank you for being here. This is an honor. I want to talk to you for a moment about – I did not watch the RNC tonight because I – I don't know why I will give air to their lies again. But I suppose I'll try tomorrow again and see if I can get through it. What have you made of the week so far?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I've been busy with my day job, which extends into the night, because California is, as you know, goes on for three more hours. So, I was too busy to watch. And that was okay with me because I try not to – try to get rid of my negative attitudes. And that only just provokes them more to watch, the misrepresentations that are there, the disrespect for people. It's really sad.

Quite a contrast to what we did last week, just from the start with the roll call to see the beautiful diversity of America, the pride of place that people had in their states across the country. So, I'd rather think in a more in a positive way, not to dwell on them, but to think in more a forward way.

Stephen Colbert. I'm happy – I'm happy to leave the discussion of the RNC, but I have to ask you one question. This is a rumor that's going around at the RNC. Is Joe Biden a Trojan Horse, and you're inside pulling all the levers? Because they've painted a picture.

[Laughter]

Speaker Pelosi. To their peril, they underestimate Joe Biden. He's going to be a great President of the United States. He has a vision for our country, which is very positive, respectful of the dignity and worth of every person. He has knowledge of the issues, which is something that they are also lacking, knowledge and judgment. He always thinks in a strategic way about how to get things done. I've seen him in action in terms of his vice presidency, passing the Affordable Care Act, enforcing ARRA – the Recovery Act – and, again, all of these things, vision, knowledge, judgment, strategic thinking are important.

But what's really important is what's in his heart and his authenticity, and his connection, his empathy for the American people is something that they probably wouldn't even recognize, could never identify with and are very different from Joe Biden on. So, they will say what they will say. But we will do what we will do. As I said, we don't agonize, we organize. And we must organize to make sure that he is the next President of the United States.

Stephen Colbert. Now, in your speech, you talked about the centennial of the 19th Amendment which, of course – giving women the right to vote. Today is the anniversary of it actually being added to the Constitution. As the first female Speaker of the House, or just as an American woman, what does this day mean to you?

Speaker Pelosi. It means a great deal. That's why I'm wearing purple. Purple, white and yellow were the colors of the suffragettes. Actually, outside my window I see the Kennedy Center, which is lit up in purple and yellow in honor of this important day. And 100 years ago, when it happened, Stephen, they said – the headline said, ‘Women given the right to vote.' Well, women weren't given anything. They worked. They struggled. They fought. They marched. They starved. They were starved, and they won the right to vote. It took 75 years at least. And we stand on their shoulders right now observing the 100th anniversary.

And I think it's pretty exciting that there's a woman Speaker of the House. I think it's pretty exciting that we have over 100 women in the House of Representatives – 105, 90 of them Democrats, because we made that decision. And it's exciting that we have a woman nominated for Vice President of the United States who will most likely be – I feel quite certain, the Vice President of the United States. We're observing it in the right way.

Stephen Colbert. I still have – I still have a little, you know flashbacks to 2016 when everybody gets too confident. So, let's all –

Speaker Pelosi. No, we don't take anything for granted. I'm with you all the way. That's why you have to assume nothing. Assume nothing.

Stephen Colbert. Assume nothing, okay. Here's one of the reasons why the 100th anniversary actually gives me some hope for our country, however bad things may be at any given time. And certainly there are a lot of crises the country is facing right now, is that my mom was born three days after women could vote the first time. November 2 of 1920 was the federal election that year, and she was born three days later. And – and so in the – essentially, in the lifetime of my mother, women voting was perfectly normal. When right before that, it was unthinkable to so many people.

Within one generation, something that can seem never achievable can be taken as a natural given of the American experience. What are the things that you think right now that we think of as unachievable, or many people do, that – that we have a chance of making acceptable and normal within American society and politics in this next generation?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, let's just go back to your mom first for a moment. How wonderful that she was blessed to be born at a time when women achieved the right to vote, but that doesn't mean it was over. We still have work to do. We stand on the shoulders of over these women who were so courageous. But whether it was Seneca Falls or Selma or Stonewall, we still have heroes who worked through all of that and have shown us a path forward.

So we want to remove all doubt our elections will be free and fair, that they won't be manipulated or question the veracity of or scare people with intimidation of who is going to be showing up at the polls to watch who is voting and the rest. So, we have work to do to protect the vote.

So, again, when we win, some of the things that may have seen inevitable to some – to us, seemed inevitable, but to others seemed inconceivable, we want to shorten the distance between the inevitable and the inconceivable. For example, we have the Equality Act to remove all discrimination against LGBTQ members of society. And just think back. What has happened? We have marriage equality now. That's a giant step forward, but we still have challenges ahead that legislation can take care of.

Stephen Colbert. Madam Speaker, I have to take a quick commercial break. But please don't go away, and don't you go away at home because we'll be right back with more Nancy Pelosi. Sorry, ma'am, we just had to take away for just a second. We'll be right back.

* * *

Stephen Colbert. Hey, everybody, we're back with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on our special live Late Show. Madam Speaker, thanks again for being here and staying up late with us. But I'm sure you work very late as it is. Now, you didn't watch the now – you – the convention this week, and I didn't watch tonight, but we do know there has been an enormous amount of stoking of fear, not just tonight. Tonight is just the balsamic reduction of the fear the whole week. But for the past four years there has been. And now you have self-styled militia member shooting people in the streets of Kenosha. Is this the chickens coming home to roost?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, whatever it is, it has to be stopped. First, as you know, Jacob Blake was shot seven times for something – well, when you saw it, it didn't seem as if there was any justification for it, especially in front of his children. So, that provoked a reaction, and reaction, and then, this person with then, this person with a gun, a semiautomatic I understand, went and killed two people, injured another. And what is the responsibility that the President needs to feel about what encouragement or whatever the word is, that he may have given, the comfort level for someone to do such a thing and be so brazen about it? He thought he was joining a militia. What militia?

Stephen Colbert. That is – that is one of the strangest things about it, is the tacit approval of militias and unidentified and undeputized people with military weapons on our streets that the Republicans have given and celebrated in many ways. But I want to ask you about, in June, the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. What did that hope to do and why does it seem like nothing has changed in the last three months?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, what's very sad about it is there's something we have never seen before. All over the world people turned out and said things: we must have change, we must have change about how people are respected, we must have change about police brutality. And so, our bill, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, is one that strives to make some elements – nationalize certain elements, chokehold [bans], all of those things.

We have a difference of opinion with the Senate on this. They didn't want to eliminate chokeholds, some chokeholds maybe not other chokeholds. What? No, none. What we hope to accomplish with it in its different provisions was very reasonable. It got to the point. It was balanced. It weighed equities, but that still couldn't make it through the Republican Senate. Shame on them. They are going to have to answer for that, they're going to have to answer for that. They are going to have to answer for that. And, again, ignoring the will of the people in such large numbers that we have never seen before, a whole other generation of people saying, ‘No, this cannot go forward.' And, again, it's the – understand this, if Donald Trump said, ‘It's okay, I'll sign it.' Mitch McConnell would bring it up.

Stephen Colbert. I have no doubt.

Speaker Pelosi. So, McConnell is the villain, but the puppeteer, the puppeteer is Donald Trump.

Stephen Colbert. It's Trump's party now. That much is clear, and the RNC has driven that home this week. It's Trump's party. We have to take another break, ma'am. But stick around, everybody. We'll be right back with more Nancy Pelosi, and we are going to talk about the Post Office.

Speaker Pelosi. All right.

Stephen Colbert. Join us, won't you?

* * *

Stephen Colbert. Hey everybody, we're back with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Before we go any further, Madam Speaker, I know the wildfires are still raging in California. What can you tell us about the state of the control right now and in your district is everything okay?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, so much of it depends on the winds, just when you think something might be containable. What we are certain of is the courage of our firefighters is just to be so admired. We've even had loss of life in terms of our firefighters and some people. So, this is raging. Mother Earth is having a fit. She's telling us – she's telling us, whether it's forest fires in California, wildfires there or storms in the Gulf Coast, she's telling us, ‘The climate crisis is real. Do something about it.'

Stephen Colbert. Now, we just have about two minutes left, ma'am, and I want to ask you about this. You brought the House back for an emergency session and approved $25 billion for Postal Service funding. And you got Louis DeJoy in there to ask him about why he had done all of these things: slowing down the mail, unplugging sorting machines, removing mailboxes, not paying overtime. He didn't give the best answers. What can you do? Please tell me that at a certain point if he doesn't answer he will be dragged out by the gendarmes by his ankles?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, he's obviously a henchman for the President. They are there to dismantle the Postal Service, so that it has an impact on affecting vote-by-mail. But at the same time, what they're doing is slowing down prescription drugs going to our veterans, slowing down Social Security checks, slowing down mail that our seniors and all of our people depend on. And this – they've really hit a nerve. They've hit a nerve, and they'll pay a price for it.

And that's why this election is so important. Because they know, left to their own – to vote in the regular way, with fairness, that the President can't win. So, he's disrupting the election. It's essential that we win, that Joe Biden become President of the United States. It's important for what we're seeing in Kenosha. It's important because black lives matter. It's important because we have to address the climate crisis. It's important – we have to win this election for the children.

Stephen Colbert. And I don't know, as I know you have said in the past, what are these people at the RNC, who will not face our reality, going to say to their children when this is all over?

Speaker Pelosi. About so many things, about the climate, well, they deny science. And they have to answer to their children for that. Thank you for calling attention to all of it.

Stephen Colbert. Thank you for being here, Madam Speaker. Nancy Pelosi, everybody. We'll be right back with a performance by Lucinda Williams. Thanks again, ma'am.

Speaker Pelosi. My pleasure.

Stephen Colbert. Stay safe.

Speaker Pelosi. You, too.