Pelosi Remarks at Media Stakeout Introducing a Resolution to Condemn President Trump’s Failure to Defend American Democracy at the Helsinki Summit

Contact: Ashley Etienne/Henry Connelly, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Congressman Eliot Engel and Congressman Adam Schiff for a media stakeout to introduce H.Res. 1008 condemning President Trump's statements during the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Below are the Leader's remarks:

Leader Pelosi. Good evening. As the whole world knows, one week ago Trump sold out our democracy, in behavior that was damaging, destructive and disgraceful in his presentation with Putin. As Senator McCain has said, Trump's behavior ‘in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.'

In the House here though, instead of honoring our duty to protect and defend our country and our Constitution, foreign and domestic, House Republicans are complicit in the President's betrayal of our democracy.

Today, Democrats are introducing a resolution to condemn the Republican failure to stand up to President Putin for his attacks on our elections, on our Democracy. We're calling on our Republicans to give them another chance to join us to defend our democracy from the Russian threat.

I'm very proud of the leadership of our national security Committees. Ranking Member [Adam] Schiff on Intelligence has been a spoken leader reaching out to the Republicans, reaching out to the country to point out the dangers that this President's attitudes are presenting to our country. On the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ranking Member [Eliot] Engel has been substantive and thorough. The two of them have put together a resolution and I thank Mr. Engel for his leadership on this subject which has been long, ongoing, his experience as a long-term leader on the Foreign Affairs Committee prepares him well to lead, to give perspective, to our colleagues, to the country on the danger this President is putting forth, and now with that I'm pleased to yield to the distinguished Ranking Member on the Intelligence Committee, Mr. Schiff.

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Q: Madam Leader, there might be some special knowledge, representing districts where Trump is popular, they may say, ‘we hear what you're saying, we are concerned about what happened in Helsinki, but this could be a tough vote.'

Leader Pelosi. No, no, let me just say this, because it will be self-serving to say this, but I'm the first Leader-person and Speaker in the House on the Democratic or Republican side of the aisle in modern time, to come to this position with a national security credential. Others have had their expertise in other areas, but [I've had] nearly 25 years of experience on the Intelligence Committee. It is important for us to put politics aside. This is about security of the United States of America.

It's about our national security and our foreign policy which is about keeping America strong militarily, advancing our economy and promoting our values. What the President is doing undermines much of those three pillars of our foreign policy and from the standpoint, with the perspective I bring with the nearly 25 years of experience as the Ranking Member and ex-officio on Intelligence.

This is a very important and pivotal moment for our country. We cannot appear to endorse what the President is doing by our silence or our political whatever it is in somebody's district. I doubt the Republicans will allow this to come to a vote. All we're saying to them is do something, protect our country or honor your oath of office.

It's so sad that this happened in Helsinki because that's a place where President Ford in 1975 was a principle in the agreement that was reached in Helsinki for the Helsinki Commission. That was about the economy is Europe, human rights, confronting the Russians – and the rest of that. And now the President goes to the very same place and unravels all of the values, all of the strength, all of the greatness of America! Because, as Ranking Member [Eliot] Engel said, what do the Russians have on Donald Trump, politically, personally or financially? Whatever it is, it's black mail and we cannot afford as a country, as a democracy, as a leader in the world.

This is so much bigger than politics, Democrats or Republicans, this is about the oath that we take, the unity that we all have and the disgraceful performance of the President of the United States.

Q: Madam Leader, you said you don't think Republicans will bring this to the Floor…

Leader Pelosi. We'll see if they accept it on the Floor. That doesn't mean we won't put it forth. And let's just see, let's just see who they're here for.

Q: And when will you try to…

Leader Pelosi. Well that's up to the Committees of jurisdiction.

Q: I was hoping you could react to the White House threatening to revoke security clearances of former Obama officials.

Leader Pelosi. Did you want to speak to that or? Let me just say…

Congressman Engel. It goes from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Leader Pelosi. As I said, I have standing on these issues. I have been in the meetings for over 20 years. This is so extraordinary. The last thing you want in intelligence is partisanship and we were able to avoid that for such a long time and now the President is what? Does this rise to the level of abuse of power. It sounds like the people he wants to take it from don't even have it.

This makes the case. This makes the case. We are the first branch of government, the legislative branch. We have views that need to be respected. We have decisions that we must make, as Mr. Engel said, ‘We need to know what happened in Helsinki.' And the President's response is, ‘Oh there are classified security privileges of Obama's people away.' It's all a deflection. It's all a deflection. What we would hope to talk about is ‘For the People: Better Jobs, Better Pay, Better Future' – that we could be seriously addressing health care costs, prescription drug costs. Instead, the president is advancing initiatives in the executive branch to eliminate the benefit of no pre-existing condition being a barrier to accessing care. We want to take this back to what it means in the lives of the American people but in the meantime the urgency of us acting in a bipartisan way to say to the President – [Senator] John McCain, ‘Trump's behavior in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances of an American president in memory.'

So, with all due respect Chad [Pergram], don't ask me how this plays in somebody's district. This is about the United States of America. The oath we take.

We would rather be having a legitimate debate about – ‘Mr. President, you said you were going to have a billion dollar infrastructure plan, where is it?' We want to work in a bipartisan way to do it. That is usually a bipartisan initiative. ‘You said you would negotiate like crazy for lower prescription drugs, to enable the secretary to negotiate like crazy.' I guess ‘like crazy' means not at all. When he made his statement, pharmaceutical drug stocks soared – when he left them off the hook.

And why? A lot of people think it is about money. Money in politics. Money that may have changed hands when it came to the President of the United States and his borrowing from Russia. Thank you all very much.

Congressman Schiff. I just want to make one final comment and that is our resolution talks about the degree to which this President has departed from our historic support for fellow democracies, departed from America as a champion of liberal democracies. What the Russians did was not just an attack on our election, what they ended up doing is attacking the very idea of democracy around the world and, increasingly, people around the world look to America as that champion, they don't see that in this White House and today's action suggesting that we will punish critics of the President by stripping them of their security clearance, that is not what you see in a democracy.

That is exactly what you see in authoritarian regimes and we couldn't have more timely proof of why this resolution is necessary than what I consider a despicable action and is to try to silence critics by affecting their potential livelihood, by affecting other presidents' ability to tap the expertise of people who dedicated their lives to protecting this country. Talking about stripping clearances from people who spent decades in the military and in the intelligence community, serving our country, because the President doesn't like what they have to say. Make no mistake, this is the only thing is about. This is a cowardly action of someone who is afraid of criticism and we need to stand up to it. Democrats and Republicans, and especially Republicans, need to wake up and speak up on behalf of our democracy. Thank you.

Congressman Engel. The only thing I would add is that I am going to speak to as many colleagues as I can, both Democrats and Republicans, to urge them to sign on. This should not be a partisan fight. This isn't done for partisan reasons. The NATO alliance has been the foundation of our democracy around the world since the end of World War II. And the President goes around flying by the seat of his pants, insulting of our friends in Canada, in Germany, in the UK and embracing Putin, who interfered in our election. Tell me what's wrong with this picture.

Leader Pelosi. Just to add one thing: we started by putting on the Floor, the statement of the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. He made a very fine statement following Helsinki. Critical of the President and speaking to our NATO alliance. That's what we put on the Floor and the Republicans, 100 percent, voted down the Speaker's words. What could have been more -- of reaching out and finding common ground than to advance the Speaker's [words]? Since then, the President has made matters worse necessitated a stronger resolution. Thank you all very much.

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