Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference with Ranking Member Schiff, Current & Former Intelligence Committee Members Reacting to the Trump-Putin Helsinki Summit

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

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Congressman Adam Schiff, Ranking Member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, for a press conference with current and former Members of the Committee reacting to the Helsinki Summit where President Trump refused to hold President Putin accountable for interfering in the 2016 elections. Below are the Leader's remarks:

Leader Pelosi Opening Remarks

Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here. I am very honored to stand before Members of the House Intelligence Committee, past and present, decades, over a hundred years of intelligence experience here with us. We will hear from some Members. I want to acknowledge Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois, Mr. [Jim] Langevin of Rhode Island, Congressman Swalwell of California, Congresswoman Sewell of Alabama, Congressman Mike Thompson of California, Congressman Sandy Bishop of Georgia, Congressman Jim Himes [of Connecticut], Congressman Denny Heck of Washington and Congressman Ruppersberger of Maryland. Adam Schiff has joined us – well you are going to hear from him first. I will yield to him first, Congressman Schiff of California. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California.

Anyone else join us? We will make sure that every Member is acknowledged. There are other Members tied up in their other committees now who send their thoughts, their regards, their concerns, their suggestions on how we go forward. They will all provide insight into the deep damage the President has caused to our democracy and to all western democracies under Putin.

It's really sad, almost heartbreaking, to acknowledge this. In 1975, the western world united to counter the Soviet threat by forming the Helsinki Commission. That was really the work of President Ford who was a part of the negotiation and also signing the accord. It's strange and disturbing and, again, heartbreaking that President Trump threw out the values of the Helsinki Commission when he was cowering before President Putin yesterday.

Instead of standing up for our democracy and our democratic principles, President Trump cowered in the presence of Putin and the entire world watched and saw that. His eagerness to sell out America proves that Russians must have something personally, politically or financially on President Trump.

As DNI Dan Coates said, ‘The intelligence community has stated that Russians are once again waging a campaign to interfere in our elections.' But President Trump continues taking the word of Russians, enthusiastically embracing their excuses. The president gave a green light to continue to attack our democracy to the Russians.

Yesterday, the President sided with the enemy. The enemy who made an assault on our democracy. Disturbingly, it appears, Republicans have decided to side with the enemy too. All year, the Republicans in Congress have wasted our time with weak words and sham hearings. And today they're pushing to eliminate funding for states to protect their electoral systems – Mr. [Dan] Kildee will speak to that momentarily, and thank you [Congressman Kildee] for your leadership.

Democrats are moving to force a vote to restore that funding to help states enhance their election equipment, counter cyber-attacks and defend against future intrusions. That will happen on the financial services bill. We also want to protect the integrity of the Mueller investigation and our colleagues will speak to that as well.

Early on, under the leadership of [Congressman] Eric Swalwell, who proposed an independent commission to review what happened in the last election and ensure it wouldn't happen again. Republicans in Congress have resisted that call, as well. Perhaps now, with the damaging, disgraceful, so sad performance of the President yesterday, the Republicans will see the light and respond to some of the initiatives that Democrats had been putting forth for a while now, honoring, respecting the confidence of the Intelligence Committee in their assessment that the Russians were involved in the disruption of our election. We'll see and the integrity of our election is at stake. We must protect it.

An assault on our democracy is an assault on our country. We have no time to waste to protect our country. And with that we yield to our Ranking Member on the Intelligence Committee, a person who has stood tall and strong and showed us a path on how we can work together to do just that – protect our country. Ranking Member Adam Schiff. Mr. Schiff –

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Leader Pelosi Closing Remarks

Leader Pelosi. Thank you so much, Congresswoman [Jan] Schakowsky, and just highlighting what our colleagues have said about the important role of the intelligence community in our national security. A long time ago when I first went on the Intelligence Committee, our work was about force protection – how we tried to prevent an initiation of hostilities from anybody or ourselves but also, if we were to engage, how we protect our force. So many things, terrorism et cetera have taken center stage since that time.

But all along, our members of our intelligence community have acted with great risk to their personal lives and with great courage to our country. And again for our Republican colleagues to be frivolous about identifying them is really, so very, very wrong.

I just want you to recall that since the President made his statement in Helsinki, his Director of National Intelligence said, ‘the role of the intelligence community is to provide the best information in fact based assessments possible for the President and policy makers.'

And this is what he said, now after the President said what he said, denigrating the intelligence community, his appointee said, ‘we have been clear in our assessment of Russian meddling in our 2016 elections and their ongoing pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of national security.' That was his own appointee, as Director of National Intelligence, countering the President's characterizations.

I just want to close by saying, in this month of July, as we celebrate our Founders' courage and their success in establishing our great country, I want to join my colleagues in saluting Senator John McCain. We said a lot up here about Republicans in Congress and what they are not doing, but I want to salute him for what he is doing. A lifetime – not even a lifetime – a family's lifetime, his father before him, of service to our country with courage and with determination.

So when he spoke out with his clear and respected voice, as one of the lone Republicans in office to do so, people listened, people heard, people respected what he had to say. His service, his courage, his leadership for our country has been a blessing to our country and so it is with great gratitude that I salute Senator McCain once again for being there for the American people. Thank you all very much.

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