Transcript of House Democratic Leadership Press Conference at 2017 Issues Conference

Contact: Drew Hammill/Caroline Behringer, 202-226-7616

Baltimore – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Members of House Democratic Leadership held a press conference today at the Democratic Issues Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Below is a transcript of the press conference.

Leader Pelosi. Thank you so much Mr. Chairman. I thank you and Vice Chair Linda Sánchez, for your leadership and for bringing us together. This is going to be a great few days and will be part of our ongoing conversation about how we show our unity in our values, our good spirit in working together, and fighting for all Americans. I love the title. Fighting - I love that word. For - A very positive word. All - Americans, All Americans.

At this conference Democrats again will show our values, our harmony and our good spirit. We're developing a bold agenda with clarity for the American people. I want to associate myself with the comments made by the distinguished chairman. Because he put forth a statement that unifies Democrats, saying everything which you already said, which is so positive, so from the bottom up and for the good the American people.

I would just say, how we will be different from what President Trump is talking about. We're talking about good-paying jobs and financial security for hard-working Americans. That's what people thought they voted for him for in the election. Instead his administration has been reckless, rash and incompetent.

The first weeks of the Trump Administration have completely exposed the hollowness of the President's promises to the American people. He talked about renegotiating NAFTA, but several weeks have gone by, and indeed, a couple months have gone by since the election. He must follow the law, complete the consultations with Congress and start the 90 day clock. He hasn't done that. The ball is in his court. Where are you on NAFTA, Mr. President?

Infrastructure, he talked a lot about infrastructure now didn't he? We said we'd be happy to talk about that as long as it wasn't a tax break for his rich friends but a real investment in infrastructure to see real good paying jobs in our country. Where's the bill? Show us the bill. We're hearing Trump's budget is going to be late. How late? Weeks, months, years? We've heard that he might not even have a budget.

Tax giveaways, we've been fighting the Republicans for years to eliminate breaks for companies that send jobs overseas. He talked about that in the campaign. Where's the bill? Show us the bill.

As you know, I've been questioning the President's relationship with Russia. It's extremely alarming, and it could undermine our national security. What on earth do the Russians have on Donald Trump? That he could flirt with the idea of lifting sanctions on Russia despite their aggressive military behavior? That he could lift the sanctions already on the successor to the KGB a group that we know hacked into our systems, disrupting our election? That he is saying things about a person, that qualifies as a war criminal and giving some equivalence to the United States of America? This is the President of the United States. The President of the United States.

So I'm just saying, at least show us your tax returns. Is the audit over? Is this the audit for eternity? And of course that's never been a justification for not releasing your tax returns. The President continues to hide his tax returns which could provide vital insight into what financial influence Russia has on him, whether it's personal, political or financial. We call upon the FBI to do that investigation, it is in our national security interest. Chairman Brady is Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and Chairman of the Joint Committee of Taxation, is empowered to demand Trump's tax returns from the Secretary of the Treasury. All he has to do is ask, and hold a committee vote to make those tax returns public.

Mr. President what do the Russians have on you personally, politically or financially?

The process is – the privilege only goes to the Chairman to make the request. But then the committee can vote to make the tax returns public. This is as you may recall, you wouldn't recall, but in your history books you may read what happened with President Nixon a long time ago. So we're calling on Chairman Brady to bring out those tax returns.

Three weeks in the White House has really revealed that President Trump is exactly who we thought he is – incompetent, and in some cases, in terms of our national security, dangerous. Perpetuating a massive con on those who he said that he would stand up against powerful interests. He's out there to Make American Sick Again, put Wall Street First, American values last. Dangerous, immoral, unconstitutional, the Muslim and refugee ban demonstrates that.

As long as the President continues down this path there is nothing the Democrats can work with him on. To protect the security of our nation, working families, and the sanctity of our constitution. Democrats will fight this administration, every day with every fiber of our being.

I want to thank Chairman Crowley and Vice Chair Sánchez for bringing us together in such a spirited way, to challenge the conscience, inspire the folks, inform our thinking, and to do so in a way which will produce a result, that never again will Democrats go before the public without the public knowing exactly where we stand on their economic and financial stability. And that is on the side of America's working families.

And with that I yield back to the distinguished Democratic Whip Mr. Hoyer.

Q: Do you all have any response to what is going on in the Senate right now and the Republicans cutting off Elizabeth Warren last night? And I'm sorry, I have a second question too. I'll just be quick, but you all say you're going to fight. How specifically can you fight? You don't have the power that Democrats in the Senate have. How, in the House, can you guys do this in the messaging? What can you do exactly?

Chairman Crowley. Well, I'll take a stab at it first, and I'll turn it over to the Leader and others. Listen – I think, first of all, that Mitch McConnell gave us a great opportunity to make sure that every American who wants to read Coretta Scott King's letter will now have that opportunity to do so, bringing more attention to the words, the profound words that she had back in the late 1980s, when Jeff Sessions was being considered for federal judgeship. And those words were not entered into the record back in that day, apparently because then, Strom Thurmond forgot to do so. One can question as to whether or not it was willful or not on his part. We can't ask him, obviously, at this point. But, to bring out an arcane rule when all she was doing was shedding light on historic figures' opinions of Jeff Sessions and why it may be relevant today. I think the American people are interested in what she had to say and what her husband's thoughts may have been about that nomination then. To see him now, not only as a member of the Judiciary, but as the top law enforcer in our country might raise some alarms to not only Democrats, but Republicans and every American who is interested in who the Attorney General of the United States is going to be.

Leader Pelosi. I agree with you on the first part of the question. I remind you that in part of the speech last night, there was a reference to Senator Kennedy, who called the actions of Senator Sessions – Judge Sessions at the time – disgraceful. I guess if a man says it, you don't get the words taken down, but if a woman says it, we probably do.

In any event, to the second part of your question – how do we intend to be in the opposition and the resistance to the Donald Trump presidency? Well, some of our Members aren't here – including Mr. Clyburn – because some of them will be marching over to the Senate later this afternoon when the vote is taken. So we will have our presence, our voices and the thoughts and wishes of the American people present in the Senate Chamber tonight.

You've heard me quote over and over again, President Lincoln, ‘Public sentiment is everything.' And it is up to us to make sure that the public knows what is happening here and how it affects them here in Washington, how it affects them in their lives because this presidency is very dangerous to children and other living things, certainly America's working families. He is a committed leader of the trickle-down theory, and we are leaders of the trickle-up theory. So, that is our fight.

I grew up just a few blocks from here in Little Italy in Baltimore. That was our orientation of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party was about helping people grow into the middle class, keep the middle class strong because it is the backbone of our democracy, rather than the trickle-down that has never worked, and they are continuing to advocate it – tax breaks for the rich, hopefully it will trickle down. If it doesn't, so be it.

So, again, we have to make the distinctions. We have to be careful because they'll have a helter skelter – you know, a subject a minute. It's an ancient Chinese, and even more modern, theory of war that one of the things you do in order to win a war is to make sure the other side cannot make its case. So, as soon as they're doing something – and if it's not going well, and we're succeeding in pointing that out, they change the subject. He's an illusionist. He's an illusionist. So, we have to have clarity, put these things under one blanket. Is this authoritarian? Is this, again, trickle-down and not really for the good of our workers? Is this about our values or not? And we fully intend to do that. The urgency is clear, everybody knows that. They turned out of their own, in their own impotence in large numbers to say that in the streets across the world, at the airports across the nation and the world, even on the steps of the Supreme Court last week. And they're showing up in Members' districts across the country.

So, the American people are getting the message. We have to make sure they know that on a day-to-day basis how this affects them in their daily lives. ‘Public sentiment is everything.'

Whip Hoyer. You know, let me comment because there is so much buzz in the press: ‘Aw [sic], you Democrats. You don't have any power in the House of Representatives. You're going to be irrelevant.' We're not irrelevant at all. I want to reiterate: we represent the views of the majority of citizens that voted in the presidential election for President of the United States – a plurality, technically, but 48 percent to 46 percent. So, we don't have to have our heads bowed. We don't have to retreat in any way. The fact is: our voices are on behalf of the majority view in the United States of America. And we continue to stand up, speak up and act up for the values that they voted for, that we believe has made America great, and we believe will make America great in the years to come. We do not believe that Donald Trump, our president – and I recognize him as the President of the United States. I tell people: you know, he was right. The election was rigged. It was rigged by the Founding Fathers in creating the Electoral College. And that is sort of funny. None of you laughed. But the fact of the matter is, it was a device, not to reflect on the majority votes but the majority of states. And the fact of the matter is: we are not in retreat at all. Thank you.

Congresswoman Sánchez. I'm an old organizer so I think our greatest asset as Democrats is to organize communities, get them engaged, and to get them to express what they want from their government. What we have seen in Trump is a candidate that will do or say anything to get elected, who's often inconsistent in his positions, and we're going to hold him accountable to all of the election promises that he made, and when he fails to do the things that he said he would do for working families, provide some kind of better health care plan than the Affordable Care Act, when that doesn't come to pass we're going to make sure that Americans know that, know that what he promised was not what was delivered, and through public sentiment, and engagement, and getting folks to channel their energy into speaking up for what their vision of this country is, I think that's the most powerful tool that the Democrats have on their side.

Congressman Crowley. And not to beat it but I'm going to beat this horse. Yesterday, Leader Pelosi asked me to offer the previous question on the rule. So using every opportunity on the floor to hold our Republican colleagues accountable. And yesterday was on the issue of the White House deliberatively omitting the mention of six million Jews in the Holocaust Remembrance statement that they issued. We want our Republican colleagues to understand that what the White House does, they either have to answer for, or they have to condemn. They can't have it both ways. That's another tool by which we will continue to use procedural votes on the floor to hold them accountable. It's not just about the White House, it's also about our Republican colleagues.

Q: I wanted to get a little clarification on calling on the FBI to look into Trump. Have you sent a formal letter or request to Comey, have you heard back from him…

Leader Pelosi. We've asked him over and over again in classified and other settings to tell us if he's doing this investigation. He answered that there are two reasons why he may or may not. Criteria are the following: One is if in saying you're doing the investigation you make known to the subject of the investigation that the person's being investigated, and that might have an impact on the information you can gather. The second thing he said, though, which is the opposite of that, is that you might reveal if you are doing an investigation if it is of national interest, of significant national interest. I think this is of significant national interest, and we want to know if he's doing the investigation into the personal, political, and financial relationship between Donald Trump and the Russians, and we want those answers. Well, you may have to ask him yourself. He's been asked in many different settings, by many different people, are you doing this investigation. We urge you to do this investigation.

Hopefully the two committees in Congress, the Intelligence Committee in the House and Senate, will have the cooperation of the Republicans to issue subpoenas, so that we can follow different paths in this investigation, but I'm not certain that the Republicans in Congress will cooperate.

And this takes me just to a different point, because what you said at the end, Mr. Chairman, was very important. It's not just about the contrast between Democrats and Republicans, and Donald Trump. It's about the Republicans in the Congress. There's hardly anything that Donald Trump has said that the Republicans haven't said sooner, and for a longer period of time, and in a worse way. In fact, they differ on two things – one is Social Security, and we'll see where Donald Trump – and Medicare, and we'll see where Donald Trump comes down, because he's said to the Republicans in Congress, "I'll do whatever you want," and their budget is based on the principle that Medicare should wither on the vine, and that they have a removal, an elimination of the care guarantee in their budget. So, where is he? Where are you, Mr. President, on that?

And on the issue of trade, they overwhelmingly voted for the TPP, we overwhelmingly voted against it, and now he's saying we're going to overturn every trade agreement including NAFTA, well he hasn't started the process. The ball is in his court to start the process, where do the Republicans in Congress go on that?

So, we have some distinctions to make for the public, we intend to do them in every vehicle that is at our disposal. But I think the press has a very important role to play here. And he's come after us, he's coming after you. This is a government that has the characteristics of an authoritarian regime, by putting secrecy at premium. Democracies are about openness, authoritarian regimes are about secrecy.

So he doesn't want people tweeting from their agency of government. They want to shut down Inspectors General who could protect whistleblowers. He's discrediting the press, as you know. He has denigrated the actions of over 900 people in the State Department who have issued under their right of private dissent, which is protected by law, the list goes on and on. Withholding information, keeping it secret, denigrating the press, and those who speak openly against his policies is a tactic. You are our guardians of our democracy, First Amendment freedom of the press, so important. But not, obviously, very important to Donald Trump.

Congressman Crowley. We'll take one more question. We're going to see a lot of you all these next couple of days and we'll have more time to banter.

Q: My question's for the Leader. Do you believe that it's inappropriate for the President to use the bully pulpit to criticize businesses that have had any sort of business with the First Family?

Leader Pelosi. He is now criticizing businesses that have been – no I think it's totally inappropriate. But he's a totally inappropriate President, so it's totally in keeping with who he is. What I think is more inappropriate though is for him to refer to a judge who made a ruling that he didn't agree with as a "so-called judge." Now we're talking about the separation of power, not the thin skin of an incompetent president. So I think we should pay more attention to what he's saying about branches of government. Of course anyone can criticize a decision of the courts, we all do, we have our point of view. But to say that someone is a "so-called judge," on top of denigrating a judge because of his national origins, this is beneath the dignity of the presidency, and not worthy of the challenges that face our country and the separation of power. Legislative I might add – first. First article of the Constitution, Legislative branch. Second, the Executive. Third, the Judicial. Thank you very much.

Congressman Crowley. We are fifteen minutes behind schedule, can't start without Linda and I. So thank you, we will see you all this afternoon and throughout the week.

Leader Pelosi. And don't forget to enjoy Baltimore, aren't you happy to be here? And we'll have more from Vacarro's at another time.

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