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Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Holds News Conference; House Paves Path to Pass COVID Relief Deal with No GOP Vote; Soon: House to Vote on Removing Rep. Greene from Committees. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 04, 2021 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:35]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining us this hour.

We are standing by for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who is about to speak and take questions from reporters on Capitol Hill. You see the room right there.

First and foremost, before her today for sure from reporters is unprecedented vote that Democrats are forcing just hours from now. This is both a long time coming and a sudden turn of events.

A freshman Republican with a documented history of publicly supporting dangerous and violent conspiracy theories, refusing to back down when faced with her own words, and also a Republican House conference that despite a dramatic meeting last night, that went late into last night, they have decided to do nothing to rebuke her and what she stands for.

So, today, there will be a full House vote on a measure that will strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. A vote that will also force Republicans to go on the record on where they stand when it comes to the conspiracy theories that led to the January 6th insurrection on the Capitol and are being embraced by some of their own members, some of their new members. As you can see in Marjorie Taylor Greene.

We'll also going to hear this hour from the White House. They have taken a firm position that they are not even going to discuss Marjorie Taylor Greene from the briefing room. But will the president's press secretary have a reaction today after the turn of events last night.

One thing that we're very likely to hear from this White House briefing that is going to be coming up in just a few short minutes is the very latest on where it stands with the COVID relief talks. Democrats are setting the stage to move ahead on their own today. The House passed a budget resolution yesterday to allow Democrats to advance the president's massive relief bill without any Republican support. Where do things move there because they do seem to be moving along quickly now. Let's start on Capitol Hill though. And this vote on Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House today. Jessica Dean, she is joining me now. She's been standing by for all this. So, Jessica, what is going to happen today?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, what we're going to see later today, Kate, is a full House vote on this resolution to remove Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees. As you noted, Republicans have decided not to act after they say their Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said she apologized in this private meeting that they had with all the House Republicans yesterday.

And so, in that -- since that happened, now Democrats say they are taking this to a full House vote. So that is supposed to happen, and they're supposed to vote on that particular piece of it around 4:30 this afternoon after going through the rest of the procedure around it.

And what is important here to remember is it needs a simple majority to pass. And we just heard from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who said she's not concerned about setting a bad precedent with this or opening pandora's box with bringing a vote, a simple majority vote to the floor to strip another party's member from their committees because she believes that if, in her words, any member that was a Democrat threatened the life of another member that Democrats would act saying that since essentially Republicans haven't acted that Democrats are being forced to act.

Now, Kate, we are expecting to see some Republicans joining Democrats in this vote. In fact, Congressman Adam Kinzinger said on air earlier this morning that he does intend to vote for it, but he said if she publicly apologizes between now and the vote, that he may change his mind. But that is what he was looking to see. So, keep your eye on how many Republicans join Democrats in this vote later today. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And put it another way, keep your eye on how many Republicans don't join Democrats on this vote later today, right? So, Congresswoman Greene isn't backing down though. She is speaking out. Though not speaking out publicly to reject and apologize the positions that she's publicly held in the past. What is she saying?

DEAN: So, this interview with the "Washington Examiner" came out while they were - while Republicans were inside of their meeting yesterday. And it was -- a couple of interesting things. One quote to tell you about, she said of Democrats, how stupid they are, they don't even realize their helping me. I'm pretty amazed of how dumb they are. That's what she said of how Democrats are acting.

And what is important to keep in mind is, the Congresswoman is fundraising off of all of this. And she has raised tens of thousands of dollars around all of this that's been going on this week about pulling her from her committees.

[11:05:03]

And she went on to say that she really doesn't - that if she gets stripped from her committee, she's just going to focus her time working with President Trump -- former President Trump and also moving the Republican Party farther to the right.

Now, again, while she was in this meeting, with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who ultimately came out and said that he believed her apology, and she had stud up and publicly apologized to the whole caucus and said that she intended to move forward and they accepted that apology. While she - while this was all on going this is what she said about Kevin McCarthy and fellow Republicans.

She said, "Kevin McCarthy and all these leaders, the leadership, and everyone is proving that they are all talk and not about action, and they're just all about doing business as usual in Washington. And so, what's the difference between them and the Democrats? There isn't a difference."

So interesting to kind of see where her head is right now which is clearly trying to move this party as far right as possible, Kate. And again, you have to underscore that this has been a fundraising boon for her. Her supporters have really stepped up and supported her. So, she has been able to use all of this to her benefit in a way. Kate?

BOLDUAN: What is the action that she wants? Violence? I mean, these are those types of empty yet very loaded words and wink-wink nod-nod words that she uses in so many other Republicans have used that the Republican leaders are welcoming in and not -- and not stopping and not rebuking in their House conference right now.

Jessica, if you could stand by with me. We're going to wait to hear from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While we're waiting to hear from Pelosi, Jessica will be joining us on the other end of this. I want to bring in Dana Bash, CNN's chief political correspondent.

Dana, I'm curious to hear what Speaker Pelosi says. Last week, when we were together talking about this, she didn't hold back at all. She was very focused on Republican leadership when asked about Marjorie Taylor Greene. That it was beyond the pale that they were turning a blind eye. And I'm wondering after last night, what more does Speaker Pelosi say.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Probably that. And she's going to have to explain and frankly in some ways defend the fact that they are going to put this vote on the floor.

When I use the word "defend," I do it very specifically and that is because obviously we heard during the Rules Committee process yesterday, Jim McGovern, the chair of that committee and others, talked with a lot of passion about the fact that this must not - that they must not let this stand as a House of Representatives that they can't allow somebody with her views, with the things that she has said, whether it is in office or before, to sit on these major committees, which is understandable.

The flip side of that is the raw politics of this. And you know there is one political calculus that Democrats have which is obviously ruling the day aside from the fact that they believe it is the morally right thing to do but on the political side, that every Republican is going to be on record on whether they are going to say yes, Marjorie Taylor Greene and QAnon should be on these major committees or no - no they will not. And those ads are already starting, and they will continue using that vote.

The flip side, and Kate, you know this very well, is that one of the top bits of knowledge for anybody who follows politics is when your opponent, your political opponent is messing up, get out of the way. And that is not what their following here.

They are inserting themselves in a way that allows Republicans to say, uh-huh, we're not going to do this because Democrats are telling us what to do. So, it is tricky. Even though it seems like it is kind of straightforward, it is tricky politically for Democrats and Republicans and I see the speaker is coming in.

BOLDUAN: That's exactly right. All right, Dana is going to stick with me. Let's listen in to the House Speaker.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Good morning, everyone.

Busy time in the Capitol. This week, we are doing the budget.

Yesterday, I was very proud of the vote that we had on the floor of the House. You've heard me say, again and again, that our budget is a statement of our national values. What is important to us as a nation should be prioritized in our budget.

I commend the chair of the Budget Committee, Mr. Yarmuth, and the members of the committee for the great work that they did, bringing it to the floor, and Mr. Don Beyer, the chair of the Joint Economic Committee, for his work in the debate yesterday as well. Very proud of the vote.

Remember, what we do here is always to honor our oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And that Constitution has, as its preamble, our guidance for a budget.

[11:10:02]

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and for our prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution."

So, it's about the Constitution and the -- the liberties and the form of government that it contains, but it's also our values statement. So, I'm very pleased that passed a budget resolution -- we passed the budget resolution that paves the way for the passage of landmark coronavirus legislation that will save lives and livelihoods.

We hope that the Republicans would join us in support of -- we would prefer that, but we need to have the leverage to proceed whether they do or not. We need to act now because it's urgent and Americans cannot afford any further delay. Our committees now will continue to work on the bill context, that will be all -- well, as soon as the Senate finishes their work and then we pass on what they do -- so hopefully that's in the next 48 hours -- then we can signal that we're ready to mark up the bills. We can file the bills.

Our committee will work on the text, as I said, so that the Biden relief package will put money -- we're putting money in people's pockets, vaccinations in people's arms, children in school, workers to work.

And -- and speaking of back to work, also this week, I'm very pleased with the legislation, the National Apprenticeship Act of 2021. As soon as -- we'll be debating that and voting on it tomorrow. But that is very important legislation for us, to have training for the workforce development piece of anything we do is very important as we prepare to go beyond this rescue package, which is what this bill, the bill I'm talking about now -- and then to the recovery bill.

Recovery bill will be about many other things including infrastructure and workforce development, it's very important there, in preparation for that, this apprenticeship legislation, very important. So, I commend Bobby Scott, the chair of the Education and Labor Committee, for his ongoing work.

We passed this last year, but it -- and it had bipartisan support. We hope it will again tomorrow.

As you know, sadly, this week, the Congress recognized the service and sacrifice of Brian Sicknick, who died following the terrorist mob insurrection on January 6th. He passed on the 7th, the next day. We had that lying in ceremony in the Capitol.

And what was so important about it -- of course we paid our respects and sympathies to his family, who spoke so lovingly and beautifully about him. But also, to see the connection among our Capitol Police, and who they mourned the loss of their colleague.

Indeed, Officer Sicknick is a martyr for democracy. That was martyrdom that he suffered, as well as the other who passed, Officers Lieberman -- Liebengood and Smith, and we will be honoring them appropriately at some point, when it is -- sometime soon.

But right now, when it came to danger in the Capitol, Officer Sicknick and the Capitol Police, whom we are enormously grateful -- enormously grateful -- put themselves between us and the violence, saving lives and defending democracy.

Indeed, Officer Sicknick was, again, a martyr for democracy. His service and that of other heroes in uniform, some of them of the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia, bring luster to our Constitution, as I said yesterday, and to our democracy. So very, very sad.

To do the people's work, it is essential to keep the people safe and to keep this House safe for our members, our staff, the custodians who -- custodial staff who make all of this possible, for those of you who cover it in the press, for our visitors -- hopefully soon we'll have some again, after COVID.

[11:15:00]

And I want to salute the -- General Honore for his work in reviewing the security here. I tasked -- I was honored that he accepted the charge to study how we keep members safe here as they do their jobs in Washington, in the Capitol, as they do their jobs in their districts and their travel to and from. Again, the security posture of the Capitol complex, and that includes the House office buildings, this will run until March 15th.

One of the proposals that he made that we've already -- have some good news on is that it was clear that many -- that the Capitol Police have been severely affected by COVID. Separate and apart from everything else that's going on, like the rest of the country, they have been severely affected by COVID and he recommended that we vaccinate the Capitol Police. And now, with the cooperation of the Biden administration, we were -- were able to -- to do that and I thank the acting police chief for her statement that she put out this morning.

Again, we have the threat from within, as you are all well aware. Some members refuse to comply with security protocols to keep members, staff, police officers, everyone, including all of you, safe, which is why we are to -- passing a rule mandating fines for noncompliance in that regard. You're aware of that, I'm sure.

Also, in terms of acknowledging the threat, I remain profoundly concerned about House Republicans leadership acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists, particularly disturbance -- their eagerness to reward a QAnon adherent, a 9/11 truther, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings and a value -- to give them valued committee positions, including -- who could imagine they would put such a person on the Education Committee.

Today, the House will vote to remove Representative Greene from her seat on Education and Labor and the budget committees. We are -- it's just so unfortunate. You would think that the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution, as they did when they did not seat Representative King of Iowa two years ago.

For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path, even though we gave Mr. Hoyer -- gave the leader McCarthy sufficient notice that this was a path that we would follow.

Again, on legislating on terms of the budget, in terms of the apprenticeship program, in terms of putting together our legislation for a commission similar to 9/11 Commission, I'm very pleased that others -- and I commend Debbie Wasserman Schultz for taking the lead on honoring our oath in -- of office, to uphold the -- protect the Constitution but not only that, to uphold the steer -- standard for the House of Representatives that respects the institution in which we serve and does no harm to it institutionally or to our members, staff, visitors personally. With that, I'd be pleased to take any questions.

(CROSSTALK)

PELOSI: Let me see -- let me see who--

QUESTION: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have a question and I also have a question from one of the pool reporters who's unable to be here today. (INAUDIBLE) -- they -- they do go together. First, just looking up ahead to the impeachment trial.

PELOSI: Was that -- was that -- is that an announcement that you're going to have two questions?

QUESTION: Yes, ma'am.

PELOSI: Oh, (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: -- another pool reporter.

PELOSI: Why (INAUDIBLE) -- go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you, ma'am. Looking ahead to the impeachment trial next week, it will be one month since the attack on the Capitol.

PELOSI: Yes.

QUESTION: The former president is long gone. There are plenty of people who say, "why bother, why go through this entire exercise?" What do you say to them?

PELOSI: Well, I appreciate that question because it seems to me that the answer is self-evident. Again, we are here to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. They are -- the world witnessed the incitement that the President caused, to incite insurrection against our government, against our Capitol, against members of Congress, with a use of force and violence.

So, we -- for us to -- why bother -- why bother? Ask our founders "why bother?" Ask those who wrote the Constitution, ask Abraham Lincoln, ask anyone who cares about our democracy why we are bothering. You cannot go forward until you have justice.

[11:20:10]

And what did we say about the preamble to the Constitution? Didn't we say it started out with justice? We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice. You've heard me say again and again, Pope Paul VI said that if you want peace, work for justice. Martin Luther King, peace is not just the absence of dissension, it is the presence of justice. So, we will honor the Constitution by establishing justice.

And again, we can do a couple of things at once. We are moving with our legislation to pass the Biden administration -- Biden-Harris administration COVID package. The people -- the whole world were witnesses to this, as I said before, so we'll see.

I have no idea how the managers will proceed. I saw their brief when you saw their brief. I'm so proud of the dignity with which they have brought to enabling us to honor our Constitution. If we were not to follow up with this, we might as well remove any penalty from the Constitution of impeachment, just take it out.

But our founders, they -- they knew about two things and we keep hearing this again and again -- they wanted a -- they were fearful of a demagogue and they were fearful of a demagogue and a mob, and that's exactly what descended. They affected -- that is exactly what defended on the Constitution.

But I want the public to know that there is no opportunity cost in our defending the Constitution. In fact, it is an enhancement for us to do our work in a way that is respectful of the institutions in which we serve, the Constitution, which we take an oath to -- to protect and defend. Your other question?

QUESTION: Thank you, ma'am. Our -- our colleague from the LA Times had asked that -- that the House managers are walking into a trial where all signs point to acquittal.

PELOSI: They don't know that -- they don't know that -- they don't know that. They haven't heard the case -- they haven't heard the case but they -- the -- in the -- in the court of the Senate, they will make their case. In the court of public opinion, they will make their care. And for history and posterity, as our colleague -- as our founders said, to ourselves and our posterity, they will make the case.

But I have great confidence in them, and we'll see -- we'll see if it's going to be a Senate of courage or cowardice.

QUESTION: He asked what does a -- a victory look like?

PELOSI: Well, you know what, we have -- why don't we just wait and let them make their case? I don't want -- I -- they have been very, shall we say, silent, hardworking, brilliant, in terms of what we saw in the brief, not only wise but, you might appreciate, well written, and no spelling mistakes of the United States.

So again, I'm not here to -- to talk about that because they are going to be there to present the case. And we don't have to defend why it is necessary, and we don't have to talk about who's going to be there or not because we just don't know. They know, and they will present it when they do.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: I was wondering what you thought of the Republicans senators, when they went to the White House this week to meet with the president, and how much -- the plan is at $1.9, Joe Biden has indicated he wants to stay there. Is that where you think it'll end up? PELOSI: Well, the -- the -- Joe Biden has presented a plan that meets the needs of the American people. This is very important because we have been -- let me see, I want to read this to you because I think this is very important for people to know.

We'll get around 450,000 people who have died. Before you know it, sad to say, and hopefully we don't achieve it, but we're on a path to half a million people dying from COVID. And that is because of a complete failure on the part of the Trump administration. But don't take it from me, this is what the GAO in a 346-page government accountability document said.

It said, "Almost 90 percent, 27 of 31 of the GAO's recommendations from June, September and November, remain unimplemented as of January 15th," less than a week before Trump left office.

[11:25:07]

"GOP remains deeply troubled that the agencies have not acted on recommendations to more fully address official gaps in the medical supply chain." And the list goes on.

We want to save lives and save livelihoods. It's going to cost some money to do so, but it is a good investment. And don't take it from us, whether you're talking about the chairman of the Fed, the secretary of the Treasury, Mark Zandi, other economists, have said -- even the governor of West Virginia has said, "Go big rather than go small."

And -- and that's what we have to do. It is a reasonable plan. It meets the needs. It is not excessive. It is coronavirus-centric, it is in a timely fashion, and that's where we have to go if we are going to, again, put vaccine in people's arms, children in school, money in people's pockets and workers back in their jobs.

So, it's a -- it's pretty exciting, what he's put there. And what we did at the end of December, plus this, approximately what we have been in advocating in the HEROES Act all along, 3.2, this comes up to nearly $3 trillion. But that's what the needs of -- for the Republican senators to come in at $600 billion, one third?

Well, what is it? Are we going to see fewer children, are we going to inoculate fewer people, are we going to -- how -- how do you cut that? I think they have not respected our heroes by supporting state and local governments.

These are the people who are on the first line, whether it's health care workers, police and fire, first responders of any kind, sanitation, transportation, food workers, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers. Our schools. We have to invest in safely returning our children to school.

So, again, I -- I just don't see how you have to make those choices about who you cut out when you decide to cut the -- the funding in the package.

Yes, sir, at the back?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Madam Speaker, given some of the events in Russia, in Burma this week, curious if you believe that the House will move forward with any sort of response, sanctions, anything like that?

PELOSI: Well, we look to the leadership of our new president on that score. I myself have been a supporter of sanctions of Burma at the time, going way back -- still call it Burma, as a matter of fact. And then -- and of course to really enforce the sanctions on Russia in a way that really reaches the, shall we say, enablers of Putin.

But again, we'll take our lead from the president because he has made his voice clear to Putin, and he said -- made a statement about Myanmar. And so -- Myanmar, they said they were arresting her for importing illegal radios, and in Russia they arrested Navalny for not reporting to his probation officer or something like that.

So, again, it's an interesting time to see demagoguery around the world, and we have to prevent it from happening in our country.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Good morning, Madam Speaker, thank you. On the budget reconciliation package for the coronavirus, obviously there are lots of Democratic policy priorities that they'd like to put in this. There's a hearing going on right now about the minimum wage with Marty Walsh.

If some of those things like the minimum wage don't wind up in the bill because, you know, you have to work through the process, you have to get the votes, what's the message to folks who were saying this was our chance to get these things done? What do you say --

(CROSSTALK)

PELOSI: It doesn't mean it won't happen, just because they won't happen there. As you know, in many ways, we are at the mercy of the Senate in terms of the Byrd Rule, and again, the parliamentarian of the Senate is going to make some determinations. We had hoped she would make them by now, but until we have our bill -- which we now have -- we don't have those determinations from her.

But it -- this -- there's so much in the package that has to be done right now, and we'll do the best we can.

QUESTION: Do you have -- do you have confirmed those that some who said, OK, Democrats are going to have the House, they're going to have the Senate, they're going to have the White House doing it. And you say, but -- you know, "Just because it's not in this bill doesn't mean it doesn't get done." But they will be disappointed, and how do you respond to them and say, "look, you know, we're thinking --

(CROSSTALK) PELOSI: But we've already are introducing the minimum wage, that's a very high priority for us. But we can't -- but -- and we hope that we can get it in reconciliation. I'm a veteran of reconciliation bills over time, and I know the -- I know the, shall we say, the struggle that it frequently is, to have everything comply in a way that meets the standards of the Senate in terms of the Byrd Rule.