Subject: PELOSI -- Remarks at Press Conference on House Republicans’ Legislative Agenda Ahead of Donald Trump’s Visit
From: Democratic Leader <[email-masked]>
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 17:06:48 +0000

<http://www.democraticleader.gov/>

    May 11, 2016

Contact: Drew Hammill/Evangeline George

202-226-7616

Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference on House Republicans’ Legislative Agenda
Ahead of Donald Trump’s Visit

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Members of the House Democratic Leadership held a press conference to discuss how Donald Trump’s poisonous rhetoric echoes the long-standing policy positions of House Republicans.  Below are the Leader’s opening and closing remarks followed by a question and answer session:

Leader Pelosi’s Opening Remarks

“Good morning everyone.  Thank you for being here.  I know there’s a great deal of excitement on the Hill because of a visitor who’s coming tomorrow to meet with the Republican leadership.  And some Republicans – including Members of their leadership – have said they cannot support the vile rhetoric and radical proposals of the Republican frontrunner.

“Today, we’ve gathered to ask: since when?  Since when have House Republicans been so concerned about intolerant statements and discriminatory ideas?  They appear to be shocked by their candidate – not just their frontrunner, presumptive nominee, but all of their candidates.  They appear to be shocked by their rhetoric on the campaign trail.  But year after year, Republicans have enthusiastically turned their intolerance and their discrimination into legislation.  As our video shows, that you’ll see in a moment, whether it’s insulting President Obama, women, immigrants, Muslims, LGBT Americans, there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between what Donald Trump says and what the House Republicans have been saying all along.

[Video<https://goo.gl/fRi1eN> plays]

“Republicans in their own words.  All we could present to you today is what they have said in an official setting.  In another setting off campus, we will show you what they have said on the campaign trail.  In the Republican House, radical attacks – I talked about not a dime’s worth of difference between Donald Trump – I say there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Donald Trump and the House Republicans, what they say.  Attacks on women are a dime a dozen.  Republicans used taxpayer funds to create a panel to attack women’s health and advance a plan of blatant intimidation.  They are taking names.  They are taking names.  You saw the chairwoman of that committee, Congresswoman Blackburn – they are taking names.  Does that sound familiar?

“Republican [Congressman] Trent Franks tries to roll back access to comprehensive health care because he thinks rape can’t cause pregnancy and he’s a Judiciary Subcommittee chair.  Meanwhile, again, Marsha Blackburn says ‘women don’t want equal pay’.  And Speaker Ryan calls leave for families an ‘unfounded mandate’ while he says people should have time to spend with their families personally, but not to support it officially.

“In the Congress alone, the House Republicans have voted 12 times to attack women’s health care.  And again and again, Republicans threaten to shut down the entire government just to defund Planned Parenthood and take life-saving preventive care and affordable contraception away from millions and millions of women.  They’re still on that.  This committee taking names, they’re still on that.  So, it is – again, we can only show you some of the statements in this setting.  We will show you more in other settings.  In the meantime, I want to yield to the distinguished Democratic Whip, Mr. Hoyer.”

Leader Pelosi’s Closing Remarks

“Thank you very much, Mr. Crowley.  I thank the our distinguished Members of our leadership: Mr. Hoyer for not only his statement today but his leadership on all of these issues – LGBT among them.  Mr. Clyburn, thank you for calling our attention to the birther issue and the tradition that accompanies it.  Mr. Becerra, thank you for sharing your personal story of the contribution that immigrants make to America; the constant reinvigoration of our country.  Mr. Crowley, thank you for sharing the sad tale of what is happening in your district when you spoke out and your support for Muslims.  And I will add to what you said about [Congressman] Peter King.  Peter King was the Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and he said: ‘This is the enemy living among us’ when he referenced the [Muslim] community in our country.

“Rules of the House prevent us from showing the side-by-side of some of the egregious remarks made by their Members not in an official setting.  But we will have that another day with some other Members including the leadership in another setting, a political setting because they deem that to be political if we were to show Donald Trump’s words here.  But if you saw a side-by-side, you’d see his birther remarks and their birther remarks; his anti-Muslim remarks and their [remarks on] building walls to [keep out] Muslims, to immigrants to the rest.  The list goes on.  You know it.  You could put this piece together yourselves, but to help you along and encourage that  we want to present some of the facts to you.  Some of the nighttime comedy shows have done a good job of doing the side-by-side.  Hopefully the traditional press will do that as well.  Any questions?  Yes, sir.”

***

Q:  All of your examples aside, you know, there’s hardly a universal embrace of Trump among Republicans on Capitol Hill to the point that Speaker Ryan made the remarkable step of not endorsing him last week.  Does that at least hearten you that the Speaker of the House is taking that step and calling for more civility and softening of the tone and that sort of thing with Trump?

Leader Pelosi.  I think you missed my point.  My point was: since when?  Since when is the Republican leadership in this House appalled by anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, anti-Barack Obama, anti-women comments made by their Members in official [capacity].  Donald Trump is a candidate.  These people have power.  They are chairs of committees and chairs of subcommittees.  They bring their vitriol into the form of legislation and to the floor to build walls to block immigrants, to block Muslims coming into our country.

So our point is: since when, all of a sudden, is this very same rhetoric appalling to the Republican leadership and some of the Republican establishment when this happens every day here on the floor, in committee, in press conferences, in an official way and certainly out on the campaign trail?  We can’t do the campaign trail here; we can’t even do Trump campaign trail here, but we will do that in another setting to facilitate for the public of an understanding of the connection between the two.

Any comments on do we feel better about doing…what?  Having a meeting tomorrow?

Q:  Well, do you think Ryan’s position was strictly political and that he doesn’t really…

Leader Pelosi.  I have no idea what his position is but I do know this…

Q:  Well, his position is that he hasn’t endorse the nominee for President.

Leader Pelosi.  And our position is: why?  Is it some of the things have been said is that this is great because this is a rejection of the vitriol of Donald Trump on the campaign?  But it’s not a rejection.  They never said ‘Boo!’  They never said, ‘Boo!’ when their Members were saying this every day.  So, our point is, what has happened in this campaign is Donald Trump has pulled back the veil.  What he has said is what they say.  And now people can see the connection between them.  And unless the Republican leadership is going to be as – shall we say – critical of their own Members for what they say as they are of Donald Trump, it’s all a show.  Any other comments?

Whip Hoyer.  Let me just add that a meeting tomorrow will not change the environment that has been created over decades, as Mr. Clyburn pointed out.  And we will see that Mr. Ryan ultimately does – nice words are nice.  Action of rejecting exclusion and prejudice and radicalism is what however the country needs.

Vice Chairman Crowley.  I just want to make a point.  I think their obsession for power – they’ve created their own mess, now they have to wallow in it.  They are responsible for the fundamentally right-leaned within their own caucus today, and now it’s coming home to roost.

As the Leader has said – and consistently over and over again: are they surprised that their presidential standard-bearer is saying the same thing that they’ve been saying consistently over the last five or six years they’ve been in the majority and before that?  How can they be – and going back to 1948 when the full change really started – but really coming into full wheel now, are they really that shocked?  Is Mr. Ryan really that appalled and shocked by Mr. Trump?  What he is saying is a mirror image of what they’ve been saying – not in the mirror but to the American people over and over again about Muslims, about Mexicans, about the LGBT community, about women in this country.  It’s not new.  The rhetoric that is on the Floor – it’s on the campaign trail, as the Leader has said.  She and we will expose that in the near future as well.

Assistant Leader Clyburn.  Let me say this: I didn’t want to prolong this in my statement.  Let me take you back to the beginning of the 1960s – forget 1948.  At the beginning of the 1960s, the Republicans kicked off their campaign with Goldwater – opposition to the Civil Rights Act.  That was the foundation from which he built his campaign.

If you go to the 1970s, Richard Nixon built his campaign on what he called the ‘Southern Strategy,’ which he rode into the presidency.  If you go to the 1980s – when Ronald Reagan left his convention, newly nominated to be the presidential standard-bearer for the Republicans – where was his first speech?  He went straight to Philadelphia, Mississippi.  What is Philadelphia, Mississippi known for?  That’s where those three civil rights workers were murdered.  His first speech as a nominee was in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1980.

So, when you see this kind of foundation being laid over time, I’m not surprised to see that Donald Trump has decided that this is the way to become President of the United States.

Leader Pelosi.  Well, maybe the way to be the nominee, but it’s not going to be the way to be President of the United States.  And what we hope to do is take this to a place where we can review the past, witness what has happened so far but understand that the country has moved on.

Mr. Trump has won a percentage of a percentage.  But I believe that the American people have moved on from this age of discrimination.  Yes, sir?

Q:  I wanted to ask: given when a Quinnipiac poll results that show Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a dead heat in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio – are you concerned that Donald Trump is appealing to Democrat voters?  And if so, how would you explain that?

Leader Pelosi.  I think that we’ve seen that even since those polls came out that they had boiled in too many white voters into the sample.  I’m not a big fan of the polling that is going on, as a matter of fact.  It’s tilted to a person like me – white and older, rather than what the actual electorate will be.

I feel very proud of both of our candidates, Bernie Sanders and, of course, Hillary Clinton.  They have, through their ideas, attracted people to their campaigns.  I have no doubt that we will have a Democratic President – I take nothing for granted, and I want the public to be sure to know what is at stake in the election.  And I hope that with your help, this can be elevated to a debate that is worthy of the office of President, worthy of our founders, worthy of the American people about a debate on ideas and not vitriol and character assassination and issues that are irrelevant to working people’s lives – about trickle-down and Middle Class economics.

And I think that some of this is a distraction from the fact that the Ryan Budget is a ‘road to ruin’ instead of a path to prosperity, which our Democratic budget is.  And we hope to focus on that.  Even the ‘road to ruin’ that it is, has not been able to get the votes in its own caucus.  So, there is a lot going on there.  But our purpose here today – and we can do it better in a non-official setting – is to show you a spilt screen of what Donald – I keep thinking of him as Ronald McDonald.  I don’t know why.

[Laughter]

Q:  Wonder why.

Leader Pelosi.  Donald Trump.

Vice Chair Crowley.  McDonald Trump.

Leader Pelosi.  Donald Trump on one side and Members of the House here.  And don’t you wonder: why and since when, all of a sudden, [the] Republican establishment is appalled by the comments of what Donald Trump is saying and it’s what we hear every day.

Q:  I want to ask about Puerto Rico.  House Resources said it was going to release a bill today.  Now it seems like it’s been delayed.  What’s the hold up?  And are you still optimistic that something could get done before July 1st given that this is the third time, fourth time now that we’re going back to the drawing board?

Leader Pelosi.  Yes.  As I’ve said before, everyone is operating in good faith to get a bill done. We were disappointed that the bill we saw yesterday wasn’t something we could support.  And so another few days of back and forth, I think, will produce something that we can take to the floor.  It absolutely must happen, and we have to have it in a bipartisan way for the restructuring that does the job, with a board that can follow through, and in a way that helps grow the economy of Puerto Rico and helps the people there.

Q:  So by the end of the week you’re thinking maybe something could come out?

Leader Pelosi.  What’s today – Wednesday?  Hoping maybe by Friday so that we can have something for next week.  Yeah.  We’ll see.  Thank you.  Thank you all very much.

Stay tuned for the split screen.  Or maybe you’ll create one.

# # #

________________________________
Press Release Link:
http://www.democraticleader.gov/?p=23942
DemocraticLeader.gov<http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=ulink&fn=Link&ssid=27184&id=0o02k0tcpzlu6ejxx98kx2m9xt1wa&id2=ig3p7nh2dqu39rmj7s99ukn2qjjbw&subscriber_id=baxcmkznpiaunskdcbzdudpovqtyblh&delivery_id=cbsgtjubxlceyjuegwyqomgtujbfbmp&tid=3.ajA.CBijRQ.Ck7A.T5fo..ARq9jw.b..l.A3-W.a.URxh7A.URxh7A.VOC4Gg> – Twitter<http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=ulink&fn=Link&ssid=27184&id=0o02k0tcpzlu6ejxx98kx2m9xt1wa&id2=3fgjr464dpiqd27ofrqp17w526f1d&subscriber_id=baxcmkznpiaunskdcbzdudpovqtyblh&delivery_id=cbsgtjubxlceyjuegwyqomgtujbfbmp&tid=3.ajA.CBijRQ.Ck7A.T5fo..ARq9jw.b..l.A3-W.a.URxh7A.URxh7A.VOC4Gg> – YouTube<http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=ulink&fn=Link&ssid=27184&id=0o02k0tcpzlu6ejxx98kx2m9xt1wa&id2=3iq1d25awniptoql0phq0ayxiyq8a&subscriber_id=baxcmkznpiaunskdcbzdudpovqtyblh&delivery_id=cbsgtjubxlceyjuegwyqomgtujbfbmp&tid=3.ajA.CBijRQ.Ck7A.T5fo..ARq9jw.b..l.A3-W.a.URxh7A.URxh7A.VOC4Gg> – Flickr<http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=ulink&fn=Link&ssid=27184&id=0o02k0tcpzlu6ejxx98kx2m9xt1wa&id2=jgqqrc9j8ruqfvzuezaxlw3rujzvq&subscriber_id=baxcmkznpiaunskdcbzdudpovqtyblh&delivery_id=cbsgtjubxlceyjuegwyqomgtujbfbmp&tid=3.ajA.CBijRQ.Ck7A.T5fo..ARq9jw.b..l.A3-W.a.URxh7A.URxh7A.VOC4Gg> – Facebook<http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=ulink&fn=Link&ssid=27184&id=0o02k0tcpzlu6ejxx98kx2m9xt1wa&id2=eiqrhd4i2wtn5mt31ttvsw8fgbdit&subscriber_id=baxcmkznpiaunskdcbzdudpovqtyblh&delivery_id=cbsgtjubxlceyjuegwyqomgtujbfbmp&tid=3.ajA.CBijRQ.Ck7A.T5fo..ARq9jw.b..l.A3-W.a.URxh7A.URxh7A.VOC4Gg> – The Gavel<http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=ulink&fn=Link&ssid=27184&id=0o02k0tcpzlu6ejxx98kx2m9xt1wa&id2=fmonicjc2fq1aiu6gebec0bui3gm7&subscriber_id=baxcmkznpiaunskdcbzdudpovqtyblh&delivery_id=cbsgtjubxlceyjuegwyqomgtujbfbmp&tid=3.ajA.CBijRQ.Ck7A.T5fo..ARq9jw.b..l.A3-W.a.URxh7A.URxh7A.VOC4Gg>