Transcript of Pelosi Interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos

Interview

Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week for an interview discussing the latest in Ukraine and the economy. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

George Stephanopoulos. Thank you for coming in this morning.

Speaker Pelosi. My pleasure.

George Stephanopoulos. We just saw those reports right there that the White House is warning of an imminent invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainians seem to think that that's all hype. Do you believe that Putin is poised to invade?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I think we have to be prepared for it. And that is what the President is -- yes, I do believe that he's prepared for an invasion. I also understand why the President of Ukraine wants to keep people calm and that he wants his economy not to suffer. But on the other hand, if we were not threatening the sanctions and the rest, it would guarantee that Putin would invade. Let's hope that diplomacy works.

It's about diplomacy deterrence. Diplomacy deterrence. And the President has made it very clear: there's a big price to pay for Russia to go there. So if Russia doesn't invade, it's not that he never intended to. It's just that the sanctions worked.

George Stephanopoulos. Are you convinced that President Biden is doing everything he can to prevent an invasion? Is Congress doing everything you can to prevent an invasion?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I'm very proud of the work that the President has done. The unity of our allies and NATO to come to an agreement as to the severity of the sanctions is very, very important. And that is something that Putin should pay very close attention to. Actually, our allies in Europe can suffer sometimes from some of the sanctions because of the impact it has on them -- and yet they are there, fully, on the sanctions front. Yes, we in Congress, we -- the sanctions are the tactic the President is taking. He can do that by executive order. It would be better if we could do it --

George Stephanopoulos. What should President Putin know from you, the Speaker of the House, about the consequences of invasion?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the fact is, we think that an assault on Ukraine is an assault on democracy. And that we are not -- we understand the loss of life, the damage, the collateral damage to civilians, to military and the rest are severe, if he decides to invade.

The mothers in Russia don't like their children going into war. He's had to experience that. We have the expression "body bag' from the moms before.

So he has to know that war is not an answer, there are very severe consequences to his aggression, and that we are united in using them.

George Stephanopoulos. Let's talk about the situation here at home. Families are feeling a hit from the highest inflation in 40 years. Right now, it costs the average American family about $275 a month. What can Congress do now to bring those costs down?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, let me just talk about the inflation then, because people are saying, "Well, what we're spending is causing' -- the fact that people have jobs always contributes to increase in inflation. And that's a good thing. But inflation is not a good -- you know, we have to contain that.

George Stephanopoulos. Yeah, wages are not keeping up with prices.

Speaker Pelosi. That's right. And let me just say about what Congress has been doing: when we did the COMPETES Act last week -- what contributes to inflation? More people having jobs, scarcity of product, which makes the prices go up and the rest. So when we passed the COMPETES Act last Friday, this was a giant step forward. Now, we have to go to conference with the Senate and we will, shortly. We'll send it to the President's desk. But what that does is it addresses the supply chain shortages that we have -- and therefore will decrease inflation.

Secondly, it's important to note this about the BBB. The BBB is a deficit reduction bill. It's a bill that -- and some people say when you increase the national debt, you increase inflation. Seventeen Nobel laureates wrote that the way the BBB was written, with long term investments and increasing the capacity of people to participate in our success, is noninflationary.

In addition to that, the tax -- the Joint Tax Committee, which is the imprimatur on all these issues, the Joint Tax Committee says the BBB will reduce the national debt by $100 billion in the first ten years and a trillion dollars in the second ten years.

So what we're doing is -- what are the three factors? More people going to work -- that's a good thing. More product to lower the cost and the supply side of, the supply -- and more supply, lower costs. And then third, and -- third, in terms of not increasing the national debt.

George Stephanopoulos. But as you know, Senator Manchin who is the Senator that matters now, because he's against it disagrees. He says it's going to hurt inflation. Let's take a look.

Senator Manchin. This is not a time to be throwing more fuel on the fire. We have and -- we have inflation, and we have, basically, an economy that's on fire. You don't throw more fuel on the fire that is already on fire causing the problems with we have. So we have to get our house in order.

George Stephanopoulos. Without his vote, this isn't going anywhere.

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the fact is, is that clearly he has -- you know, look. Joe Manchin, as you said, is the Senator who counts -- every Senator counts. And we have legislation that is so transformative for our country. When you see what President Biden has done in this year, whether it's the Rescue package that has put money in people's pockets, taking people off of poverty, vaccines in their arms and the rest. You know that.

George Stephanopoulos. But people aren't feeling that right now. They're upset.

Speaker Pelosi. I understand that, but there has to be a cumulative effect. A cumulative effect. And part of the consequences of all of that investment and infrastructure bill and the rest is that more people have jobs and, therefore, inflation goes up. When I first went to Congress, you were there working for Dick Gephardt.

George Stephanopoulos. Dick Gephardt.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah. We go all the way back. I went to my first meeting where the head of the Fed came in to talk about inflation and unemployment. That was a requirement that the Chairman reported to Congress on that. And the first thing Chairman Greenspan said was: "unemployment is dangerously low.' Well, if you're just measuring it by inflation.

But the fact is that the rise in employment and President -- President Biden has nearly seven million jobs in his year in office. So yes, we have inflation. It's very important for us to address it. We must bring it down. And -- but it is not, it's not right, with all the respect in the world for my friend Joe Manchin, it's not right to say what we're doing is contributing to the inflation. Because it's exactly the opposite.

George Stephanopoulos. The other thing that is weighing --

Speaker Pelosi. Seventeen Nobel laureates, the Joint Tax Committee.

George Stephanopoulos. The other thing weighing on people right now is rising crime. And there appear to be some divisions among Democrats about how to handle it. Your colleague Karen Bass, running for Mayor of Los Angeles, is trying to increase the police force in L.A.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

George Stephanopoulos. Cori Bush, Congresswoman from Missouri, is saying it's time to defund the police, she's sticking by that. You're the Speaker. How do you think Democrats should address rising crime?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, with all the respect in the world for Cori Bush, that is not the position of the Democratic Party. Community safety, to protect and defend in every way, is our oath of office. And I have sympathy -- we're all concerned about mistreatment of people. And that's why Karen Bass had the Justice in Policing Act, and we would hope to get some of that done -- whether it's no-knock, chokehold or some of those issues, even if we can't get it all done.

But make no mistake: community safety is our responsibility. And I quote one my colleagues from New York, Ritchie Torres, a brand new Member of Congress, way on the left, saying that "defund the police' is dead. That causes a concern with a few in our Caucus. But public safety is our responsibility. And I support what Karen Bass is doing and, and Mayor Adams of New York.

George Stephanopoulos. Inflation and rising crime are both weighing down on President Biden's approval ratings right now. They're weighing on Democrats as you head into the midterms. You say you're going to run again this year, but 29 of your fellow Democrats are not running for re-election. How worried are you about the midterms now?

Speaker Pelosi. I -- I don't agonize. I organize. And we are fully intent to win the election. Nothing less is at stake.

George Stephanopoulos. That would be bucking history.

Speaker Pelosi. Well, forget history. We're talking about future. You know -- and when people say, "Well, the history says that the presidents lose seats in the off year.' Presidents gain seats on the on -- we didn't gain seats when President Biden won. We worked together to win the Senate, win the House and win the White House. It was cumulative, but it wasn't an increase.

And one of the reasons that, in part, the president's party loses in the off years is because they gain so many in the on-year. We won 40 seats in '18 -- 31 in Trump districts. In the year with Trump on the ballot, we lost a third of those Trump seats. However, the people who survived in those Trump seats -- with Trump on the ballot -- are in very good shape. We take nothing for granted.

We intend, by redistricting -- which did not do us harm as people predicted, history and all that. By recruitment -- great people coming forward believing that we can win, with raising of money and attracting the support and raising interest in the volunteers. We have every intention every single day to do everything in our power. We have decided to win, and that's what we will do.

George Stephanopoulos. So if you maintain control, you going to run for Speaker again?

Speaker Pelosi. That's not a question. My purpose right now is just to win that election. That's to win that election. Nothing less is at stake than our democracy. But very important in all that is what it means personally to the American people. To their kitchen table issues: whether it's whether they're going to be able to pay for food, for medicine, for rent, children's education and the rest.

So our focus that unifies our Democrats -- you talked about what may have divided a few of them. What unifies us is the empathy that we have for America's working families and the priority of meeting their needs. Lower cost, bigger paychecks, lower taxes, all paid for by making everyone pay their fair share, with a great President. I think his message -- see, when we won in '06 and '08, we were left to our devices. Just us kids -- we didn't have a Democrat in the White House. Now we do. So we are even stronger in our ability to win.

And who is more empathetic than Joe Biden? Who has a bigger vision, more knowledge, more strategic thinking about all this, more authenticity in associating with America's working families?

George Stephanopoulos. Madam Speaker, thanks for your time this morning.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes, onward to a great Democratic victory. Thank you.

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