Political history. Please dont characterize shes been speaker of the house not once, but twice. And chief critic of President Trump. You clap when your husband finally puts the toilet paper on the roller. She showed him up in public, walked out of the west wing, put those sunglasses on and walked away in an image thats become iconic. No one ever won betting against nancy pelosi. Theres no denying our political accummen and success, achieving the highest Political Office ever held by a woman in this country. Shes been a champion for lgbt rights. Congresswoman pelosi is a strong woman who knows how to get things done. I have so much respect for her. Its a combination of courage and grace. I heard the president say i deserve to be a leader. I dont think anybody deserves to be a leader, its not about what you have done, its what you can do. We didnt have a speaker who would bring this issue to the floor and we do now. Thats a big difference. The pow ore they have speaker is awesome. Awesome. After we pass this bill, being a woman will no longer be a preexisting medical condition. I think nancy pelosi, when the history books are written, will go down as one of the most effective legislative leaders this country has seen. I cannot speak highly enough of nancy pelosi. If you succeed as a woman, they have to bring you down. I take some badass glee in se, women know how to get it done. Know your power. I want women to see you dont get pushed aaround, you dont walk away from a fight. The woman who needs no ntroduction. [applause] ladies and gentlemen i present to you the most influential speaker of the house in american history, nancy pelosi cheers and applause] ms. Pelosi good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, everyone. Hello, hello. Arent we proud of our chairman of the Democratic National committee . Thank you, thank you, thank you, mr. Chairman. For bringing your valuesbased enthusiasm, your political savvy, your determination to make the future better for our country, translating it into a political plan for success. We couldnt be better served than by your leadership and we look forward to following you to victory, to winning the white house, the senate. Winning the future of our country. Thank you, mr. Chairman, so much. Ms. Pelosi today is a sad day or congress and our country. You are beloved chairman elijah cummings. In the congress, elijah was our north star, the leader of towering character and integrity. His stirring voice and steadfast values pushed the congress and the country to rise always to a higher purpose. He always told us, we are better than this. Whatever it was. How many time he is said to us our children are our living messengers to a future well never see. So we have a responsibility to power to create a future a future of justice and hope for our children. He also wanted our children to be aware of our value, to take them into the future. He did this by example. He did this by his actions and his words. Earlier this year, senator chairman cummings asked us, when were dancing with the angels, the question we will be asked in 2019 will be, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact . Now hes dancing with the angels. His pain is over. Hes in a better place. He fought to the end. I wish you could have been on the Conference Call, well, maybe not. But we had a Conference Call on friday with all the members of the house, mr. Chairman. There were 200 members there on the floor. And he gave us his guidance, his report, full voice, full throttle, full values, full commitment, full strategy. That was friday. Not even a week ago. Over the weekend, i had a number of conversations with him. He was giving us guidance in the early part of this week. I spoke to maya, whom he loved so much, this morning, she said he fought it to the end. But he fought it with such dignity we really didnt even know the end was so near. I hope its a comfort to maya, to his children, to his entire family and his staff as well who was so loyal to him and he to them. I hope its a comfort to them that so many people mourn their loss and are praying for them at this sad time. We just had some speeches on the floor because we passed a resolution recognizing the loss of a member. The room was totally silent which is not only highly unusual, unique in the house of representatives. As it was so silent i was thinking this morning i had breakfast with a person who had served, just by coincidence, a person who had served in the legislature, the house of delegates in maryland, mr. Chairman, with elijah. He said when we were this was a long time ago. Elijah has been in congress 23 years. This was a long time ago. He said elijah would stand up to speak in the house of delegates. The whole place would be silent. You could hear the silence. They wanted to hear what he had to say. Receive what he was conveying to them. Thats what happened on the floor of the house today. In his absence physically but everpresent with his values, his example, his dignity, the goodness of his heart, the guidance of his intellect, the kindness of his person. So thank you for all the good wishes many have shared to his colleagues, his friends, but family rtantly to his and we will always miss him but his legacy will always live on in the congress. Im devastated by the loss so forgive my devastation. Again, mr. Chairman, thank you for the invitation an for your determined, strategic leadership at this critical ime in our nation. Thank you for your leadership in founding the womens leadership forum. For 26 years wls has been lifting up Democratic Women across the country. Thank you for that. And unleashing the full pow over women in our democracy. Its a mantra for victory, women will vote. And thats important because nothing is more wholesome than increased participation and leadership of americas women in our democracy. Thats exactly what was called for, that is what is called for at this moment in history. You this moment in history. As you recall you were there. Everybody in this room was there the day after the inauguration. Women marched and they ran, women voted, women won. With your help last year, we won a net gain of 40 house seats in the most gerrymandered and voter suppressed political arena in history. Right, mr. Chairman . 40 seats. Thank you for your help. Now we must defend and expand our majority in the house of representatives, win back the u. S. Senate and elect a democratic president of the United States. [cheers and applause] today you already heard from some of the extraordinary house women or maybe you havent yet, our schedule is a little juggled oss of elijah. Lic because of the loss of a larger, extraordinary house women who led us to the majority and you will see or have seen the bold effective leadership they bring to our fight for working families. The Democratic House majority women just dont have a seat at the table. Women have a seat at the head of the table. [cheers and applause] the house, seven women hold the gavel as chairs of our committee. Seven. Services, appropriations, bigtime committees. Head subcommittees in the congress. [cheers and applause] 10 of them are freshmen. Mr. Chairman, youll remember this. Others may be too young, but maybe you are too. Its history to you. My youth. When the watergate babies came to congress in 1976, that was a big transformative class, a big transformative class. Historic in its size and its impact. In the first year, not one chaired a subcommittee or had a gavel. And this congress 18 freshmen chairs of subcommittees in the congress. 10 of them are women. This, for hink of whom e, one, deb haaland, oneink youre going to see, of the first of two, a native american to serve in congress, deb haaland is the chair of the public land subcommittee of natural resources. Public lands, thats indian ountry, and she is the chair of she presides, she sets the witnesses. Calls the so we have tried to lift up this class in ways i dont want to say historic, because that sounds like the path about we can get the immediate return on all of your ard work, like all these women who will make a difference because we know this, when women succeed, america succeeds. Ok. You can say that with me. Women succeeds, america succeeds. Much better. [laughter] nd this year, this congress not this year but in this congress, well observe the 19th anniversary of the amendment, establishing womens right to vote. Isnt that exciting . [cheers and applause] we do so for the first time we have over 100 women in congress, the 106 women in congress, 91 of them are democrats. 91. When i came to Congress Barbara boxer was already there. They were 12 Democratic Women, 11 republican women. We said were going to change of congress. Mbers 20 people were men in that really . So every election [laughter] every election, every election, certainly ambassador bagley, every election we added so now we have 91 and they have 15 because they did not make that decision. Winning elections are decisions. I will get back to that in a moment. When the 19th amendment passed, a newspaper said women given the right to vote, are you kidding me . Women were not given the right to vote. Women marched, women fought, women spoke, women died, women starved women were starved. Did everything to win the right to vote. Now womens rights and Womens Health are under attack. But we will not go backward. To say that the democratic majority in the house women, people of color, lgbtq. Remarkable, remarkable number. [applause] and i say to our members, our strength. Is our our unity is our power and we must, again, thrive on our diversity. It makes us so strong. But unless we are unified and our Democratic Unity in the is what fears most, ma call it watchamacallit, fears most. We ran on the for the people agenda. This week we have our lower drug costs now mark up in committee and at hearings and by next week fully marked up. Empowering medicare to negotiate. I wont go into all the particulars of it except to say it is transformative and it will lower prices for people. As i said sometimes, on the campaign trail ive seen grown being able to ot buy Prescription Drugs for their families. And again, we dont think families, seniors and families should not have to pay for more than what the Drug Companies charge for the same drugs in other countries. Lower healthcare costs, lower Prescription Drug costs, bigger paychecks and Building Infrastructure of america in the modern way forn, the 21st century. Lower health care, bigger paychecks, cleaner government. Maybe i could talk republicans into lower Prescription Drugs, bigger infrastructure, cleaner government, that one i dont think so. Thats what we passed h. R. 1, to for the people, to reduce the role of big dark special interest money in politics strengthening voting rights, clean up corruption in washington, d. C. The house again, people ask, across the on country . People dont know all the things we have really done. The house but we are legislating. We are investigating and we are litigating. For our Young Americans who passed save the internet, Climate Action now, for women, passed equal pay for equal work, raised the minimum wage the minimum wage because 2 3 of the people making minimum wage are women, passed the violence against women act, for our young dreamers. E passed the dream and promise act. For ending discrimination against lgbtq committee. We passed an equality act. , common e first acts bipartisan gun violence prevention bills to strengthen background checks. We passed strong against the violence against women act. The list goes on and on about what we have done. Mostly the public is not that aware because they want to pay is going to what else on out there. That comes to the investigation part. At the beginning of our country, mr. Chairman, i know youve heard me say this a million times, so forgive me. Beginning of our country, thomas payne said, this is a dark day revolution. He said that times have found us. The times have found us. We think that times have found us now. Did you, mr. Chairman . Everyone in this room who sacrificed their time, resources to be rest, not only here but to be there for the for our candidates so we can make a better future. And so here we are. None of us came to congress to impeach a president. Not anybody. Not anybody. Thats not what we are about. But we did take an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. [applause] and Constitution Day is september 17. Isnt it amazing . September 17. On september that september 17, 1787. On september 17, of this year, the bomb burst. The news exploded that the president of the United States violated his oath of office by calling upon a foreign power to intervene in an election to jeopardize our national security, undermining his oath of office and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections. On that day when the constitution was adopted, thomas not Thomas Benjamin franklin walked out of Independence Hall and on the steps people said, mr. Franklin, what do we have, a monarchy or a republic . He said, a republic, if we can keep it. A republic, if we can keep it. Our task now is to keep it because we have a president who rejects the genius of the constitution, which is a system of checks and balances, coequal branches of government, check and balance on each other come separation of power. He says article ii says i can do what ever i want. Thats a monarchy. Thats not a republic. If we can keep it. So we think that is our purpose. Is any one individual worth impeaching because its divisive in the country . No, i dont think so but the constitution is worth it. Our democracy is worth it. And our republic is worth it so that we can keep it. We owe it to the vision of our founders who sacrificed so much to establish this model of democracy for the world and thank god they made the constitution amendable so we can expand freedoms over time. We owe it to our men and women in uniform who fight for our freedom. We owe it to our children so that their aspirations can be achieved in a democracy. Again, we think the times have found us. So we are on a mission. We are on a mission to do what is right in a way that honors the constitution. Passionate about our calling, dispassionate about how we do our jobs. Respectful of others use. Other views. Our ng other words of unum, from r pluribus many come one. They could also imagine how many we would be or how different we would be from each other than you we had to stride for unity. For oneness. For oneness. We are not here to divide the country. Were here to unify and to do what we have to do to honor our oath of office worthy, in a way worthy of the constitution. So here we are with an election coming up, and i said this to a conference, but somebody asked me, is whatever the president is doing right now in syria part of the impeachment . I said no, it has nothing to do with that. The impeachment is about the facts, the truth, and the constitution, in terms of somebody honoring their oath of office. These other issues from use of force, whatever that is, is is in cowardice in prevention,violence protection, his cruelty to dreamers and transgender people, his denial of the list goes on and on. Those are subjects for the election. Impeachment, thats the constitution, issues like that about the election. So we have important work to do to honor our oath of office but also to fight the fight for the values that unify us. Sometimes people give me a lot of credit for unifying our caucus. I dont unify them. Our values unify us. And our values are about americas working families being treated fairly with liberty and justice for all, which is another pledge that we take. So i thank you for knowing at the times have found you as well for the role we all have to play. What is it, mr. Chair . One year and two weeks . Three weeks . 383 days. We will be clicking away. One could day in front of another, one could week in front of the another. One could month in front of another. As i said earlier, winning an election is a decision. Its a decision to do what you need to do to mobilize on the ground. No yield one grain of sand to as you own the ground, to mobilize around a message that is unifying and not then ng on mainstream and also about the money that it takes to organize and to spread the message. But when you make the decision to win, you have to make every of the decision in favor of winning. That means curbing some of our enthusiasm from time to time so that we can make a stark contrast. Again, that honors the vision of sacrifice of the our men and women in uniform, the aspirations of our children, the fairness and safety and and equality and justice and liberty and all of that for our country because hate to be the one to tell you this theres a big difference between democrats and subject. Ns on this i wish it werent. I asked the republicans to take party. Eir its been hijacked. What istheless, that is at stake in their election. So as i look around this room, i see a lot of people who are strengthen our lead in the majority in the house of representatives, electing even house of to the representatives. [applause] in doing so we think were going to be the engine. Weve proven that we can win. The engine to contribute to winning back the house, the United States senate for the American People that means democrats. In the meantime, as i said, legislative ate races across the board, we can begin with that in virginia, new jersey, and some other places. But when we do, all of it, it is totally imperative. We cannot rest. We must elect a democratic president of the United States. [applause] we must elect a democrat. I need more. I need more. [cheers and applause] and you know, do you know whats at stake . We all ask god to bless america. God bless america. What is america . America is that constitution which is genius of checks and balances, a republic, if we can keep it. The bill of rights and all the contained tlin, thats part of america. Therein, thats part of america. If you were blessed to be born and native american and thats a blessing for you and all of us to know you and a blessing for our country, we are a nation of immigrants. They are dishonoring the constitution, degrading our environment. What is america . Denigrating the people, degrading our environment, of god from l gift sea to shining sea and beyond, a denial of our climate and the rest. Then its just degrading the environment. What is america . Where principle, an idea, a vision. We are something very special in they want to with their campaigns and social media confidence of americans, confidence in our elections, confidence in themselves that they can be whoever they want to be, diminished the prospect of the american dream. We cannot let them. Dishonor the them constitution, denigrate the new to our country, degrade our environment and be just the vision of what america has always been and be. Ys will thats all thats at stake. So have you made a decision that were going to wind election and when the white house . [cheers and applause] i thought so. Thank you for the opportunity to share a few words. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you all very much. [cheers and applause] [applause] snoot [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome a fireside chat with Kentucky Senate candidate amy mcgrath. [applause] joe rmer Vice President biden also spoke at the Democratic National committees forum. Mens leadership he focused on womens issues but also talked about President Trump and the 2020 election