One of the main reasons i wake up in the morning, my motivation is to have breakfast. Otherwise, it is like, what time is it . Lisa good morning. Our guest today is speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. It is her 13th appearance at a monitor breakfast. The first was in 1985 before she was even elected to the house. At that point, she was serving as the finance chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee, and i do not know how they figured out she was the future speaker, but i applaud my monitor predecessors for inviting her 34 years ago, so welcome back. Speaker pelosi has been in politics pretty much her whole life. Her father was a member of congress and then mayor of baltimore. After college, she married and moved west to San Francisco where she became a fixture in the state democratic party. She won a special house race in 1987 and has been a member ever since. Speaker pelosi is now in her second tour as speaker of the house, and we are delighted to have her here today. Now, the ground rules. We are on the record but please, no live blogging or tweeting. Kindort, no filing of any while the breakfast is underway. 9 00,he session ends at there is no embargo. That is me as well. We will be emailing pictures from the breakfast to everybody as soon as this breakfast ends. Please send me a signal and i will call on as many of you as time permits. Now speaker pelosi, would you like to make brief opening remarks . Speaker pelosi thank you, linda, very much, for the invitation to be here this morning. I did not realize it was this many times. In 1985, that is a while back. George mitchell asked me, because he became chair of the Senate Campaign committee, we were friends through all of that. He said, they asked me to be chair, but we are not a big fundraising state, so will you help with winning the senate . So i went to a number of our large significant establishments, forces in california, to say, i have been asked to do this, but i need to know that we will have the full force of california here. And, i do believe that we can win. That is a very important element. I do believe that we can win the senate for the democrats. This was a very big deal. Frankly, i was not a fundraiser organizer. But, you have to keep the doors open. So every night, i would think, how do i stay three months ahead with the payroll, utilities, rent, Political Activities . Like a small businesswoman, actually. Because you are organizing, you have to have the resources, hence the contact with the community. That was a necessity. I am an organizer, the essence of my being. Anyway, we did win. That was 1986. Then i came into the congress a few months later in 1987. I have a beautiful tray from leader,byrd, the then so had good rapport from the start, but never thinking that i would be from 1985 to now, speaker. Anyway, here we are today. When i first came here, this is a much smaller table in every way. Now, it is much bigger and much more diverse. I am happy to see many women here. Not that women are more so than men, but the beauty is in the mix. That diversity is important. I congratulate you for expanding the universe of those telling the story. Today is an interesting day, today is the day the administration will be eliminating one of the last vestiges of what president obama did to protect the environment. I think they are calling it a dirty power scam. Dirty power scam. That name just emerged this morning. This is fundamental for the air our children breathe and the water they drink and their safety. The integrity of our environment. Also today i am going to a war on poverty conference we are having with reverend barber on the hill and also today is the day that Prime Minister trudeau is coming. Perhaps we will talk about the trade agreement, he may want to talk about basketball but that is in the past. [laughter] also today, we are obviously Going Forward with our appropriations bill, and later today, we will have the meeting, a bipartisan meeting with the white house and how it relates to the debt ceiling. Just a few things that are happening today on the policy side. I would really rather hear what you want to talk about, but i do come here exhilarated, because this weekend, over 140 of our members participated in town halls or events, whether press conferences, townhall meetings, whatever, on the issue of health care. And the response was just spectacular across the country. It still remains the heart of the matter for americas families in terms of the good health, but also the Financial Security that having access to Affordable Health care. It is still a central issue, as it was in the campaign. It is one of the reasons i stayed, because Prime Minister trudeau is coming today thank you so much. He is coming today, i will see him tomorrow. Thank you, staff. [laughter] thank you. Appreciate that. Thanks very much. Temple markers. They are being great. This is what is happening today, this week, etc. Thank you for refining my temple marker. In any event, why dont we hear what you want to hear about . We are in a mode of legislate, investigate, litigate. Obviously, we take seriously the constitutional challenge that we have. We share some concerns about that with you, we are concerned about freedom of press, we believe you are the guardians of the gate of our democracy. We do believe that the president is undermining the heart of the matter of the actual constitution, before the bill of rights, in terms of separation of power, coequal branches of government, check and balances. That is a serious threat that we have responsibility to hold the president accountable. Our focus is legislate at the same time as we investigate and litigate. We are happy to take any questions you have. It is an honor to be with all of you. I dont even remember 1985, but i do remember a series of meetings. I must have been very nervous that day, can you imagine coming in as a volunteer and politics volunteer in politics to this very distinguished group of journalists . Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Linda i would ask that you limit yourself to one questions one question as there are so many of us. Speaker pelosi i want you to obey what linda had to say. Her son and daughter and mom. Linda at your last monitor breakfast in march of 2017, when President Trump had taken office, you told us that you were ready to retire to california because you thought Hillary Clinton was going to win but that obviously didnt happen. And you said it was really shocking that somebody like donald trump could be president of the United States, but he motivated me to stay. My question for you is, now that we have had President Trump for 2. 5 years, what are the stakes . Speaker pelosi i think i was right. But the main reason i stayed was to protect the Affordable Care act. It wasnt necessarily just about him, but about the Affordable Care act, because that is a pillar of health and Financial Security similar to social security, medicare, medicaid, the Affordable Care act. I knew that it would be under threat with this president. Forgetting any of the personal aspects of his behavior, from a policy standpoint. And so, really, i give credit to the grassroots. We had 10,000 events around the country. Of course, in his first two years of office, to protect the Affordable Care act. With all of our inside maneuvering, we can only go so far without the outside mobilization. Lincoln, public sentiment is everything, you have heard me say it 100 times. But it is still under threat, and it has made the difference in the election in 2018. Between 100 million and 150 million families are affected by preexisting conditions in addition to the people we added, the benefits there for larger tens of millions of families in , our country in terms of lifetime limits, access to health care. I wont go into the whole thing, but suffice to say, that was my motivation to protect the Affordable Care act from him. Is american democracy at risk . Speaker pelosi our country is a great country. Our founders, we were really blessed with our founders. Thank god they made the constitution amendable, so that we could expand even more freedoms than in the original document, including freedom of the press and the bill of rights but even beyond that later in terms of voting rights, etc. I have confidence in the American People. I have confidence in the strength of our democracy, that it could withstand this president. Linda jerry from the buffalo news . Speaker pelosi hi, jerry. [indiscernible] Brian Higgins reversed himself and called for an impeachment inquiry. His argument is really based on the fact from the administration stonewalling, the house investigation, using the term that there is a legitimate that there is no legitimate legislative purpose to the documents that were turned over and the testimony. What do you think of congressman higgins argument . Speaker pelosi i respect everybody and think there should be an inquiry, but i do not think you should have an inquiry unless you are ready to impeach. Again, i am not asking members what to do in their own time, what i believe is when we go forward, as we go forward, it has to run deep. It cant be the democrats impeaching. And the republicans exonerate in the senate. This president must be held accountable. I feel no pressure from my members to do anything, and i have no pressure on them to do anything. This is not about politics. This is not about partisanship. It is about patriotism, to honor the constitution of the United States. But i do think that it is important for the American People to see the purpose of why we would go forward. And now, this week, i dont know this was news last week, but we will be having access to a less redacted version of the mueller report. I have said originally, unless the country can see what they show us, we shouldnt see it, but i have when we had the offer of the less redacted for many more people than just the leadership, i accepted that, because i really do not trust the attorney general of the United States, and i am afraid that he may, depending on what is in there, try to, shall we say, deal with ongoing matters in a way that is not constructive for our constitution. I cant say anything more than that. Linda laura from npr . Reporter i have a question about legislation. Youre passing a whole bunch of bills, even if they cant go anywhere in the senate and members are getting frustrated they are not getting the same attention from the American Public that you would like. In order to get more attention for these bills, do you need to pick the bigger fight with Mitch Mcconnell . Speaker pelosi well, actually, we dont think that these bills are not going anyplace, because they have overwhelming support among the American People. Do we have the graveyard . Gravestone . I want to show you something we gave out at our caucus this morning. Yes, mitch has to be held accountable. Thank you. This is mcconnells graveyard. He has said he is the grim reaper, he takes pride in being the grim reaper. That is his political slogan, because my dear husband for some reason, gets the republican mailers and he brags about being the grim reaper as he is raising money. Here they are, for the people act. Protecting people with preexisting conditions, gun violence prevention, the equality act ending discrimination of the lgbtq dreamers, tps paycheck fairness, climate , action, saving internet act. To name a few. He has said they are dead on arrival in the senate. We are saying no, they are alive and well in the public. If you intend to not bring them up, there will be a price to pay. Again, i go back to lincoln, public sentiment is everything. With it you can accomplish anything, without it, practically nothing. We are ready to encourage our groups working with the democrats in the senate to insist this legislation we this legislation be brought up. Some of these things have 70 , 80 , 90 support in the public. We selected issues that we ran on. When we talk about Lower Health Care cost, lowering the cost of Prescription Drugs, the preexisting conditions, he will have even more legislation in that regard. Building infrastructure of america in a green way, cleaner government Lower Health Care, bigger paychecks, we think the president could be agreeable to legislation in those two areas. Cleaner government. I dont see any hope for that in terms of the president , but we do see it in terms of the American People. We will have legislation added to this list that talks about the integrity of our elections and the security of our elections, and that legislation is in the works. I think they will announce it in a day or two. We were hoping to also have republicans, and that is taking a little more time. We dont accept any fact that these will not see the light of day. However, in order for the public sentiment to weigh in, the public has to know. That is why we are having these town meetings and the rest on these subjects as we go around the country. Tomorrow, we will have a big event here on gun violence prevention. The bill is 80 , 90 popular even among gun owners and members of the nra. That is part of our fight. He is the point person who is standing in the way, and we have to make sure that people know. Yes to the second part, no i would say our members are not happy that these are being taken that these arent being taken up, but there are no frustrations from keeping us from doing even more and pushing even harder on all of this. Linda cheryl from bloomberg . Reporter you mentioned you will be going later to the white house to talk about the budget . They will be coming to the capital. Republicans want 750 billion for spending. Defense. Will democrats insist on 750 billion for nondefense spending . Also, the timing of the deal, do you need it now or are you going to wait until closer to the debt limit increase . Speaker pelosi two things come first of all we are not , talking about parity in terms of the amount of money, we are talking about parity in the amount of increase. The domestic nondefense discretionary defense nondefense discretionary domestic has to be increased commensurate with how the Defense Budget is increased. In that budget, the nondefense discretionary domestic, a third of it, 34 of it is veterans, homeland security, antiterrorism activity at the justice department, the state department, issues that relate to our national security. So, we have to listen up and we have additional initiatives that relate to our veterans. I dont necessarily love them to i dontission act necessarily love them to death, but it has to be paid for. It is the law and we have to pay for it. We are making the case that we need more money on the domestic side. That is what the budget agreement calls for. In terms of this, we want to do it as soon as possible so that the Appropriations Bills can move. Appropriations and intelligence, in those days, they were not so partisan. Devices ieir own , believe they can come to agreement on the bills. I am still optimistic about that. In terms of the debt ceiling, we said that we have to have an agreement, if we dont have agreement on caps, that is not a good thing for anybody. There are some in the administration that do not mind shutting down government, that is not a good idea. We have to recognize there needs to be compromise, but we have to have the budget agreement consistent with parity in the increases, not parity in terms of the amount, because defense is so far ahead of everything else. In terms of the debt ceiling, we will lift the debt ceiling. Full faith and credit of the American People is never in doubt. We have to have the agreement first so that we know we are on the same page as we go forward. Reporter my question is about china. The situation in hong kong. What do you think about the protest . Going forward, what is the most effective way for the u. S. To help maintain hong kongs legal autonomy . Speaker pelosi thank you. Is it just a beautiful sight to behold . A quarter of the whole population of hong kong was on the streets on this extradition law, which is appalling. You know what it says. If you were arrested in hong kong you would be tried in , beijing, and they can cook up any charge on any person, including journalists. 85,000 americans there doing business or reporting on it. Generationso three of hong kong democrats, martin lee, mr. Chan, joshua wong. They have all come through our office because we have been making this fight on human rights in china since tiananmen square. It has always been bipartisan. To your question, we have legislation that updates u. S. Hong kong policy. Under our law now, hong kong is treated as an Economic Zone for lack of a better word, and has other privileges separate from china. In this legislation senator marco rubio was introducing, and chris smith and jim mcgovern, i was part of the lead on it, it is very bipartisan, to pass the legislation that says that we no longer assume that china is operating under one country, two systems. We have to have the administration certify that that situation exists in hong kong in order for them to get the separate privileges. If they are just china, they dont get these privileges. I was pleased with the Administration Statement so far, such as they happen, pompeos statement on what is happening, this is a big issue. President xi has been really taking china backward in terms of repression. There could be 2 million, 3 million in education camps right now. I myself am taking a delegation to tibet to see what they are doing to suppress religion, culture, languages of tibet. All over china, there are incidences of suppression of human rights and democratic freedoms. Im not talking about democracy, just freedom of speech. I dont think what they are doing in hong