Rep. Bustos we have worked to prepare for this day for nearly two years and now the polls will be closing in just a few hours. While we have all lived the uncertainty of these last few years, heres what we can say with certainty and clarity. We know this is an historic election. Weve got the updated numbers. Voters that 100 million have already cast their ballots because they are itching to make their voices heard as we set the direction for our country. But there is still time to push voters to the polls and that is what House Democrats are spending our day doing. We know that our key races in the battleground are going to come down to the wire. We know that. In many cases, we are preparing for extended counts and even potential recounts. We want to remind folks of some simple words to live by. That is we must hear every voice, we must count every vote. That is how we safeguard our democracy. Going back to the beginning of last year, the beginning of last year, 2019, Speaker Pelosi consistently said we need to have this election secured by november of 2019. What does that mean . It meant we laid the foundation for our massive battlefield from day one. It meant we are protecting our majority by going on offense early, by stretching republicans then and forcing them to make tough choices in their territory, not ours. And dashed recruited recruited inspiring candidate to understand their community and to have live the same struggles as their neighbors. Deep into the map we have defined. It meant backing that up by building a massive warchest and, thanks to Speaker Pelosi, the leader who never sleeps, the d triple c has done that and our candidates have done that too. Finally, it meant tuning out twitter. So we to tune out twitter could keep our focus on everyday people. The folks we represent. We can win everywhere, we know that, when we focus on everyday people. So now that we are within hours of the polls closing, let me turn it over to the architect behind our ability to expand our majority, Speaker Pelosi. Speaker pelosi thank you very much, decent d triple c chair , you are the maestro to our work to not only hold the house but expand our house majority, fighting to elect democrats from coast to coast in the heartland. In the course of my remarks, i will reference some of your leadership and how you accomplished all of that, but you did it commanding the respect of our colleagues in the house, so when you lead, they are largely responsible for the successful position we are in today. To 2018, wenk back won 31 of our 40 seats in districts one by president trump. He was not on the ballot then. He is on the ballot now. So holding those seats was challenging. Largely done that and expanded our opportunities. Tonight, House Democrats are poised to further strengthen our majority, the most dynamic, women led house my jaw ready in history. We have shattered records across the board from our grassroots fundraising to our early field presence and our candidate recruitment and unprecedented investment in outreach and organizing with communities of color thanks to your leadership. The d triple c has raised a record high of over 300 Million Dollars in the 2020 election cycle. , disciplined focused message. The three most important issues health care, health care, health care, as they were in the 2018 election. Another, mobilization. Groundts have owned the and have gone on the offense since day one. Message,the 3ms globalization mobilization, and money. Them self recruited, but you are responsible for a large part of them both and are responsible for a large part of the success. We organized and fired up the grass roots like never before. Organizers have 3000 Virtual Events and reached nearly 14 million americans through text message. More than 200,000 americans have colunteered through the dcc volunteerism events. We are discrete districts across the country, so these numbers are very impressive. We have reached over 21 million voters in more than 10 different languages. To people today, be confident, be calm, be patient because we are prepared. But do not be celebrating until everyone across the country has a chance to vote. We dont want to deter voting because people think the election is over for the presidency. When the polls are closed, we must make sure every vote is count as cast. No regrets for what we could have done, nothing left on the field, everything is at stake. Over 230 thousand americans have died. Joblessness raising, poverty skyrocketing. In september alone, over one million women left the workplace and the president has said he would get their husbands jobs back. Instead of crushing the coronavirus, trump is trying to crush the aca, waging a lawsuit to destroy protections for preexisting conditions and every other benefit of the Affordable Care act, showing deadly contempt for science and refusing to accept a National Plan for testing, tracing, treatment. Joe biden will do that. The president is installing and illegitimate Supreme Court justice one week before the election after 60 million americans have voted who will dismantle the aca and will not say when asked by senator feinstein, do you think medicare is constitutional. She said she really could not say. Across the country, democrats are dancing a drumbeat of action for people. Lower Health Care Cost and Prescription Drug care cost. Passing the George Floyd Justice in policing act. The times i found us once again. Darks payne said in the days of the revolution, he said the times have found us. They have found us and the stakes of this election are clear. This election is about nothing less than taking back the soul of america, whether our nation will follow the voices of fear or whether we will choose hope, liberty, and justice for all. This is the most consequential election of our lifetime and i am confident americans will vote their health and vote for change and im enormous leak grateful to our distinguished chair for her extraordinary leadership in mobilizing and owning the ground and amassing the financial resources, money and having discipline in our message, bold and progressive, appropriate to our district. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you so much. Now lets have a few minutes for questions for both of them. If you have a question, please put your name and outlet in the chat box. We will unmute you and you can answer your question. We will give folks just a second to start lining up in the queue. Our first question comes with josh from cronkite news. If you would unmute yourself and ask your question. Thank you for the time madam speaker. I put in the chat box, many experts have said the night of this election, there will be unrest. What message would you give your supporters regardless of the outcome . Goaker pelosi shall i first . Be confident, be calm, be patient. Biden will be joe inaugurated president of the United States. Whoever wins the election will be and we respect that, the peaceful transfer of power. Legally,ady constitutionally, congressionally in every way to for anyour democracy skulduggery the president may try to introduce into this. Our democracy will survive. I dont like saying that. I dont like having to do that, but if thats what the president wants to do, to go onto that battlefield, we are ready. We have invested 10 million in litigation efforts. That along with our partners, our sister committees and state parties, that has been to make sure we are protecting peoples voting rights. We will continue to do that as long as we need to, going up to the end of election day today or even to the end. At texas withok the driveby voting. The courts have ruled in our favor a couple of times. Doing, usingwe are the constitution to protect peoples voting rights. Differentng the branches of government to make sure we are protecting voting rights. Our overall message, as the speaker says, we live in a democracy and are so fortunate to live in this democracy where every vote does count and we will use every legal means necessary to ensure we count every vote and as the speaker said, we just have to be patient. Our friends in the media, you can help a great deal like calling for patients and the process we live in is to make sure every vote is counted. When you have 100 million americans who have voted early, thats going to take a little longer. That is our overall message. Much. Nk you so next, we will go to monty with cnn. Thanks for taking my question. Speaker pelosi, you said recently you are definitely planning on running for speaker in the new congress, assuming you keep the majority. You reached a deal in 2018, no longer than four years as speaker. Do you expect next congress to be your last time serving as speaker . Wither pelosi let me say all due respect, thats the least important question you could ask today. The soul of our nation is at stake. We are fighting very hard across the country to get a big vote out in our district, not only to win the Congressional District but also to contribute to the success of arsenic candidates, which is very important, winning the senate, as well as the electoral college. That is what we are here to talk about, not about my plans. We are here to talk about plans for our country, far future, for our children. Elections are about the future. One of these days, i will let you know what my plans are, when it is appropriate and when it matters. It it does not matter right now. Thank you so much for the question. Next, nick santos with the new york times. Can you hear me . Unlikely to give specific numbers, but as we sit here at 11 a. M. On election day, are you still confident you will win seats by the time the howots are all counted and optimistic in terms of how many seats you can pick up . 5, 10, 15 what does a successful might look like from your Vantage Point . Our chair has tos in our head i spoke just about all the candidates, are running in difficult districts as well as their red to blue candidates over the weekend and they are all very optimistic. You would not run if you didnt think you had a chance to win. But something is going on out there now and what is happening magicalround, there is inspiration to get people to the polls. I am absolutely certain under leadership that we will absolutely hold the house. Im not going to say a number but even the people who do this math all the time have a range of saying you could do 10 to 20, but it could be five. In any event, we have the resources, both financial and msthree atoms three and we hope it can win the senate and the white house. In addition to which, when state and local elections because as you know, redistricting is on the line. Let me just say getting back to the first question that we believe theres nothing normal in the white house, normally this would be the start of healing. We would start the healing we hopeand that is what to do. ,hen we say be calm, be patient be confident about how we will for that is to pave the way something that reaches out to country, as joe biden has said, he is running as a democrat but hes going to govern everyone in our country, whether they voted for him or not. We need to heal and we need that process to begin as soon as possible. One would have thought it would have been as people started to for the next few weeks, has decided he would be disruptive rather than unifying. Thatiden is a unifier and is why his candidacy will succeed and his presidency will ring our country together. Did you want to go into any numbers about how many we said sure ouros im friends in the media can predict we are not going to put a number to it but elections, you make your own luck going into any election. At the Democratic Congressional campaign committee, we made one third of a billion dollars worth of luck because of the leadership of Speaker Pelosi. She mentioned are wonderful candidates that we have running. We mentioned a 10 Million Investment in litigation efforts to make sure we are protecting peoples right to vote. We have had boots on the ground going back to early 2019. This is 100 weeks in the making. We have built the foundation to be successful. I believe we will hold onto the majority. I believe we will grow the majority. I hope that number is as big as it can possibly be but im not going to predict a certain number tonight. Democratso we have 30 running in trump districts, we are playing deep into trump districts, districts were trump won by double digits, we will pick up some seats and thats a testament to these wonderful candidates we have running and a testament to our wonderful freshman members of Congress Running for their first reelection and have laid their own foundation for passing meaningful legislation. I think with all of that together, we are wellpositioned to have a good night. Thanks for the question. Go toxt question will nicholas at usa today. Can you hear me . Thanks so much for holding this. My question is for both the speaker and chairwoman. Are quite a few districts that are competitive. Are there any in particular that you are watching as bellwethers for how the night will go . Speaker pelosi a large and back to the previous question for a moment when madame chair was talking about our advantages and the quality of our candidates. Its not just about the numbers. The quality of our candidates is so spectacular. The contrasts between the ones they want to unseat or replace if it is an open seat is something remarkable to behold. Red to37, 38 seats, blue, 30 of them are women. Isn among the men, there diversity, as there is among the women as well. Session, we added tremendous class to the congress. This time, we are going to enhance that, but let me go back to madame chair. She represents the heartland of america. She understands these districts very well because she has a trump district. Preparedticularly well to guide many of these it takess through what to overcome a district where the president of the United States has carried it and now you want to put it in the democratic column. Of candidatesber who are blessed with a particular leadership in that regard. You have probably seen in the fewer than ahe way handful of incumbents whose races we are watching and then going beyond that, the red to blue. Ofave seen all kinds prognostication of when the seat in ohio, the seat in indiana, its a blowout, things like that. We are just taking it one district at a time. Districts, these and the candidates are representative of them. That is their job title and their Job Description representative. The onesnture to say we would look at to say whether we win or those is not dispositive of what happens at the end of the day. Rep. Bustos i would point you to look at some of these districts where i dont think its a start of a cycle. Theey people looking at outside in with that you are playing in arkansas, youre playing in virginia, you are , you aren new york 2 playing in montana, the whole state of montana with Kathleen Williams . Wendy davis in texas 22 question we have this whole list of these wonderful candidates. Theyve got the resources, so their communities know who they are, what they stand for, what they will do as a congresswoman or congressman. They have run tremendous campaigns. They fit their districts like a glove, and i think we are going to see some wins in these deep red districts that over time you will see going from ruby red to purple, to even blue. Storyk that will be the out of tonights election, that so may people on the outside looking in thought all we were going to do was have a defensive strategy because we flipped 40 seats in 2018. But we knew from the start not only were we going to have a defensive strategy, but we were going to have an offense of one as well and that is what we are going into this election day having accomplished. We have a defensive strategy and we think that will put that will play dividends. With the national journal. Thank you for having us today. You talked about the measures you want to take to make sure every vote is count. What does that look like and what are the conditions you will accept for the results tonight . I talked with you in addition to our strategy to protect voting rights, we have invested 9 million in a Voter Education strategy, which we have never had to do before. Because we are living through this pandemic and have had 100 million voters cast their ballots early, we invested in that to help get that right. On top of it, we partnered with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee, the democratic governors association, the biden harris campaign, democratic entities all over the country, to make sure we have a team of lawyers all over the country who are standing by if we need them to make sure they are there to protect every single vote. It is a strategy we have had leading up to election day. It is a strategy on election day , and it is a strategy will have postelection day. This is an election day that might end up looking like an election week. I hope not a whole lot longer than that, but if it does, the goal is to count every single vote and we have a whole team ready leading up to this and postelection as well. If i may add to that, i love being in congress because of the issues, for the children, for the policy and the rest, but i enjoy campaigning and elections. I was the chair of the California Democratic party a while back, ive been a Party Activist and Community Organizer for a long time. When my children were babies, that was what we did, go door to door. Stages tothree respecting the voter and protecting the vote. How you lead up to it, the this time, time leading up turned out to be that has stopped where you may see it and to protect the vote and how it is counted as we emerge from this evening. Its the numbers. Strange, itsg about the numbers, the people have voted, the vos the votes counted, they must be counted as they are cast and there are plenty of witnesses on both sides, and that is important, that both sides bear witness to the validity of the count. But should there be some challenge, they say they are going to count the vote in one way or another, but as madame chair said, we are ready for working with others. I would add to that, the important work eric holder is doing at the