and that world is there are, and it's very important. but equally important is what i call the world of the web. that world of criminal networks, including terrorists, but also arms traffickers and drug traffickers. the world of business. which increasingly big network supply chains, global corporations. and the world of nongovernmental organizations. i think of all those actors as web actors, as increasingly important actors, but we don't have strategies for how to bring them together. >> watch "after words" sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2's book tv. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to you today by your

cable or satellite provider. house minority leader nancy pelosi held her weekly briefing with reporters earlier today at the capitol. she spoke about yesterday's testimony by former f.b.i. director james comey. the house republican agenda, and raising the debt ceiling. this is 35 minutes. . pelosi: year here to celebrate. >> we'll talk about that. ms. pelosi: nobody here wants to talk about it. good morning, everyone. here we are, seven months since the election of donald trump as

president of the united states and what we -- as we look to our responsibilities to the american people we can see that it's seven month -- months of failure. it's all about security. our national security, whether that's national security globally, homeland security, personal security, our national security has been jeopardized by his attitude toward putin. put putin on a pedestal. he's questioned article 5 of nato. he has flirted with the idea of not enforcing or expanding any sanctions against russia in terms of their aggressive military behavior in europe. it is in terms of our economic security, we're the -- where are the jobs? the election was about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. he promised jobs.

he's been a jobs loser. he has one bill he has sent over here, a health care bill, takes over 20 million, 23 million, 24 million, 25 million, whatever estimates, 25 million -- 23 million, let's take the low figure, will lose their health coverage because of his pr posal. and it is a jobs loser. estimated to be 1. million jobs lost. donald trump is a jobs loser. and third in terms of the security of our democracy, here he has a foreign country interfering, adversarial country interfering in our election, it is an absolute fact that russians hacked, probably altered and leaked information into the election which had a disruptive impact on the election. president doesn't seem to be even curious about that. curious about that. the republicans in congress who have stood in the way of an

outside, independent commission to review all of that. we have a special counsel who is highly respected, mueller, and that will proceed within the justice department reporting to trump appointees. we had the house and senate intelligence committee making progression in their investigation as we saw yesterday on some of this, but that is within the republican congress. we are limited by what the republicans are willing to do. that's why we need inside justice, inside congress, we need outside commission. so we can get the facts. let's get the facts, get through this. let's bring people together. that's our responsibility. we have a beautiful constitution of the united states. we all take an oath to uphold it, to support and defend it.

yet what the president is doing is to undermine it. all of the blessings of liberty that are in the more perfect union, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, ensure justice, the list goes on. depend on a system of checks and balances that follow in the body of the constitution. and he is undermining the system of checks and balances. of separation of power. so we have to take stock here and say, this is so much bigger than politics. so much bigger than democrats and republicans. about how we protech the american people, how we grow our economies, good-paying jobs, increasing wages, and how we protect our democracy as a model to the world. and you all, you're a very important part of that. following the checks and balances in the constitution are the amendment the bill of rights.

ensuring freedom of the press. tries to undermine balance of powers within the government, undermine the freedom of the press outside. -- outside the congress. you are the guardians of the democracy. your freedom of expression, whether we agree with you or not, nonetheless is to be respected. big issue of democracy. authoritarians want to suppress the press. that's what we see here. we stand ready to work with republicans on jobs bills, an infrastructure bill, to work with them, to address improvements we can make in our tax code, whether it's about fairness, about transparency, about closing special interest loopholes. lower the corporate rate, whatever it is to create growth, to create good-paying jobs in

our country as we redue deuce the deficit. we see none of that. with that i appreciate any questions you may have. reporter: leader pelosi, the president tweeted this morning essentially accusing director comey lying under oath yesterday. do you think the president needs to go under oath to address this either to mueller or to a committee in congress that is investigating this now? ms. pelosi: take me all day to say what i think the president should be doing. it would start as i said on wounch the show's this morning -- as i said on one of the show this is morning, a good night's sleep. it takes a certain curiosity to learn the facts, to base your comments on evidence and data and truth. it takes a certain discipline to be able to prioritize what is important as we try to bring the ountry together. it takes some kind of stamina to

keep your thoughts together. i am very worried about his fitness, but that's something he and the people in the white house have to make a judgment about and i don't know if there's the courage or the conviction in the white house to say to the president, you shouldn't be tweeting something like that. it's beneath the dignity of the office you serve. so i don't know. i'm not one to say the president should come here to testify, if that's your question. maybe it would come to that, he would probably like to come here. but he's all about a reality show so it may fit right into his agenda, but for right now i think we have to exercise our oversight responsibilities in congress. i think we should have an outside commission to examine this and, again, this isn't about relitigating the lection. it's about making sure it doesn't happen in the future.

again, an adversarial country may have an influence on our election. as they do that in other countries it's to undermine democracy. and does the president even have a curiosity about what the impact of the -- all this had on the election? so, again, i ask the question, what do the russians have on donald trump politically, personally or financially that he just won't go to that place and instead enshrines them, dances to their tune and the republicans in congress have been resistant to finding -- resisted finding out the truth. i think there are other remedies we can exhaust. i respect the opinions of those who think he should come, but i think we -- if the republicans in congress would be more -- shall we say, open to facts and the truth, we can learn a lot without the president coming

here. reporter: would you permit me a follow-up? ms. pelosi: please. reporter: you mentioned the sort of forward-looking part of this. what are the steps this congress are taking sooner rather than later to strengthen america's defenses against another ntrusion on like this? we have another election in virginia. ms. pelosi: we had one in california last week. here's the thing, when it was -- it was very obvious to many of us early on. i said at the convention, the christian science monitor folks, it is an absolute fact that the russians are hacking and leaking in our elections. it's an absolute fact. i wouldn't be able to say that publicly if i knew it was classified information. i knew it because it cost me $1 million to find out at the dccc who was hacking us. later by october all of the ntelligence leaders were

agreeing to a statement that russia was doing that. not mr. comey but all of the thers. t that time, the four leaders, leader mcdonell, senator schumer, the speaker of the house and i sent a letter to the secretaries of the state throughout the country saying we have resources available to help protect the mechanisms of elections. not to interfere -- the states run their elections but to say that certain resources were available to them. the republicans were resistant to saying -- resisted our saying that we considered the election process as critical nfrastructure. later the

secretary of homeland security made such a designation. we didn't say that in our letter, they insisted we not say that, but we did recognize that there was a problem and that there were resources available nationally for them to exploit, take advantage, for the protection of our system. reporter: i want to follow-up a little bit here. so you talked about the possibility of him saying his side of things maybe to the special counsel -- ms. pelosi: i don't know if he would do it. they have to follow the facts where they lead. reporter: president clinton did that with the deposition and the whitewater, monica lewinsky situation. you talked about the possibility -- you also talked earlier about the importance of balance of powers. you have that in a parliamentary system. we don't that here. that would be extraordinary. ms. pelosi: i do. i think it's something we have to weigh the equity of. when president clinton -- that

was -- that wasn't to ongress. that wasn't to congress. so we have to understand that we are in an extraordinary circumstance. we've never been to a place like his. the former director of national intelligence say in his speech the other day that watergate pales in comparison to what is happening now. es, sir. reporter: based on what came out of the hearing yesterday involving attorney general sessions and based on some reports in the white house that maybe the president -- what is your level of confidence in attorney general sessions and do you believe he should still be in that job? ms. pelosi: on march 2 i said he should resign as attorney general. i said attorney general sessions should not be in that job and he should resign. that's three months ago, more than three months ago so that's my position on him. reporter: do you feel even stronger yesterday that it moved he ball forward?

ms. pelosi: how much more can i say more than resign? resign twice? i don't think he honored his recusal. what can i say without confirming or denying what came out of the room which was a losed session. reporter: the president says he feels totally vindicated after comey's testimony. what is your reaction? do you see it that way? ms. pelosi: no, i don't see that t all. i do see that he might see it that way because i said earlier, fact, evidence, data, curiosity about the truth, discipline in his comments are not hallmarks of his presidency.

what i did say this morning, in cased you missed me on tv is, follow this. now, this was early this morning and in light of events that have come forth since. i said to him that new yorkers have said to me, those who had business dealings with him, he operates this way. first, he tries to charm you. president bush tries to charm you. reporter: trump. ms. pelosi: then he tries to bully you. if that doesn't work he walks away. if that doesn't work, he sues you. harm, bully, abandon, sue. i didn't realize it, but when i got to the office an hour later, i see they're filing suit against comey. so he tried to charm him he tried to bully him. he tossed him out. and now he's going to sue him. following suit. he's true to form. true to his nature. and that -- that's not how a democracy works.

it may be how a bully works, but in any case, i think his statements need some discipline and i don't know if anybody in the white house has the courage to discipline the president. as i said about that, if you want to work in the white house, know your blood type because he'll throw you under the bus in a second like he did to others when he's abandoned him. it's too bad because he needs work. and he needs sleep. yes, sir. reporter: madam leader, as you know the markets react to uncertainty. are you able to reassure investors that we may not have that drama? ms. pelosi: i hope not. the debt ceiling -- the full, faith and credit of the united states is guaranteed in our constitution. we really do not even have to take legislative action but we o. i would hope that we would have no debate about it because as you recall a few years ago, even when we had the questioning of

it, when the republicans said they wouldn't lift the debt ceiling, president obama was president and of course they had the majority, even the discussion of it lowered the credit rating. we can't do that place. i hope we can have a clean -- vote on a clean debt ceiling, that we will do it by the end of july because this may come due in august. even september we want to be ready. as you said, remove all doubt, have some certainty as to where that is. so i would hope we could work in a bipartisan way. now, again, indicative of what's going on in the administration, you have the secretary of the treasury saying they want a clean debt ceiling. president bush -- sorry -- i meant to say -- it's hard for me to say it, you know. poor president bush. i apologize.

the debt ceiling -- i started to say about the uncertainty in this administration. you have the secretary of the treasury, mnuchin, saying it should be a clean debt ceiling. and the o.m.b. director saying he's catering to the freedom caucus to put all kinds of things, cuts in this. if they were going to go down that path to lift the debt ceiling in the house i doubt they could pass that in the senate. so let's just be efficient. let's remove all doubt. let's save our debate for another subject. this is the full faith and credit of the united states. reporter: so your caucus would not demand any special provisions in that bill? ms. pelosi: no, no. clean. clean. as i said before, this is about debt incurred.

it's about things they have voted for to spend money on. it's about tax cuts they have given which are tax expenditures that need to be covered. so this is about what is already spent or accounted for. it's not about how we go into the future except to do so with some certainty. reporter: you had indicated recently you didn't want to see a debt ceiling increase that would let them turn around and cut taxes. ms. pelosi: no. i wasn't clear and thank you for -- my point was, there should be no signal from a clean debt ceiling that this is license to increase the debt. it's about the past. it's not about the future. so plain and simply, we are for a clean debt ceiling. yes. reporter: i want to talk about spending bills. republicans seem to be talking about passing an omnibus perhaps before the august recess. is that something democrats would have interest in or potentially support? ms. pelosi: an omnibus before the august recess, today is the day they are supposed to have

appropriations bills. this is a landmark day. sometimes that day is missed and we all know that. there's at least a view in sight as to where we would go. they are so far behind schedule it's hard to see where they ould be. i say this as one forged in the appropriations committee, that's culture i grew up in congress as well as the intelligence committee. basically over time as bipartisan as it gets. this is not. left to their own devices, democrats and republicans on the committee can come to their agreements on their bill. it's where the poison pills rain -- some legislative poison pills that we have to get rid of. having said that, i spoke to the speaker a week and a couple days ago -- last friday. what is today? riday again?

we look forward to speaking with him. he may be -- i respect that. we have to talk about whether ur top line is as to what we are -- what our spending limits are as we go forward and how the subcommittees know what their number is so they can write a ill. so it's not -- it's just up to them to get moving, but we have -- everything is behind schedule. we haven't seen -- the president says his -- he says his tax bill is moving through congress. there is no tax bill. the appropriations process is way behind. his health care bill is a job killer and really a person killer too, as a matter of act. and so it's a mess. they're a mess, but we stand ready. we know how to legislate.

we know how to get appropriation bills passed. we know how to respect a person's point of view so we can find a common ground which we have the responsibility to the american people. reporter: you mentioned ryan made an overture, what was it specifically? was it to -- tax spending bill, what was the overture? ms. pelosi: just about the top line. yes, ma'am. reporter: back to comey's testimony. i was wondering what you thought about his comments regarding former attorney general loretta lynch and his confusion over her request to call the clinton email probe a matter instead of n investigation? and also the fact that her meeting with president bill clinton on the tarmac was sort of his final -- was sort of the event that made him decide to make his announcement in

july? ms. pelosi: well, i respectfully say that's how he saw the situation. i don't know -- bill clinton was paying a courtesy visit. when you are in the same place you say hello. it was misinterpreted for what it was. matter, investigation, i don't know if that's such a big eal. i do say about director comey that he came through i think with great authenticity and sincerity. he's not a political person. i think that was quite evident and that's a good thing for the director of the f.b.i. that the president would even ask him for his loyalty is something so far beyond the pale. he's not the president's appointee. let's get back to what i said efore. charm, come to dinner, come to whatever that is, trump tower, do you like your job, can you be loyal to me, i hope you will do this. if you went to the white house

and you were invited to the oval office with the president of the united states, the leader of the free world and he told you what he would hope you would do, anyone who doesn't think that that is an abuse of power maybe has never been in the oval with the president of the united states. especially when he cleared the oom. he knew what he was doing was incriminated and he didn't want any witness. reporter: do you think he obstructed justice? ms. pelosi: well, i think he abused power. i think there's no question he abused power. whether he obstructed justice is for the facts to come forward. that's what we want are facts. i hope our republican colleagues won't stand in the way of our getting the facts. also, we'd like to see his tax returns because that will again connect -- help connect the dots here. and, again, maybe the exculpatory. -- it will be exculpatory. let's find out that.

right now we have to rev re-move all doubt about the integrity of our government. reporter: madam leader, some of us in the media have to take our lumps for saying the president was under investigation for russia when comey said yesterday he wasn't. do you have any readout on how we've done and how we can fix things moving forward? ms. pelosi: well, again, it's about words. it's all about words. and the president has to understand this. words spoken by the president of the united states weigh a ton. it's not like any word that any of the rest of us would say. you have the power of words. that's what you do. you know the power of words, but spoken by the president of the united states, they weigh a ton. so when they say, am i under investigation? no, you're not. that doesn't necessarily mean your campaign isn't under investigation. again, i don't know what the subtleties were in terms of -- i had the different impression. reporter: he was under investigation and now it's time for us to say, well, we got it wrong.

from your perspective, how do we fix that? ms. pelosi: we have an outside commission, an independent, outside commission that looks into it. and we make sure that public opinion is aware of the fact that this is important because in their lives right now and always what's important is their financial stability. why are we not creating jobs? how dare the republicans and the president to say this investigation into the integrity of our elections and our government is an impediment to our getting our agenda through? what agenda? show us the jobs. show us the agenda. where are the bills? they did a bill yesterday that was robbed, robbed the middle class seniors, even our veterans of financial stability by being, again, the handmaiden of wall street. again, i don't paint everybody

on wall street with the same brush, but i do say this, they are the high priests of the special interests and they sacrificed everything on the alter of trickle down economics. tax cuts for the rich. special interest tax provisions in our code at the expense of working families in our country. so when we talk about increasing wages and all the rest of that, everything that they do is counter to that. whether they deal with osha and nlrb and collective bargaining and minimum wage, all of those things, they are all in the negative column for them. but what's in the plus column is what works for wall street works for them at the expense of main street. i said on the floor yesterday, millions of people lost their jobs, their homes, their financial security, their pensions, the savings for their children's education because what was happening on wall street and the very bill to

correct that, dodd-frank, they overturned yesterday. and just for good measure, they overturned the fiduciary rule which only says financial advisors should take into consideration the well-being of the investor that they are advising, so just give all the leverage to the other side. t's appalling. but it's an opinion, and we have to make that debate in the public mind. i'm confident -- president lincoln said public sentiment is everything. you see public sentiment weighing in on their dastardly health care bill. not many people have seen the personal impact of this overturning of dodd-frank, but if it ever became law they would and hopefully it won't become law. but on the health care bill they

would. tip o'neill said all politics is local. i go one step further. when it comes to health care, all politics is personal. everyone is an expert on what they need in terms of public policy and personal health and economic security. so we're pleased so far that we've been able to stop them in throwing 23 million people -- somebody said oh, it's not that many, it's 20-plus. 23 million fewer people -- fewer people will have access to health care under their bill than have health care before we assed. -- before we passed the affordable care act. they are not only taking us back but back, back. it's just a stunning thing. and why? all of this to give a tax cut to the high end. transfer of wealth. robin hood in reverse. $800 billion from working families in our country going to the highest income and corporate interests in our country at the

expense of working families. and just for good measure in their budget, they take another $600 billion out of medicaid so they can afford their tax cuts and the rest. so it is -- it is a stunning thing. it's an interesting opportunity. i, too, wish we could spend more attention on the economic stability of america's families, on job creation, on increasing wages and working conditions, etc. and, of course, to save the health and security of the american people instead of them having america sick again and attack the financial stability of america's working families. go, warriors. i'll see you tonight. reporter: all sports are local. for the warriors, that's personal, right? ms. pelosi: i got the giants right here. we have the giants right here. reporter: winning percentage is about -- ms. pelosi: they're not good. you know what, we've been proud of them historically. they will be there again. i was at the game last monday, memorial day. reporter: you were there for the

fight? ms. pelosi: i had them on my phone. i have it on my phone, yeah. reporter: who was on the right? ms. pelosi: that's a level of politics i don't want to get into. thank you. pride week. we're walking posters. we wear red for the little girls in nigeria. we wear green for health care and earth day. we wear -- we have a lot going. it's all in the colors. follow the colors. thank you, all. you know what i'm doing? i'm doing two exciting things when i leave here. i am going to speak at the reception for doctor -- i guess it's the best title -- bresinsky. his service is today. how much i respect him. he came and spoke to us about the war in iraq. i was opposed to it, he was too early on. and we had the benefit of his

wisdom and his gracious, respectful demeanor when he came to congress to speak. then after that, i'm going to galveston, texas, for the commissioning of the gabby giffords ship. not many women have a ship named for them. war that washington, that was a long time ago. and this is only a few. maybe two -- maybe three living women. one is a question mark for when it became a ship. so martha washington, gabby giffords, two living women who had a ship named for them. maybe a dozen or more for women who are no long -- who were no with us when their names were commissioned. gabby giffords, one of the most courageous, strong people in our country, supporter of our men and women in uniform in her life and as a member of the armed services committee. i appointed her to be on the board of visitors at west point. then she married a navy erson.

so she -- being from maryland and naval academy, i was glad to see -- although i have four brothers who were in the army that she chose navy for her husband and so the navy will come together tomorrow in galveston to name a ship for her, gabby giffords, someone we all take great pride in serving with but also hold up as a model to young girls in our country. a great person. thank you, all. i hope you have a good weekend, too. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] where >> next we go live to the white house rose garden to hear from president trump, he's been meeting with the romanian president and they're holding a

news conference. the director of the n.s.a. is there, should get under way momentarily, we'll stay here ive on c-span.

>> we're live here on c-span, waiting in the