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  Speaker Pelosi Holds a Briefing  CSPAN  September 10, 2020 4:17pm-5:00pm EDT

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that is only part of the solution. that cameis this idea up earlier in the pandemic which was not the way to manage it but in the long term, it is very important and that is what's called herd immunity. the more people who build up immunity to the virus, that will then reduce the possibility of there being these pandemic outbreaks. that's not going to happen this year or next year or the year after. it will take several years for that to take place. we have to be in this for the long haul. >> that's sunday at 8 p.m. eastern. nancy pelosi met with reporters earlier today. she talked about the wildfires in her home state of california, coronavirus relief funding, as well as the president's remarks during an interview with bob
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woodward on the early stages of the pandemic. >> good morning, everyone. came from the beautiful service we had never forget. tomorrow as you know is 9/11. can you believe it's 19 years since that terrible tragedy befell our country? morning, we had a remembrance for those who died inthe plane crash pennsylvania. but so manytomorrow
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people want to be on site on the us at so we had a few of the invitation of the flight attendants where they read the list of people who had died. on all of the flights. airlinesamerican flight 11. first was the north tower second the south tower. 9:37, the pentagon. american airlines flight 77 entered the pentagon. 10:03 united airlines crashes into a field in shanksville, pennsylvania. that crash is memorialized off
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the rotunda of the capital with the testimonial that the courage of those people was so remarkable and that most likely the destination of that flight was the u.s. capitol. we will have a moment in the next few days, the flowers and attributes are out there. tomorrow morning we will be on the steps of the capitol at 8:46. never forget. never forget the tragedy it was to the nation and what it meant to each and every family to lose a loved one, they are in our prayers forever and in our hearts as well. again, tomorrow we will be on the steps of the capital. at the same time, it's a terrible moment for us in california.
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over 2 million acres are burning, possibly 3 million homes are evacuated. thousands of homes destroyed and millions more in the path of the blaze. wildfire ash is blanketing all the areas beyond where the fire is in the bay area turning the skies orange. i think -- i have been fielding calls from my family and constituents saying it is dark. in the morning they are waiting for the sun to come up and it's dark all day. they need to drive with their headlights on during the day. our thoughts and prayers are with our firefighters who are so courageous.
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we have already lost one in this fight and we also lost a one-year-old boy among the 15 dead in these fires. at the same time that we are having these horrible fires in california, when i left over the weekend to come back here, the conditions were unhealthy, smoky and unhealthy. now it is even worse than that. i salute our mayor and our governor, governor gavin newsom, as they fight the covid virus and fight these forest fires and all that goes with that. very sad time. our heroes, honoring our heroes of 9/11, honoring our heroes in the firefighters fighting these fights, it's humbling. at the same time i had a really sad conversation with the governor of louisiana last week. he was talking about the hurricanes that hit their.
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-- hit there. the strongest hurricane in the history of louisiana. the fit strongest to ever hit the united states in any location. i mentioned these in the same context because climate change is directly related to both of them. this weekend i have the honor of hosting the g7. as you probably know, every year the g7 heads of state meet. about a month or two after that the heads of parliament meet. this year, the actual events have been prevented from happening. i don't know when president trump is going to resume plans
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for a g7 meeting, but we have our g7 heads of parliament this weekend. i am proud of the participation and all of the speakers -- parliaments of g7 nations as well as the president of the european union will all be together virtually. our heroes committed to protecting the environment and our planet will be participating and be welcomed by his holiness the dalai lama opening one of our sessions, bono in another. one of my personal heroes, jane goodall old will be participating and the person who is called the father of environmental justice after a member of southern texas university -- you should have our pressure release on that, two secretaries of state, secretary albright, the secretary of energy, a brilliant list that goes on and on to discuss with the speakers
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what our theme is. when we transferred from france, the last meeting -- most recent meeting was in france one years ago and then it was passed on to me to be the host for this year. we announced last year that our theme would be addressing the climate crisis for economic and environmental justice. that is what our theme will be. justice is also involved in how the covid virus is spreading. we will focus on the climate crisis and the covid crisis and the economic and environmental justice involved in both. i am proud of that. it will be streamed. you have the information on how to participate. speaking of covid, i want to share some numbers with you.
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eight senior fda career executives declared to usa today, this is the heads of their centers, we are following the science to protect public health and the pandemic. look to usa today to see their full statement. very important statement. these are serious scientists and as we have all said we want the science to dominate the timing of the vaccine, we don't want it one day later than is ready or sooner. we have to depend on the science and not the politics of the timing. a couple days ago nine pharmaceutical company heads released an extraordinary joint statement that they would not put forward a vaccine until it has been thoroughly vetted for
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safety and efficacy. that means going through the fda process of approval. these are the companies that are doing research on the vaccine. we hope and pray for a vaccine but as soon as it is ready, safe, and efficacious. this week, we had eight senior fda saying they are following the science, nine pharmaceutical company saying they are not going forward unless it is scientifically approved. 11 directories of institutes at the national institutes of health stated that testing as many people as possible is the key to slowing down the spread of the virus. testing, testing, testing. we have been thinking about song for a long time and we do have it in the heroes act in a very robust way. i am very proud of our strategic
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plan that the energy and commerce committee under the leadership of the chairman put forth. based on science. $75 billion for testing, tracing, treating, sanitation, mask wearing, to crush the virus. instead, the administration has chosen to crush the affordable care act. pre-existing conditions benefit -- we have a very strong strategic plan that has been there in the works since may 15. even before that our very first bill on march 4 was testing, testing, testing. scientists tell us we need to test up to 3 million people a day in order to stop the spread of the vaccine. test, treat, trace.
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we are well behind on all of that. in the negotiations and in the mcconnell bill they have said, you want $75 billion and we want $15 billion, we will compromise at $16 billion. oh really? let's not have tokenism when we have a major disaster. let's not have a skinny bill when we have a massive problem. i asked the chairman, mr. chairman, how much flexibility do we have? i ask this on a regular basis. we need every penny to stop this. that's the way we will open up our economy. that's the way we will open up our schools safely, by crushing the virus. i don't want to go into what happened yesterday, the president knew and had been
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saying for a long time the whole thing was a hoax. his delay, denial, and distortion of what happened caused many deaths. even since july 15 when we passed our bill and mitch mcconnell push the pause button, 5 million more people have become infected and over 100,000 people have died. a university put out statistics about how many people would still be alive if the science was followed. if the science had been followed. this is a tragedy beyond words. what the president showed in those comments is he showed his contempt for the american people and their health, content for science. contempt for any real effort to crush the virus. contempt for his supporters.
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their children and their parents. he refused to take the threat seriously, leading the entire country exposed and unprepared. he didn't want to cause a panic because of the stock market. nobody wants to cause a panic, they want to show leadership through a specific plan following the science, allocating resources to get the job done. even now he refuses to listen to science. the republican, mcconnell bill is pathetically -- it's not even a skinny bill, it's a maze seated. it does not help state or local workers at all. our heroes act helps health-care
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workers, police, first responders, sanitation, transportation, teachers, food workers who meet the needs of people risk their lives to save lives and now they may lose their jobs. they are going on unemployment insurance. they are harming their lives to meet the needs of people. millions, maybe 14 million children are food insecure in our country. our legislation may make some -- makes a major commitment to feeding the american people. rent's, protection from being evicted and made homeless. a plan that sprang from what happened when we had the great recession in 2008 and 2009. we had emergency assistance for
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renters and we need to have it now. if they have a moratorium, maybe so, or maybe not, but a moratorium without money is just keeping debt for people who may evade the eviction for the moment but are not able to pay the rent. that causes a problem for the landlords as well. they don't want enough money for us -- for people to cast their ballots safely, we know that. again, coming right back to the point, crush the virus. have the resources in order to do it. open your mind to what science is proposing. in any event, we are very pleased to the fda career executives have come forward about trusting the science as we develop a vaccine and a pharmaceutical company saying they are not moving forward unless it eats the standards and in my view that was an important message because of the politicalization of the process by the oval office and the
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directors at the national institute -- testing, testing, testing. why would they not do that? there are so many other issues about us going back to school. i am very proud of my members who participated in our day of action going back to school a week or so before that. they did the day of action to protect the postal service. members and their constituents instead of virtual -- are very engaged in matters that affect practically every
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household in our country. and then the education of america's children. any questions? >> leader pelosi? i wanted to go back to the california wildfires and the wildfires in the west. joe biden and the democrats take control of the government in november as you predicted, do you think that major climate change legislation will be one of the first pieces of legislation for democrats in the new congress? rep. pelosi: we will -- hopefully the covid pandemic will have subsided if there is any thought that the republicans in congress pay attention to science. right now they are in a place where they don't believe in science and they don't like governance, so they don't want any reason to have to govern or call for standards to defeat the virus. the virus has to go away to open up our schools and our economy, it has to be first and foremost. it will be an early part of the
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agenda. as you probably know, when i was first speaker a number of years ago the climate crisis was my flagship issue. president bush was president and together we passed the most significant energy bill in the history of our country, the equivalent of taking millions of cars off the road by raising the emissions standards and other positions there we came together. he wanted nuclear and i wanted renewables. we had a select committee on the climate crisis. this time i do it again under the leadership where they have put forward a report that has received so many accolades from a scientific judge of such a report that it is objective, strong, and the formula that we need to go forward. some of this is already in our
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moving forward legislation that we passed in the end of june and beginning of july a number of weeks ago. the end of june. i wish that the president -- the president says he is for infrastructure, but we could not pass a bill having some of those -- we call it resilient because green is a word that is scary to some people around here. when joe biden says build back better, that better includes building back in the way that is resilient, green, that protects the planet. i don't know if it's one bill or it permeates a number of bills, but it is absolutely a priority. our priorities -- our climate action now
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legislation that we passed is going to be early legislation for us to have to return to the paris accords and do better, do better than that. this is a priority, this is a challenge. a pandemic descends upon you and eclipses everything. preserving the planet for future generations is the challenge of this generation. we are late. america is not a leader for this. under a republican president. president obama did a great job in paris with the paris accords. president trump defined science, contempt for science and walked away for that. this is a very big issue. it's a health issue. clean air and clean water. it's a jobs issue. we are using technologies to
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keep america preeminent and make america even more preeminent in the world and promote green technologies. it's a national security issue. national security experts in the military, diplomatic corps or scientific core have said this is a security issue. rising sea levels, encroachment of deserts, drying up of great rivers in asia, so many of the consequences of the climate crisis, the melting of the polar caps, so many of the aspects of the climate crisis eat away at habitats and resources and can cause conflict. even in terms of migration issues, i was in central america on the immigration issue within the last year, and we were
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trying to say, what can we do to keep people at home? what about the economy? one thing that was so evident in central america was the drought that prevented farmers from farming. and seeking other opportunities. it has an impact on migration, security, health, jobs. it is also a moral issue. if you believe that this planet is god's and we have a moral obligation to be good stewards of it, then it is a moral obligation. if you don't share that religious theme but you understand that we have an obligation in handing the planet over to our children and grandchildren in a responsible way, then we can all agree on that. that is why i am so excited about what we are doing this weekend with the g7. focusing on addressing the climate crisis.
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addressing economic and environmental justice as we do so. >> what is your outlook for getting a stimulus deal. yesterday mr. schumer said secretary mnuchin might move off the $1 trillion line. in the short-term are you pushing for scr next year -- >> i have said public the that i am for a clean cr. we are now looking at anomalies and we will figure out the timing when we do. that the needc for state and local governments to be met, the needs must be met insist that the number be bigger than what the republicans are talking about.
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fiscal stability of state and local government is very important to the fiscal stability of our country. the economic security of our country. and golet them get fired mean theoyment and needs of people and raising taxes, i don't think that sounds or effectiveopular approach to it. hope the most important element of all of it is to stop the virus. maybe this expose or whatever you want to call it, who didn't know what the president's attitude was. reinforcementthis will insist. i want to tell you something about this. , when i talk about
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our weekend, economic environmental objectives. when we talk about covid, there is covid injustice. people ofity among color is shameful. that we have not done the outreach, we have not done the testing, tracing, treatment in a way that would have stopped the spread and saved the lives. wondering can we get your view on the developments this week in london? the british government has introduced legislation that appears to be overriding some of the commitment to the e.u. can i get your views on that? rep. pelosi: thank you for that question. over one year ago, the 21st anniversary of the good friday accords, i took a delegation, we visited our troops -- it is
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always about security and economy. and then we went to the u.k., where i met with all elements, whether it was government or the member of the government's party who were opposed to the government's position of leaving the e.u. i met with the labour party and those opposed to the labour party's position on a number of things. there were -- to make sure they all understood in the u.k., don't mess with the good friday accord. this is something as americans, we are very proud of our participation in, recognition of nobel status to what happened there, president clinton being a part of it, george mitchell and
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others, on both sides of the atlantic and within the movement in northern and ireland. we then went to dublin and i spoke to the parliament of ireland. i had a beautiful invitation to speak to their parliament. and i said to them, that the good friday accords were very high priority to us, democrats and republicans, house and senate. if the u.k. did anything to undermine the good friday accords, they should not, as i told them in the u.k., four different elements of participation there, they should not even think about having a u.s.-u.k. bilateral trade agreement. the british and irish work together, they came to terms, it
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was part of the international treaty going forward with the departure of the brits from the e.u., and then this news come to us practically overnight, the weekend, monday, later in the day there, early in the morning here, that the u.k. had decided to undermine the good friday accords. what were they thinking? whatever it is, i hope they are not thinking of a u.k.-u.s. bilateral trade agreement to make up for what they might lose. it is up to the people of the u.k., for them to decide if they want to belong to the e.u., that is their judgment, their decision, that is to be respected. do not think you will get a reward if you undermine. i have been to ireland many times, i have a son-in-law whose family lives there, we have
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funerals, baptisms, a lot going on in ireland. on one of those occasions, i took the train from dublin to belfast to meet up and at that time, tanks and guns and soldiers at the border -- it was frightening. frightening. when we went for the 21st anniversary, the only way you could tell you were in ireland or northern ireland was the stripe on the ground. the free flow of goods, people, commerce, the rest of it.
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the speaker in belfast hosted us with a big reception, it was more like a rally, of children, and two of them spoke -- a protestant and a catholic, seniors in high school, sing to have lived their whole lives in peace and they weren't going back. these good friday accords were just so beautiful and we are not going to have them tampered with, or reward any messing with them with a bilateral u.k.-u.s. trade agreement. >> have you spoken to the prime minister? rep. pelosi: not since the other day. i will be speaking to the foreign minister that is coming in a few days. understand this -- i am speaking for our chair in a bipartisan way, we have always gone there in a bipartisan way. the cochair of ireland, he is also the chair of the ways and means committee, a committee of jurisdiction of trade agreements
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he has been speaking, you have probably heard his statements. my phone was ringing off the hook -- it has been ringing off the hook because of what is happening in california, and all the sudden it was the u.k. is abandoning what it said it would do on the good friday accords. thank you. >> what is your message to london to make clear the johnson government cannot jeopardize ireland? rep. pelosi: our message is very clear -- self-determination is what the people of the u.k. have determined the course of action. that is up to them. it is not up to them to think they will be rewarded if they mess with the good friday
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accords and think they will be rewarded. it is really sad, actually, because when they had the agreement with the previous prime minister -- it was really good news. they trusted, it was really good news, and that very same night, the irish from all over were honoring richie neil. we had a double celebration. this is going to be ok. it is a very simple message -- they know it, they have heard it, i have said it, this is not anything we have hidden under a bush. there will be no bilateral u.s.-u.k. agreement if the good friday accords in regard to the border are changed. actually, how can they walk away from an international agreement?
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how do you trust that? we made an international agreement, this is how we will go forward, never mind. oh, never mind. again, there self-determination is up to them. our trade relations are up to us. all of the sudden you are sitting in the back of the room? >> i prefer to. rep. pelosi: you put your hand up. but ok. >> can you give us some clarity from your perspective to what a cr is? that can be in the eye of the beholder. also, if they said, there is a little bit of coronavirus relief.
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that is out of the question? rep. pelosi: continual resolutions, 101. a resolution that continues the appropriations process in the same way as the previous year. we did very well last year in the negotiations. to be able to continue to that rate of pay, so we should say, ok. there are some, what we call, anomalies. some things that expire, this or that, that may or may not be continued, but are still technically within the definition of clean heard clean meaning no additional -- covid would not meet that definition. those negotiations are separate this.
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>> we will have something in the senate that will probably not get anywhere. that will probably put an end to doing anything with coronavirus until after the election? rep. pelosi: no. i think that mcconnell is being his cynical self by saying i will put something on their and it will look like we are trying to do something while we ignore the needs of the american people, where we shy away from crushing the virus, where we say to people at their kitchen tables, we don't care if you have food or you're out on the street for another month. just to say i put something there, i checked the box, pushed the button, pause, forgot to tell the virus to pause.
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5 million more people since he pushed the pause button. 100,000 or more dead since he pushed the pause button. as the office said this morning, trump lied, people died. we are in a very sad situation and this is a big fight because it is about the role of government to protect the american people. that protection includes respect for science, science to stop the spread, science and not politics to determine how a vaccine will be developed, and how ethically it will be distributed to people in our country. we pray for a vaccine, we hope it will be soon, not one day sooner than it is safe and efficacious -- safety and
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efficacy are the standards. approved by the scientists at the fda, approved by an independent advisory group, objectively measuring whether it should go forward and with an ethical plan to distribute it within our country so everyone has access to it. it is a big challenge and you should really start by respecting science. thank you all very much. thank you. tomorrow, perhaps we will see you on the steps of the capitol. >> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]
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president trump is traveling to michigan this afternoon. if you can't watch him tonight, c-span.orgonline on or listen on the free c-span radio app. record is a's shameful roll call of the most catastrophic but betrayals and wonders in our lifetime. he has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history. >> our current president has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. he is filled protect us. he is filled protect america. my fellow americans, that is unforgivable. >> the first presidential debate between donald trump and joe
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biden is tuesday, september 29 at 9:00 p.m. eastern. watch live coverage on c-span. watch live streaming and on-demand on c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> friday is the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks beginning at 8:30 a.m. eastern on c-span two from the memorial plaza in new york city than on c-span3, the observant ceremony from the pentagon. eastern, the national memorial in pennsylvania. on c-span,ge c-span2, and c-span3. c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. this week on q&a, richard
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horton, editor-in-chief of the lancet discusses his book the covid-19 catastrophe. >> we are going to have to figure out a way to get past this cute phase. we will. it is going to take some years. there are two ways to help reduce the risk. one is a vaccine. the other is this idea that came up early on in the pandemic which is absolutely not the way to manage it. in the long term it's very important and that's called herd immunity. the more people who build up immunity to the virus, that will then reduce the possibility of there being these pandemic outbreaks. that is not going to happen this year or next year or the year after. it's going to take several years
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for that to take place. were going to be in this for the long haul. eastern ont 8 p.m. q&a. where the white house president trump held a news conference before departing for the event this evening in michigan.