Transcript of U.S. Congressional Delegation Press Conference at the Munich Security Conference

Munich – Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference with Chairman Adam Schiff, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Congresswoman Betty McCollum as part of the U.S. Congressional delegation to the Munich Security Conference. Below is the full transcript:

Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm honored to be here with three of my colleagues, which are part of our delegation to the Munich Security Conference. There are about 40 Members of Congress – House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans – here to show our support for the Atlantic – transatlantic relationship, our commitment to NATO, our support for the European Union as well as our strong, strong commitment to the people of Ukraine.

I'm honored to be here with my colleagues from the House of Representatives – leadership of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff – Adam Schiff. From the Appropriations Committee – very important in the subjects that we're dealing with here – Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Chairman of the Committee that does our global cooperation, foreign operations and the Chair of the Defense Subcommittee of Appropriations, Betty McCollum – Barbara Lee of California, Betty McCollum of Minnesota – Minnesota, and Adam Schiff of California.

It has been a really important meeting coming at a crucial time in terms of security, as we all know. If the Ukraine situation had not occurred, we would still be here as we have been in the past to reaffirm our commitment. What is interesting about Ukraine – I think it has made NATO stronger and more united, more committed to meet the needs of peace and democracy. Putting diplomacy first. We're very proud of our Vice President and the determination and commitment that she demonstrated in her presentation today, following up on President Biden's leadership on the ongoing – and his recent public comments yesterday.

We want to remove all doubt in anyone's mind, including the President of Russia, that the U.S. is here, fully committed in a unified way, to work with our European allies in the interest of diplomacy. Diplomacy deterrence has been our approach, and we're very proud of the work that Secretary Blinken – all along and his presentation yesterday. We met with him yesterday, be even further up to date last evening.

Since then, we have met with the Mayor of Kyiv, we've met with the head of the World Health Organization, we've met with the Chancellor of Germany – and how honored we were to be in this country at this time and have a long session with the Chancellor. We could extend our gratitude to him and to Germany for the important role that Germany is playing and of course for their hospitality. We met with the Secretary General of the – of NATO, the President of the European Commission, the list goes on and on of the bilaterals in addition to the very significant presentations that we saw.

What I heard – my takeaway from all of this is that – in the interest of peace, and putting diplomacy first, second and third that there's an interest in thinking entrepreneurially with innovation. Innovation about how we engage, innovation in how we mobilize our defense resources, innovation on how we review our security relationships. Technology makes a very big difference in all of the above, and I see an openness and willingness here to, again, take inventory, take stock and take action as we go forward.

With that, I'm pleased to yield to the distinguished Chair of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff of California. He has been involved in so many of these issues for such a long time and no stranger to the Munich Security Conference.

Chairman Schiff. Thank you, Madam Speaker, for your leadership, our Congress and your leadership here at the Conference. As we speak, there are around 150,000 Russian troops poised to invade Ukraine. They pose a threat to the territorial integrity of Europe and to peace everywhere. In the face of that threat, NATO is more united than ever, ready to impose the most severe sanctions ever. We hope and pray that this will not be necessary. The door to diplomacy remains open and will be open until and unless Putin slams it shut.

If Putin invades, the casualties could be enormous, in Ukrainian lives and Russian lives, and that loss of life will be entirely Putin's responsibility. Putin will be to blame. Ukraine poses no military threat to Russia. None. Putin understands this. It is the success of Ukrainian democracy that unnerves the Kremlin, and it is the success of democracy everywhere that is also at risk. In that sense, Ukraine's struggle is all of our struggle, and we stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine.

Congresswoman Lee. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. First, thank you, Madam Speaker for your tremendous leadership and for bringing this Congressional delegation together to advance our commitment to global peace and security. I'm very proud to be standing with many of my colleagues on these efforts. Our Congressional delegation, as you've heard from our Speaker and – excuse me, Mr. Smith – excuse me, Adam, excuse me.

We're here to make it clear that, of course, Congress remains fully committed to NATO and our transatlantic partnership. We remain committed to our NATO allies and to the people of Ukraine. We're here also to remain and say, once again, we are here to protect our own country's national security interests. Also, I want to re-emphasize the fact that we all know and are here to talk about democracy.

Democracy remains the most essential defense against the accelerating forces of autocracy and illiberalism around the world, and no democracy is exempt from this. That's why defending democracy, both at home and abroad, must be an urgent national security priority. In the Congress, under Speaker Pelosi's leadership, we continue to address domestic threats to our democracy, such as but not limited to campaigns of surging mis- and disinformation. Our Appropriations Committee, our State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, which I have the privilege to chair, has really played a crucial role in putting forth our values on the world stage. From pandemic relief to economic assistance to humanitarian aid and, of course, to advancing diplomacy, which is the priority pathway to peace.

And so I'm hopeful for the future – that because of working with our allies, through diplomacy, we can find pleat peace through dialogue. Thank you again, Speaker Pelosi.

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you Congresswoman Lee. Congresswoman McCollum – Madam Chair McCollum.

Congresswoman McCollum. Thank you. As a daughter of a veteran and in my role in funding our Armed Services in the United States, no soldier wants to go to war. Diplomacy is on the table. And it needs to remain on the table with vibrancy. And I heard that loud and clear from all the member nations today from EU and NATO. They want to resolve the Russian aggression peacefully on the border of Ukraine.

It is up to Russia to end this crisis. What I have witnessed here just invigorated me even more. The work of NATO working together, the work of the EU working together with its partner nations, make a strong commitment that, should Russia cause this crisis to go into conflict with the loss of civilian lives in Ukraine, we will respond swiftly and quickly with sanctions – sanctions that will bring great harm to the economy in Russia. And we're prepared to work together as democracies to say ‘we will not tolerate this rogue behavior from Russia any longer.'

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, Madam Chair, Mr. Chairman, all of you. Diplomacy is still alive in all of this to the last second of it. And I do believe that diplomacy must continue even after, but let's hope that it will prevent the initiation of hostilities into Ukraine. It's almost unthinkable. It's really sad for the Russian people, because the sanctions could hurt them. People could die. Russian soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers, civilians, all because of Putin. Any questions? I want to hear from Michael Fischer first of DPA. Michael.

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Q. Thank you, Madam Speaker. There has been a lot of criticism on the German role in the Ukraine crisis recently also in the U.S. Do you think Germany should be tough on Russia? Do you think Germany should send weapons to Ukraine, and do you think Germany should stop Nord Stream 2 right away?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, let me just say that I commend the German government and the German people for their willingness to engage in the sanctions in such a strong way. We know in the United States that sanctions have a collateral damage for other places. You feel the effects of them. They are felt more strongly in Russia but they had their impacts elsewhere. I have no complaints about the German participation. In fact, the diplomats that I speak to – the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, the U.S. Ambassador to the EU, all of our diplomats, including our Secretary of State – have been very positive about that.

Now that the EU is a NATO – there's diversity, and you have diversity of opinion and you have diversity of timing and the rest. So no, I have no – no complaint about that. I think we're – it's clear that we are unified at this time. And that unity takes some negotiation, in terms of the tactics to use. I do want to say, though, that I think it's important that Putin know that the time it took – and any complaint that somebody might say ‘they didn't go as fast or do what I wanted' – should give him pause, because that means that the conclusions that have been reached are going to be fierce, and they're going to be swift, and they're going to be painful.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Q. Madam Speaker. You talked about –

Speaker Pelosi. Excuse me, any of my colleagues want to weigh in on that?

Congresswoman McCollum. You did a good job.

Q. Madam Speaker, you talked about sanctions. When it comes down to real attacks, could you explain to us, are sanctions enough? There have been sanctions for years now. Do you think this would be enough?

Speaker Pelosi. I do, because I think that we've not seen any sanctions, as we're going to see now. This has been ratcheted up, because the stakes are so high and the lives that will be lost – there's so many. So this isn't about sanctions on trade violations or sanctions on one thing or another. This is sanctions in response to hostilities that are deadly and unnecessary. If – any comments on sanctions that you'd like to make?

Q. How will you react on cyber attacks, for example? Will the U.S. react in a proper way?

Speaker Pelosi. You mean our initiating cyber –

Q. No, Russia's cyber attacks.

Speaker Pelosi. That's what I was thinking of, as a matter of fact. I think they'll see sanctions that they've never seen before. And we feel pretty – as I said, well, I didn't – maybe I didn't say it here. But what I did see – I touched on this earlier saying I see an interest in being innovative and how we go forward with our military, our – our negotiations, our structure and all the rest.

But innovation is also involved in our sanctions. And I think that they will be brutal. It's so sad because here we are. Maybe this is what motivates Putin, who knows. But it's the 100th anniversary since the Russian Revolution, as the Soviet Union came to be, and maybe he's thinking, ‘I got to do something for the anniversary.' Well, maybe what he could do is something good for the Russian people for a change. And that would be to have them have more self-expression and not be afraid of a democracy abutting his nation in Ukraine.

I think that part of his fear and Putin's insecurity is that the people of Ukraine have embraced democracy, free market system and the rest, and they like it – and they will not choose the Russian system over theirs. So yeah, we'll – we'll be ready for cyber, either to initiate or to respond to–

One more. Yeah, please.

Q. On the issue of cyber – and frankly, even beyond cyber, we have enormous intelligence cooperation with our NATO allies, with Ukraine.

Chairman Schiff. We have gotten very good at attribution. And – and so in the event of cyber actions, some we have seen already, and others we anticipate. We will be working to try to mitigate and negate those Russian efforts and be sharing timely information with our – with our allies.

I would also say that, I think that the United States and our partners have very skillfully declassified and shared intelligence about Russian efforts to create the false flag operation and pretexts, and I think it's been very instrumental in demonstrating the bad faith of the Kremlin – that they are concocting these different scenarios as a pretext for war. And we – I expect we'll continue to do that and share intelligence, both privately and, when appropriate, publicly, so that the world is informed of who is initiating the hostility here. And that – that is Vladimir Putin.

Q. Madam Speaker, we just had a very positive speech. And he basically asked for a timeline for security guarantees to NATO membership. Would you be willing to give him such guarantees at this point, or how do you react to that? And Congressman Schiff, you – when you said that Ukraine struggle is your struggle? But Mr. Zelensky said, there is in the 21st century, there is no more not my war. So Ukraine also be your war?

Speaker Pelosi. Let me just say that we represent a small fraction of our dele – Congressional delegation, because they told us only four people could fit in the room. But we've had leaders from the Armed Services Committee, from the Foreign — Armed Services Committee – self-described – and the Foreign Affairs Committee – which has jurisdiction over sanctions – the Intelligence Committee, other committees that have some play in all of this. And so, we listened with great interest to Presidents Zelensky's speech and presentation – really, proclamation – and it was very courageous, and it was clear to understand when people said, ‘why did – why would he come here at a time of threat to his country?' Well, he had a mission and he accomplished it.

But it isn't for any one nation to be saying that another nation should be part of – of – of NATO. We just met with this Secretary General of NATO – with – for whom we have great respect. And again, it's self-determined by a country that they might want to make the appeal. It's up to all of NATO to decide the timing and the geography of NATO.

We have a great deal of respect for the Secretary General. On the 70th anniversary of NATO, which is three years ago, about. I invited him to make – to address – Secretary General Stoltenberg – to address a joint session of Congress, which is a high privilege and a rare but rare honor. He honored us with his presentation about NATO. And, again – it's not for us to say here and now about the expansion of NATO. I was present at the expansion NATO in 1970 – 1997 with President Clinton and Senator Biden at the time. And the enthusiasm to expanding it then was great, and the Partnership for Peace that existed at the NATO has to go through that cumulatively, that's the kind of ideas.

But should we – look, the assault – Putin's assault on NAT – on – sorry again – Putin's assault on the Ukraine is an assault on democracy. We all have to know that and respond in ways that are effective, appropriate and – in some cases, not speaking human-wise, but technology-wise – deadly.

Yes sir? Did you have a follow up – sorry – for Mr. –

Q.My question – because you said that Ukraine's struggle is your struggle, President Zelensky said there is no more ‘not your war' in the 21st century. So is Ukraine's war also your war?

Chairman Schiff. Well, I think, to the extent that Putin's motivation is to put down a budding democracy on his doorstep. The fact that Putin was, I think, terrified by the success of color revolutions around the world, and the example that it poses for the Russian people. Why should the Russian people be forced to live under dictatorship if Ukraine can be a successful democracy? Why can't they be as well? And in that sense, yes, I think an attack on Ukraine to try to put down that democracy is an attack on democracy generally. And I do agree with President Zelensky that the rest of the world is watching us. And, and if we don't act in unison, to bring about the toughest sanctions that have ever been deployed, and other nations will feel free to subjugate their democratic neighbors.

And I think what gives me heart is to see the remarkable solidarity of NATO. I think something that must have come as a rude shock to Vladimir Putin – just how strong and quickly we came together and the power of the punishing sanctions. And – and so I think we will demonstrate, if necessary – and again, we hope that it won't be necessary – but we will demonstrate that this is all of our fight by the strength of the cost we impose on Russia if they invade.

Speaker Pelosi. If I just may say on that question, we're not for any war. And the diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy. And that's why we're talking about sanctions in the event of an invasion. And these are sanctions as if you've never seen before, in terms of the intensity and the timing. NATO is ready. The U.S. and NATO are ready.

So this is not going to be something that takes a long time. They'll be strong and they will be swift, and it might even include SWIFT. We don't know that's still a matter of negotiation, but it is in terms of that banking system. Not that that adjective – not that timetable. The – why – Putin thinks that there's an appetite for – I don't even think the Russian mothers want to see their sons or daughters come home in body bags.

For what reason? To kill Slavs? To kill Ukrainians? Ethnically similar – and the rest? Neighbors?

So it is – there is a price to pay in terms of personal cost in terms of what happens in Russia – if they even report it in Russia. And again, in terms of the – in terms of that.

But it's another question of saying ‘whose war is what war.' With all due respect to the President, I thought his presentation was a tour de force. He had a mission, he came, he accomplished it. He challenged what is the effectiveness of these institutions that had been – whether it's the UN, the EU, the NATO and the rest. If – if I have – if our people have to – have to die – it's a legitimate question. We don't think war is the answer. You have one more question? I was gonna close.

Q. If there is an invasion in the next couple of days, will Congress come back early? What will Congress do in – in response? If I may also –for Chairman Schiff, a question – if you could talk about the latest intelligence, the strongest intelligence that shows that you know an invasion is indeed imminent – what is the strongest intelligence?

Speaker Pelosi. That you can talk about.

[Laughter]

Q. We won't tell anybody.

[Laughter]

Chairman Schiff. Well, I – I share the President's conviction that there's a strong likelihood of a Russian invasion. They have amassed an enormous force that they have drawn from all over Russia. They have developed detailed plans for false flag operations to serve as a pretext to mislead the world about who is the source of aggression. And Ukraine poses no military threat to Russia. So why – why undertake those actions? With what goal in mind? And – and nonetheless, until Putin gives the decision, we continue to urge diplomacy. We hope that there is a way to provide an off ramp for the Kremlin. But it will be up to Putin to take it.

And – but I do believe that the intelligence supports the President's conclusion and his – his conviction about Putin's intentions. And I hope that we can find another path through diplomacy.

Speaker Pelosi. Did you have a two-part question?

Q. The first question was: will Congress come back?

Speaker Pelosi. Oh, let me just say this, in terms of the sanctions, which is what we've – had been talking about as – if he goes in, the President has the authority to implement those sanctions with – without the Congress. We have a bill in the House, the Meeks bill – in the Senate, the Menendez bill – which are pretty much the same, mirror each other. One of the questions between the parties is: do you go with the sanctions first or do you put them after he goes in? You know, in case he was going to be doing it two weeks from now, do it now. Generally, the consensus was that, since many European countries will feel some of the pain of the sanctions, not to do it until, and if, he goes in.

But let me say this – personally, U.S. first. Now, don't tell anybody I told you this, okay?

There's a price to pay for the – what Putin has put us through now. This isn't ‘bully the world and then take a walk and you're off the hook.' So I do think that there will be in Congress – from our own standpoint – now, we'd rather not, we'd rather always work in a multilateral way, but that does take time and consensus and ironing out differences.

But we may want to make a statement in that regard. It is – but the President has, by executive order, the authority to implement the sanctions. There is – from what we have heard from our different meetings that I mentioned to earlier – there is a readiness on the part of NATO and the NATO countries to be very soon in this. I'm going to say one more thing, but before I do, I want to yield to my colleagues for any closing statements.

Congresswoman McCollum. Well, I was just going to say, Madam Speaker, thank you so much for bringing us here. Because, what – what we did in preparation is – the Biden Administration provided a briefing in which both Democrats and Republicans attended and both thought were very thoughtful and very thorough.

And so we're here as a delegation with Speaker Pelosi. But there's also other U.S. delegations here. So we're bicameral, we're bipartisan, we're united, NATO's united, the EU's united and we're ready to do what it takes if Russia walks away and does not listen to us carefully and allow diplomacy to be given a fruitful chance. So we're very united, and I am very grateful that I got to see the other countries here, united in this effort to stop the attacks on democracy.

Congressman Lee. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Madam Speaker. And let me just close my remarks by saying, once again, that I chair the subcommittee that invests and funds all of our diplomatic initiatives throughout the world. And I was struck by the unity here – by putting diplomacy first and by the language on the back of the chairs in the conference room that said, ‘peace through dialogue.' And let's be hopeful that that's where we end with this crisis before us with Ukraine. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Speaker Pelosi. That's a nice way of saying – what we say is ‘Jaw, jaw, jaw, not war, war, war.'

Well, I just would like to get back to something Barbara – Madam Chair, Barbara Lee said earlier about democracy and the threat, and the threat to democracy that Putin is forcing onto Ukraine. I'm going to quote a Republican president, Ronald Reagan. He said, ‘Freedom is a fragile thing, and it is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance. It must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.'

We understand that responsibility. We know the threats that are there. We saw Putin is – tried to influence our election in 2016 – in some ways, successfully – successfully for him. We saw his impact on some elections in the rest of the world. We see his misinformation constantly. So I heard from in Moldova, the impression – but – among some people in the population is that Ukraine did something and Russia has to respond to it.

Here are some other misinformation, other countries that are in NATO and not in NATO, about the misinformation that is out there. And all of that misinformation is a threat to democracy and people making thoughtful decisions based on the truth, based on the truth.

So as we are here, it's really important for you to know that I've never seen NATO more – and I've been coming to these NATO meetings one way or another for a very long time. I also have been going, for more than 25 years, to intelligence briefings, and I can say, flat out – and I think some of my Republican colleagues would agree – that the intelligence briefing that the entire – we asked for the entire House to get the briefing – was the best, most serious and well received briefing that I've ever seen given to Congress, in terms of the threat, the intelligence about the intent, the casualty counts that would come with it. The – how can I say it? The weaponry that is at everybody's disposal, and by weaponry I don't necessarily mean a lethal weapon, but a sanction and the rest and what the impact on that would be.

So people are pretty ready. They're pretty ready. And I think it's really an eloquent statement to be ready, to be prepared by the – same thing, prepared with the sanctions, so it won't take a long time if he decides to go on. It won't be a long time for the Russian people, sadly, to feel the impact of the – what insecure decisions being made by their president, for what purpose – no purpose, no good purpose at all.

Anyway, we're happy about the unity we see in in NATO. We're happy about the unity received with NATO, EU, U.S., Canada and North America, and we go home strengthened and encouraged by that. I would say helpful, but we can only be helpful if we can stop the aggression. As I said, one more thing. Some of the groups that I've heard the most from in preparation for this trip are veterans, and our veterans just kept saying, ‘but diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy.' As you said earlier, ‘diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy.' So for our veterans and their families, and for the families of – of all of Europe and Russia, let's hope that sanity prevails. Thank you all.