Transcript of Speaker Pelosi Interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist

New York City – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinksi and Willie Geist on MSNBC's Morning Joe to discuss Roe v. Wade, the Congressional agenda and other news of the day. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Joe Scarborough. Let's bring in, now, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. She joins us now. Madam Speaker, I've known you for at least three decades.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

Joe Scarborough. We haven't talked about your faith publicly. We certainly have in a lot of private conversations because it means so much to you. The last time is when you were talking about your father, and I said, ‘I bet you wish your father were here to see you.' And you said, ‘He is here. He is here. He is with me.' I know exactly – my dad is watching, and he is in heaven.

I'm just curious, what do you say to Catholics who see what's happening to you in San Francisco and wonders why you have an archbishop taking a step like this?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, good morning, Joe. Thank you. Yes, we do go back a long way, when you were a new, young Member of Congress.

The – what's so sad about it – and as you were speaking, I'm thinking of some of the discussions I've had with other Members of Congress over time. And what is important for women to know and families to know, is that this is not just about terminating a pregnancy. So these same people are against contraception, family planning, in vitro fertilization — it's a blanket thing. And they use abortion as the front man for it while they try to undo so much. That's what they tried to do in the Affordable Care Act, which didn't have anything about terminating a pregnancy.

So let's just say that, you know, I wonder about death penalty, which I'm opposed to. So is the Church, but they take no action against people who may not share their view. Thank you for referencing the Gospel of Matthew, which is sort of the agenda of the Church that is rejected by many who side with them on terminating a pregnancy. So we just have to be prayerful. We have to be respectful. I come from a largely pro-life, Italian-American, Catholic family, so I respect people's views about that. But I don't respect us foisting it onto others.

Now, our archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights, too. In fact, he led the way in some of the initiatives on – an initiative on the ballot in California. So this decision, taking us to privacy and precedent, is very dangerous in the lives of so many of the American people. And again, not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew.

Mika Brzezinski. I'm sorry your religion has been brought into this. Let's turn to the political side of this. I'm concerned how we preserve all of our rights as women, given the fact that this leaked draft opinion looks to overturn Roe. The Senate passed a piece of – or, the Senate voted on a piece of legislation that looked to expand abortion rights. Was that a productive gesture? What do you think Democrats should do toward the midterms to really campaign clearly on this issue?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I don't think they expanded abortion rights. What they did was to enshrine Roe v. Wade into the law. Enshrine Roe v. Wade into the law. And that was – that's what we've done in the House. We did it right after the horrible decision in Texas, that vigilantes follow women around and all that. So that's all – that's what that does. And it was unfortunate that some of the Republicans who claim to be pro-choice – pro-the-decision. We call it a decision as a woman, as a family, with her doctor, her family – and make those decisions.

But no, I think that it was really important to make that vote. I think it was most unfortunate that those who profess to be supportive of a woman's decision in this regard found that to be too much, because that was Roe v. Wade, that's the enshrinement of Roe v. Wade.

So in terms of, to your larger question, women – I think, you know, you've heard me say before: President Lincoln said, ‘Public sentiment is everything. With it, you can accomplish almost anything. Without it, practically nothing.' But for public sentiment to weigh in, people have to know. So women have to know how pervasive this is. I mean, as a Catholic, I try to talk to some of my colleagues – Republican colleagues, some years ago into supporting what the Catholic Church was asking us to do for global family planning – natural family planning, which our law allows to happen. And they said, ‘We're not for family planning domestically or globally. We're against it.' Now, that was family planning. That wasn't anything beyond that.

So understand what is at risk here. And again, I think it is very insulting to women to have their ability to make their own decision hampered by politics. This should never have been politicized. It should never have been politicized. Joe described it perfectly with the transition from where we were to where we are now. And you know what, it is also a cover for a lot of other things that the far right wants to accomplish.

Mika Brzezinski. That's what I was – what will it mean, if and when it is overturned? And is this an issue that could galvanize voters on both sides of the aisle?

Speaker Pelosi. Yes, I think so. Here's – we always are running on kitchen table issues.

Mika Brzezinski. Right, and there's a lot of them now.

Speaker Pelosi. Right. And how do people pay for food, for rent, for education, for prescription drugs and all of that? I hope we can talk about that. All of us – but we also know that our democracy is at stake, what they're doing to voter suppression – in voter suppressing and also in the nullification of elections. But that doesn't really hit home as much as a kitchen table issue – the kitchen table issues do. And a woman's decision is a kitchen table issue.

Mika Brzezinski. It sure is.

Speaker Pelosi. So they have now taken freedom, which is on the ballot, home. That will – they tell me that in Georgia, the women are really –

Mika Brzezinski. They're galvanizing?

Speaker Pelosi. Galvanized is the word I was looking – I thought, but it is even more than that.

Mika Brzezinski. Okay. Feeling some passion about this. Willie Geist has the next question. Willie?

Speaker Pelosi. Hi, Willie.

Willie Geist. Good morning, Speaker Pelosi. Thanks for being with us this morning.

I know you well enough to know you won't entertain a hypothetical about losing the House, but let me ask you about some of the headwinds you're facing right now – which is inflation at 8.5 percent, gas around five bucks a gallon for some people out in this country. A recent NBC poll showed President Biden with a 39 percent approval rating. And 75 percent, three out of four Americans, believing we're on the right – on the wrong track, excuse me. How do you overcome that when the country, it looks like, says: Democratic President, Democratic Congress, and I don't like where we're headed?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, we've faced some of that before, and we have been successful. But let me just take – you mentioned two statistics. Let me mention two more. And what we've seen even this morning, that nearly 70 percent of the American people now say they could withstand a $400 emergency. That's almost a reverse of what we had a couple of years ago. Another figure is that – higher than that – into the 70's, the American people have said they have a comfort level with their, with their economic situation.

Now, let's get to your point about some of the, shall we say, I don't know what's in Washington D.C., say,‘Well, history says' – well, we're not talking about history. We're talking about the future. ‘History says the president loses seats after the – in his – in the off-year. Well, the president gains seats in the on-year.' This President did not, but he won the election. He helped us hold the House. We helped him win the election. And those of our candidates are Members who won in a – with Trump on the ballot, and won in the Trump districts, are in pretty strong shape. But we want more. We have to offset some changes, but we want more.

I feel – I have absolutely no intention of us losing this election. We'll win it one election at a time. We own the ground with our mobilization. We'll have a non-menacing message that is progressive and bold, but non-menacing. And we'll have the money to do so. They'll have endless money; we'll have enough. And we will win. And I am – it is absolutely essential for our country. Our democracy is on the ballot. Our freedom is on the ballot.

But to get to your point, the kitchen table – we talked about the kitchen table issues. In terms of inflation, so much is being done by this President. It's – we have to make sure that public sentiment understands that. Inflation is a global phenomenon right now. In fact, in the U.K., it's around 10 percent. So that doesn't make it any better for us. What are the things we are doing to reduce the global inflation and what that means to us? We are in the works now of our COMPETES Act to address the supply chain. Supply is down, therefore prices are up.

We're in there to – we just passed the other day two bills in terms of price gouging and market manipulation. Bring down the cost ofprice at the pump. And that has something to do with the war in Ukraine – but not everything, but a good deal of it. We're also working on reducing the cost of food for people because of the exploitation, again, of the consumer by some in the agriculture industry. Okay.

But over and above all of that, understand this: unemployment – the President created almost eight million jobs. When unemployment goes – and unemployment was cut in half. When unemployment goes down, inflation has gone up. So that's – and wages have gone up. And that contributes to inflation. We want unemployment down. We want wages up. And we have to address the inflation issue. But we are.

Mika Brzezinski. And – Americans need to see those changes. They need to – so that those numbers go down. I want to ask about why you're in town, the Global Citizen Urgency of Now Summit.

Just really quickly though on this point, Democrats are going to be campaigning toward the midterms during very turbulent economic times. Some of the things that might be happening that may drive numbers up, they may have no control over. There could be a food crisis. There's things happening around the world that could impact the economy.

So – the baby formula crisis. This, to me, seems unforced as an error. Maybe push back if you want. Was there a failure to communicate at the highest level? A failure to prognosticate? And are there ways in which legislation can be passed so this doesn't happen again?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, there has to be. Tomorrow, the Appropriations Committee, under the leadership of Rosa DeLauro, will be having a hearing into how we got to this place. So will the Energy and Commerce Committee under Mr. Pallone, Chairman Pallone. And so we're coming at it a couple different ways. But let me also just say this. The – you see the Chairman of the – or whether he's CEO, I don't know if he's Chairman – of Abbott apologizing for that. We have to find out. I mean, look, a mother of five – a baby cries, we don't have food, come on.

Mika Brzezinski. As bad as it gets.

Speaker Pelosi. It's as – it hits us home as deeply as possible.

Mika Brzezinski. Yeah.

Speaker Pelosi. But we did pass, last week, two bills. One that overwhelmingly passed bipartisan, in terms of, again, setting us on a course that it cannot happen again. But the other, to have the money, $20 million — with an ‘m,' million dollars — to help facilitate baby food – formula getting to families. The Republicans voted against it. How do you vote against a few – some million dollars for baby food, formula?

Mika Brzezinski. I know. I know.

Speaker Pelosi. How do you do that?

Mika Brzezinski. I don't get it.

Speaker Pelosi. But – just – consistent. When we did the bill to reduce [costs ranging] from $300 to $600per month for insulin, only twelve Republicans in the House voted for the bill.

Mika Brzezinski. There you go.

Speaker Pelosi. Only twelve. So understand the challenge that we have, always trying to find common ground because it is For The People, For The Children.

Mika Brzezinski. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, thank you.

She's here for the Global Citizen Urgency of Now Summit taking place in New York City. And we actually have some of your comments that you made on stage, which we're going to be showing later in the show. We thank you so much for joining us here on Morning Joe. It's always great to see you.

Speaker Pelosi. Thanks.

Mika Brzezinski. And my brother loved having you in Warsaw.

Speaker Pelosi. As I said to the President of Poland, when we sent your brother Mark to be our Ambassador, we sent our very best.

Mika Brzezinski. Well thank you very much. That's too kind.