Transcript of Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference on the Congressional Delegation to the Summit of the Americas
Los Angeles – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Members of the Congressional delegation to the Summit of the Americas held a press conference. Below are the Speaker's remarks:
Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone. Buenos días – no, buenas tardes. As a Californian, I take great pride in the hospitality extended by the City of Los Angeles and our great state for this beautiful Summit of the Americas. Where, as Californians, we feel very close to our neighbors in our hemisphere, but it's wonderful to see all of it come together. Hospitality, friendship, policy, so many things under the leadership of our President. We're very proud of President Biden, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the full leadership of the U.S., coming here. And a very distinguished Congressional delegation.
I want to just say that we associate ourselves with our President's commitment to the region, as well as his commitment to equity. Whether we're talking about economic prosperity to lift all families, migration challenges which impact everyone, health access and equity – a major part of his agenda – the climate emergency, where we can deal with it in a way that does not exacerbate the environmental injustice and, again, the food security issue. He's been spelling that out the whole time.
I want you to know that, in the Congress, we fully support and take pride in the President's agenda that he is advancing here in the Summit of the Americas. We have a very distinguished delegation to go into more, but first we want to hear from a delegation of the United States Senate – we call it ‘CODEL With Kaine.' We are very proud of the leadership and the representation the – that our distinguished colleague across the Capitol – Senator Kaine of Virginia. Thank you for joining us.
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Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
As you can tell from the presentation, the President's proposal was about policy, but it was also about using every tool at our disposal. Our relationship, our authorizations of Congress, as well as the appropriations process in Congress. I also want to be clear that, in our Caucus, we are as beautifully diverse as the Western Hemisphere. In our hemisphere, we have the Caribbean initiative, so many countries represented here. And so much interaction between the Members of the House and the Caribbean and so many – and Latin America, especially – close to California.
I want you to just acknowledge – I want one other of our Members – and that is Jimmy Gomez. Jimmy – we're in Jimmy Gomez's district. Jimmy, I want you to come up here because I'm going to say something about you in a moment. But as you come up, I want our Members just to stand up and introduce themselves.
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Speaker Pelosi. We're so very proud of this delegation, and they have been participating with us – all – in every kind of way. There was a whole youth initiative here, which was wonderful because this is all about the future. But all of the civil – civic organizations and the rest, there's been a great deal of interaction. You see the diversity. We understand the culture of this hemisphere. We understand the language, we have family connections. This is important to us. This is very important to us.
I just brought Jimmy Gomez up, because he represents – did you say what you represent?
Congressman Gomez. Los Angeles, California. Downtown LA, East Side of LA.
Speaker Pelosi. And this is – we're in his district. He's our host, and I want to join in thanking you, as well as the Mayor, Garcetti, as well as the Governor, Newsom, for making this such a wonderful welcome for all of these nations of the hemisphere. But why I point out Jimmy is because we just recently finished meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau, and they were talking about the U.S., Mexico, Canada Free Trade Agreement. And Jimmy Gomez was very instrumental, as a Member of the Ways and Means Committee, in making that happen in a way that respected our workers, honored our values, protected our environment and did so in a way that got a record number of votes in the Congress of the United States. Thank you, Jimmy Gomez, for your leadership in that regard.
Any questions?
Q. Madam Speaker?
Speaker Pelosi. Yes, sir?
Q. Last night, the American people saw new images and video, saw – heard new testimony about what happened at the Capitol on January 6th. I wonder if you could speak to your reaction to what you witnessed last night and what you hope the American people will take away from it.
Speaker Pelosi. I would be very happy to, but if we could just stay with this, and then I'll come back to that. On the subject of this Summit of the Americas.
Yes, ma'am?
Q. Thank you, Madam Speaker. The President's polling has been far underwater, the media coverage [inaudible] ahead of midterms. You have 68 delegations here and 23 heads of state. Is it sufficient for you to be holding a press conference – a news conference, instead of the President?
Speaker Pelosi. Well, I thought we were talking about the essence of the values that we came here to discuss.
I think the President has made many public pronouncements announcing initiatives, his own presentation as President of the United States, even appearing in Los Angeles at the port with Congresswoman Barragan and Congressman Lowenthal earlier. So the fact is, we feel very proud to associate ourselves with his leadership, his priorities, the value he places on this, by having our press conference.
I'm not familiar with his communication schedule is, but I know it's a very busy one. And I know that it's very focused on what his purpose is with this, which is justice, whether it's environmental, whether its economic, whether it's health, whatever the subject.
Yes sir?
Q. Madam Speaker, why are Democrats the only Members of Congress here?
Speaker Pelosi. You're saying – what?
Q. Why are Democrats the only Members of Congress here?
Speaker Pelosi. We put out the invitation, and we're very overwhelmed by the number – the response that we received. But others were invited to attend as well.
Q. Were all Democratic –
Speaker Pelosi. If this is the nature of the questions, I'll get back to last night, unless anyone else wants to address any of the things that were brought up. Anybody want to address any of that? Yeah.
Q. I have a question about Venezuela. These important documents about migrations mention all the times Venezuela [inaudible]. But the person you recognize as the leader – the democratic leader of Venezuela – is not here. What do you think about the absence of Juan Guaidó?
Speaker Pelosi. By whom?
Q. Juan Guaidó, the interim President of Venezuela that you recognized –
Speaker Pelosi. But I want to talk about who was here, who is here is the President of the United States. And has been said, four years ago, the President did not attend. Who is here is the Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of State, the full array of leadership of the President's Administration, placing a great value on all of this. I'm very, very proud of the cooperation that is received – and most of the countries have representation, if not all the presidents. Mr. – did you want to speak to that?
Senator Kaine. I'll just, I'll just, I'll just back that up. I mean, there – yeah. There was controversy about who was here and who wasn't. But I think the important message is what the Speaker said: that we have a commitment demonstrated that was not here in the previous Administration. And some of the controversy over the nations that were not invited are – is a controversy that kind of connects to the moment.
We're seeing in the world right now a challenge between authoritarians and democracies. We're seeing it in an illegal invasion of Ukraine. And the evidence that was displayed on television last night shows that that challenge between a democratic instinct and an authoritarian instinct is not just on other people's shores, it's right here at home. So I hope folks might forgive the United States for not being indifferent to the differences between democracies and authoritarians and believing that at an important international forum like this, at this moment in time, we should be standing strongly for democracies.
Speaker Pelosi. What is very exciting for us is to listen – to listen at the receptions and the interactions that we have with the foreign ministers, the young people who are here from, from the hemisphere, to listen to the presentations of the heads of state representing their countries and seeing what – how they prioritize what the President has, has placed – as we say, health and climate and prosperity and migration and, in very specific ways, to deal with it. But to listen.
So this isn't about the United States coming and saying, ‘Look what we have for you.' This is about the Administration saying, ‘We know we have to address certain challenges. How do we do this? Working together.' Listening to the broad array of differences in this hemisphere, whether we're talking Caribbean, whether we're talking more of Latin America, and it's – that's what is the joy of it all. I'm absolutely thrilled to be here.
Because we are here to listen and to learn, as well as to advance – be ready, as Barbara said, with the resources to back up the suggestions that the President has been proposing, working with other countries. But the Senator, the leader of the Senate CODEL –
[Laughter]
We're so proud of him, doing his missionary work in Latin America, speaking Spanish, the – in our Caucus, when we go to any meeting – conference committee and the rest – I always say to the other side of the aisle: ‘Understand this. In our Caucus, we have people who understand the culture, the language, the religion, the family ties between our country and other countries in our hemisphere.' So we speak with authority, and that's why we have such a big delegation to continue to be current in terms of our working together. But the distinguished Senator –
Yes, sir.
Q. Madam Speaker, have you considered the cost of development in the Caribbean vis-à-vis climate change?
Speaker Pelosi. Well, you have to think of that. Yeah. That is an excellent question, because when I became Speaker the first time, my flagship issue was climate, and it is – it has a cost, but there's no bigger cost than not addressing it. And what we have to do is to prioritize it in our allocation of resources, and we have to have it paid for. Now I know some of my colleagues may have something they want to say on that subject.
Chairwoman Waters. Let me just say this. As I mentioned, I had a CODEL in the Caribbean just a few weeks ago. And this is one of the issues that we talked about, and they informed us that the debt that is created – hurricane on top of hurricane – is something that they cannot deal with, and they need some help. I think that we are understanding, having listened, having been to the Caribbean with the heads of state – ten heads of state showed up. We went there because we were talking about banking issues and de-risking and all of that.
But in this meeting, we discovered that there were a lot of other things, too, that they wanted to talk about, and that was one of them – to recognize the damage that is done by these hurricanes, the costs of borrowing money and dealing with this. And in the Bahamas, for example, we still do not have a hospital to be rebuilt from 2019, and so we're looking at – we understand and we're going to be working on these issues. Thank you very much.
Speaker Pelosi. I might add that a co-Chair of our Caribbean Caucus, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, represents the Virgin Islands. Her island has been hit by these storms again and again. She knows the cost even for our country to be able to meet the needs, to keep up with one assault of nature after another. Stacey, did you want to say something on that?
Congresswoman Plaskett. Sure. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. And thank you all for being here. I think that there is a commitment from the House, and you have seen evidence in what has been done with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to act as models for the rest of the Caribbean, not just to rebuild but to build better. To ensure that we are not building as things were but as things should be to create resiliency. And many of us are talking to our Caribbean partners about the technology, how that support can be given throughout the region as well. The trade, the economic stability of the Caribbean region is of utmost importance to not only the House, but as you've seen with our Vice President having discussions with members of the Caribbean and the President himself being engaged with them as well.
Congresswoman Lee. Yeah, I think – and thank you for this question – but I don't want it lost on anyone that this Administration and our Vice President made an announcement of over $69 million in a new investment as it relates to climate, as it relates to energy security, as it relates to the climate crisis. These islands are vulnerable. It's a state of emergency. And so for this Administration to recognize that by this initial investment in a climate-specific fund for the Caribbean is a big deal, and we're going to do more.
And finally, I'll just say, again, I was down in the Caribbean also very recently. And what was said over and over again was that because the formula for middle-income countries is a problem – I know our leadership and Congresswoman Waters – I know most of us – all of us are working on that because these countries have many populations of people who are very low-income, and the climate crisis just increases the poverty and the wherewithal for these countries to move forward. And so we did invest last year another $10 million in an economic development fund, a new investment. And so we're creating more of a focus, and I think this President and our Speaker – and by virtue of who is here and the announcements that have been made about the Caribbean – I think shows that this Administration and this Congress intends to reset – we've already started resetting our partnership with the Caribbean, recognizing the dangers of the climate crisis.
Speaker Pelosi. The rising sea levels, the encroachment of deserts, the formal management of the planet – this goes on and on about how targeted this planet is and how little time we have left. But in terms of island nations, this is even more immediate, and I'm so glad that the President made the Caribbean commitment that he did.
I'll just get back to your question. The – Senator Kaine talked about what – in response to a previous question about what is happening now. The debate, the struggle or whatever, however you want to frame it. But the challenge that we face to strengthening democracy with the onslaught of authoritarianism. It's about Democracy versus dictatorship.
So when you talk about last night, we're talking about – and we talked about Ukraine. We're talking about winning for democracy. The Ukrainians have been so courageous, have been so courageous. And I saw that firsthand – as did Prime Minister Trudeau, as we shared that conversation earlier – have been so courageous, fighting for their country, their culture, their identity as Ukrainians, for democracy. But their fight for democracy is a fight for democracy writ large. And everybody knows that, that the dictatorship, that Putin's attitude must be stopped.
But we have a fight in our own country about assaults on democracy. Benign, witting, who knows–but nonetheless existing. And last night, I was very proud of the presentations that were made in terms of values. Our Chairman Bennie Thompson, I thought, did a beautiful job giving an historic perspective – and again, a values presentation on this as well as presiding over an excellent hearing. The Vice Chair of the [Committee] was very specific and clear about the challenges to our democracy.
So this Committee is bipartisan. It's independent. It does its work. And last night, we saw – everybody went, ‘What is it going to be like?' What we saw – it was like hearing the truth. And that is the purpose of the Committee – to seek the truth and to do so in a way that makes sure that never again anybody think that it's okay to have a coup. To have an assault on the Capitol of the United States. Assault on the democracy of our country and assault on our Constitution, on a day that is designated to be the day when the certification – when we certify our President by accepting the votes of the Electoral College.
That was an attempt to overthrow the government. That was an attempt to – it was an insult to our Constitution. It is something that is – has specific, specific consequences for those who are engaged in – but we cannot let it have consequences that undermine our democracy by anybody thinking that that was okay, that it was a normal political expression, that it was just some people, some tourists on any given day. I think that the Chairwoman said – the Vice Chair said it very well when she said, ‘One of these days, Donald Trump won't be here, but your disloyalty will live on' – as she said to her Republican colleagues.
So I viewed it as a spectator as everyone else. We all saw it for the first time, and the response to it has been tremendous. Comforting, because there was an assault on our democracy. So as we talk about it in the rest of the world and the need for us to protect democracy globally – because it is For The People – we have to make sure we protect it at home.
Any comments, anyone else? Thank you all very much. Thank you.