Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (D-SC), House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Joe Crowley (D-NY), Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY), Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) held a press conference today concluding the “Grow America’s Economy, Grow American Paychecks” Democratic Issues Conference. Below is a transcript of Leader Pelosi’s opening remarks and the question and answer session.
Leader Pelosi’s opening remarks:
“Thank you very much, Congresswoman Edwards. Thank you, my colleagues. I want to join in commending our distinguished Chair of the Caucus Xavier Becerra and Vice Chair Joe Crowley for a great, great meeting. A few days of conversation is just the tip of the iceberg of the work that has gone into it. What has gone into it has produced unity, camaraderie, enthusiasm – but more important than that, momentum, momentum for the middle class.
“The middle class: the true job creator. That is our message to the American people. The squeeze on the middle class is a squeeze on our economy. All of the economic indicators show that our economy is growing, and prospects are good, except one – the stagnation of wages for our working families. Unless we can put purchasing power into the hands of the consumers in this consumer economy, we will not have the recovery that we need. That is why our focus has been on the middle class – the backbone of our democracy, but also the job creators.
“As we gather here in Philadelphia, where many of our sacred founding documents were written – they talked about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That was amazing, that in that time, they said “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” You have heard me say before [that] in the Affordable Care Act we have given people the opportunity for a healthier life, and the ability to pursue their happiness, because they are not job locked and they could make their own decisions freely. But the fact is also that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be reflected in the values of our country in a budget. And I was very proud of the interaction – it’s only the beginning – on the budget, led by Ranking Member Van Hollen, to be continued. Where we go from here [is] continued discussion on the budget, which will show the differentiation between the values that we think everyone shares in our country and the misguided proposals the Republicans have in their budget.
“So as we go forward, Ranking Member Van Hollen will be having those meetings with Members about how we build consensus around our budget in support of the principles in President’s budget. Mr. Clyburn, as you know, is heading up our Outreach and Engagement Task Force, to give people a reason to register, a reason to vote in this 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Congresswoman Donna Edwards will be taking the lead on campaign reform, trying to reduce the role of money in politics and increase to increase the level of hope and participation of many more people – all part of that empowerment.
“We are very proud of the role [of] Chairman – I still call him Chairman – Steve Israel, [who] is heading our policy and communication group, so that when we build this consensus within the Party everyone is, again, in harmony, in unity, and in force on it. Of course, our Chairman Ben Ray Luján will be driving the political course. And we are very proud of the reaction the Caucus has given to him.
“So for us, it was a very successful weekend – almost a weekend, a few days. We were so honored by the President’s speech and the Vice President[‘s] as well, building on the momentum of the State of the Union Address, reiterating – returning to some of those principles and values and specific recommendations, building momentum for the middle class. Thank you.”
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Chairman Becerra. We have time to take one question.
Q: Madam Leader, two part question. First one: on behalf of my TV colleagues, your reaction to Mitt Romney…
Leader Pelosi. He’s out of the race, right? Of course you’ve got to know this…
[Laughter]
Q: Any reaction to Mitt Romney? Any reaction to Mitt Romney not running for president?
Leader Pelosi. Let me say this: we have Members waiting on the bus. I’m all packed so I can stay a little bit later than the other Members. But let’s stay with our…
Q: [Inaudible]
Leader Pelosi. I’m happy to come back to that but let’s give them the chance.
Q: Okay, that’s fine. Then my other question would be for you – I understand that last night when the President talked about Trade Promotion Authority was met with some skepticism from your Caucus. Can you deliver the votes on that if need be?
Leader Pelosi. Well, I think people are – as I’ve said over and over, let’s try to find a path to “yes”. I do not know if that is possible it; it depends on what is in TPP. You know, give us fast-track or TPP. Well, what’s TPP? Tell us what it is. I think people are open to listening because we are a party of trade and we understand the global economy. On the other hand, I will say what I said a few days ago: we will make a judgment as to what is in there as to what impact it will have on the wages of America’s working families.
Q: If I may ask one hometown question, local media and local political leadership have said we’re trying to get the 16th convention here…
Leader Pelosi. Okay, we’ll be back to that in a moment.
[Laughter]
Q: Thank you, Madam Leader.
Leader Pelosi. Do you think that’s why the mayor was here the whole time?
[Laughter]
Q: Yes, it was.
Leader Pelosi. Maybe he was just attracted to our issues conference.
Chairman Becerra. He was great. Mayor Nutter was great.
Q: You mentioned Congressman Clyburn is leading up the effort on voter engagement. I know you spent a lot of this conference talking about the middle class and how about the middle class. How much have you talked in this conference about the voter engagement issue and voting rights issue in the last couple of days?
Assistant Leader Clyburn. We talked a great deal about it. In fact, we opened on Wednesday evening – the whole evening was about that. And we showed some clips from that earlier era, not just to focus on the movie “Selma” but to give our Members – a lot of them read about or heard about “the Movement”, as a lot of people called it. We did two clips: one from a speech that Martin Luther King Jr. did in 1966 – less than a year after the Voting Rights Act was signed in to law – and another one from a speech he gave in 1967 – not coincidentally both those speeches were in South Carolina – to allow our Members to see, despite what you may hear from the other side, Martin Luther King Jr. had a big focus on the ballot box and legislation. It wasn’t just about a dream unfulfilled, but he spoke about how that dream should be fulfilled. And so we are focusing a lot of attention on this. And I do believe that to build this middle class economy that is so critical to the future growth and development of this great country, we need to get more people engaged and we are going to work very hard to do that.
Q: And you laid out specific plans to do it?
Assistant Leader Clyburn. Yes we did, and we are going to build them. We have a full task force. The task force has met already and we’ll meet at least twice this coming week to really get this ball moving. And they all got great ideas on how we they think we can get this done.
Chairman Becerra. Other questions?
Yes.
Q: I want to ask a question about how this retreat was run. At times, for the reporters here, it seems like this has been like a police state. At the Caucus’ direction, staff has been extremely heavy-handed, following reporters to the bathroom at times. Yes, we’ve been escorted everywhere we’ve gone. The Republicans don’t operate like this. It’s not like this when we follow you guys around the Capitol, so why all the heavy-handedness? Is it really necessary?
Leader Pelosi. Republicans don’t have the President of the United States…
Chairman Becerra. Yeah. We’re not aware that they were following you. We had to have the security in the hotel that we were in because it was expected by Capitol Police that we would be secure. This hotel where the press was located, we did not have those kinds of requirements. If you want to give me names of staff I’ll be willing to take them, because they might be ready for the Capitol Police – to work for the Capitol Police.
Q: They said they were operating under the direction of the Caucus and the Capitol Police said the same thing. So, it’s unlike any of the other retreats operate and…
Chairman Becerra. Get names because that wasn’t at the direction of the Caucus.
Congressman Israel. They follow me into the bathroom too.
Assistant Leader Clyburn. Well, let me say this because something came up at the breakfast this morning: as many of you know, I come from a less than middle-class background. I define middle class aspirationally [sic]. I believe – when I finished college my wife I finished college, together we both made around $7000 a year, but I thought I was in the middle class. So, I’m very, very concerned about the wait staff. And a few of them came to me about some of this and I said to them: look, you’ve got the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States. If you read the headlines, you’ll know exactly what kind of challenges the security of the First Family is having. And so we’re not going to be able – because they wanted to come into the breakfast. Until people are vetted by their Social Security numbers and that sort of thing, we told them: this is not what we would like, but this is what is going to be required. So, a lot of this has been going around – and they understood. So I think we have a responsibility to maintain the security that the Secret Service – because I spoke with some of them – [was] demanding.
Chairman Becerra. We can maybe take one last question.
Q: Actually, this is for Chairman Luján, who we haven’t heard as much from in the last few days. What have you told your colleagues about the 2016 cycle? How are you preparing? You know, Whip Hoyer said yesterday that there’s a universe of 60 districts that, through various machinations might be in play or will be competitive? Do you adhere to that strategy? What’s the message…
Chairman Luján. Look, I think that we were all clear and maybe Mr. Hoyer’s quote was taken out of context. There’s excitement [from] our colleagues and you heard it yesterday. To feel that energy and be able to talk to my colleagues over the hours that followed the presentation last night and into today, this morning, pats on the back saying: Ben, we’re with you; we’re ready to go; we’re willing to do whatever we need to do. There’s excitement there; and there’s Member engagement there. We’re seeing Members stepping forward now – maybe there was something that happened in the past but they’re all in. They’ve said: look, turn the page; we’re going forward; we don’t like being in the minority.
And the path that we made out was pretty simple. It was majority math. We know Republicans are over-extended. We look at the maps where the President won with strong numbers where Republicans hold those seats – even in the Senate – they’re going to be defending 20-plus seats. So we’re going forward. And they’re having a messaging nightmare. Look at Governor Romney – I mean, one of the questions that comes in is asking about [Governor Romney] and reaction to him. I think Republicans are happier that he’s not running than anyone else in the country as we talk about where our priories have to be with the middle class. Charlie Dent – week one, week two, week three, week four. Week four brought us: “it’s not the end of the world” to be able to put the Homeland Security Department and the funding for our nation’s security and the economic strength that comes with our ports, that comes with that. And what’s going to come in week five? Let’s look at that together.
So look, we’re strong. We’re coming out of this around a unified message: it’s middle class economics. That means to me being able to put a roof over your head; it means being able to have bread and milk and eggs in the refrigerator, maybe put a little money into the bank; make sure your kids can go to college and look after them. You know, that’s what we’re talking about. And where I come from, those are the people who are creating jobs, putting people to work. That’s where we are all committed – every one of our Members. If you go talk to them – and I challenge you to – we are all about strengthening working families and the middle class all across America.
So, I’m excited about this. When I get a chance to talk about it, let’s go, because sleeves are going to be rolled up, we’re going to get to work here. So we’re going to feel that same excitement from all of our colleagues. And that’s what I got coming into this. I’m more energized now than I was coming into this retreat.
Chairman Becerra. Round of applause.
Leader Pelosi. Mr. Crowley would like to answer your question about the convention.
Congressman Crowley. I’d like to thank the mayor for the welcome that he’s given to us to this incredibly important city to the United States. We really have had an incredibly warm welcome. And, Madam Leader, I look forward to welcoming the mayor and the entire Pennsylvania delegation to New York for the 2016 convention. Thank you all very much.
Leader Pelosi. And then Congresswoman Beatty who was also on the trip from Columbus – she would have something to say. No, we were very honored by the presence of the mayor. He’s always an intellectual resource to us in terms of policy and organizing, and actually, I don’t know if you saw his speech the other day, he talked about infrastructure and thanked us for what we did in the early time in the aura. But the fact is: he came to Washington and advocated for that in a very positive way and got results from it. What a wonderful city for many purposes, and this meeting certainly went off very well. So, that’s good.
Q: What about 2016, Madam?
Leader Pelosi. Well I don’t know. The DNC makes the decision.
Vice Chair Crowley. May the most appropriate city win.
[Laughter]
Q: Mitt Romney reaction?
Leader Pelosi. He probably concluded that the prospect of success was not there, despite the thought that he was going to win on election night. They’re a lovely family. He’s a wonderful American. He’s been a governor, he’s served our country in many ways. I don’t want to make a joke about his candidacy. But I don’t think that – I said he was the preferred candidate, so that tells you how much strength I thought he would have in the general election. Thank you all very much, again.
I just want to go back to one point, because you mentioned about the voting rights and the civil rights, and that aspect of this meeting. I just want to say that I did the close, as we presented Mr. Van Hollen to say where we go from here, discussing budget priorities and how we arrive at them. But I started my remarks by quoting Dr. King saying that he wanted his children to be judged “not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” And I thought that that should be – that sentence by Dr. King, he taught us so much, but to listen to that: “Judge.” “Judge” – he used the word “judge,” by the content of their character.
And how do we, as a country, address the content of the character of our children when we have their parents not making enough money to put food on the table, [having] two jobs so they don’t have any time to mentor them, but if they get sick, they don’t have one paid day of sick leave to care for their children; that housing is a situation that really causes some psychological problems for children, when it is in doubt or not adequate. The opportunity gap that we have in our country – in order to address it, we have to address the education gap, and what is happening [is that] 40 million children are going to be on the other side of the digital divide if we do not have the right budget priorities to address education, and the right policies in the budget that address enabling families to have the time to mentor their children, to nurture their children.
What is the content of the character of a nation that does not encourage the nurturing of children in its policies? And I think that, again, Dr. King’s words were probably – we think of them, we’ve heard them so many times, but taken one at a time: “Judge.” And we will be judged by the decisions we make to meet the needs of our children, all of Americas children, who are the heirs to America’s future. So it was very much a part of our values that we discussed, and our plans for how we go forward. Thank you all for participating and see you next time. Bye bye.
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