Speaker Emerita Pelosi on MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki

Joining me now is House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. It's so great to see you. Thank you for taking the time this morning. There's so much I want to get to talk to you about. Lots going on. Let me just start where I ended there, though, because you have been saying, you've been ahead of the curve, that Trump is a conman for a long time. I mean, the fact that he won't pay his own legal bills despite claiming he is a billionaire feels like it's a pretty in-your-face example of this. I know your concern is not always all the Republican donors, but are they being duped here? Well, I think that it's very clear that Trump is a grifter. That's just the way it is. And integrity, which is something that we all want to always deepen in politics and in government, has just flown the coop with him. These people who are so happy to give him money to pay his legal fees should at least be told that's where they're spending money. But you know what? It's Sunday morning. Let's talk about what means something in people's lives. If you want to make a contrast between Trump and Biden, President Biden has a million and a half donors under $200. So much of his campaign is fueled at the grassroots level who believe in him because he has made their lives better. And one of the things that we're doing this weekend, we started Thursday, actually, which was gavel day, the day that we gaveled down the Affordable Care Act. And yesterday with President Obama and President Biden in the forefront, I joined them to celebrate the signing of the bill. And what's happening now, more important than grifter Trump and his exploiting hopes of people with other people's money. Rather than that, what the Republicans are doing now is putting forth a budget. A budget should be a statement of our national values. What's important to us as a nation should be reflected in how we allocate our resources. And then their budget conference committee, whatever they call it, they now have taking away the $35 insulin that was reduced from $500, $600, taking away the ability of the secretary to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices, reducing Affordable Care Act. The list goes on and on. And why? To give tax breaks to the biggest, the richest and biggest corporations in America. So we have important work to do. But this weekend, we're celebrating the Affordable Care Act, where millions, tens of millions of people got access to health care, where having a preexisting condition no longer was an obstacle to getting care, or being a woman was no longer a preexisting condition, where young people can stay on their parents' plans until 26, if they want to continue their education, if they want to start a business and be entrepreneurial, if they want an internship that may not have a health care, but that can advance them to their career goals. And so, there's so much positive contrast between these two. Their budget, our health care plan, the honesty and integrity of the system that we—it's called democracy, the ripoff of the grifter Donald Trump. So, my frustration with all this is, I've spent so much time on him. We've got to get to the kitchen table issues of people, whether it's a woman's right to choose, whether it's raising the minimum wage, whether we're talking about access to quality health care, whether we're talking about clean air, clean water, environmental justice. Let's talk about what it means to people in their lives to have a grifter or to have a patriot as president of the United States. I completely agree with you. And I think, as I think as you might agree, it's also important for people to know about the grifter and what he's up to. But let's talk about the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, something wouldn't be in existence without your role. I can speak to that and confirm that from—I was in the Obama administration at the time. And one of the things I think people may be taking for granted is that it remains at risk. I mean, Trump has been clear he would love to do away with it. The Biden campaign has a new ad reminding people of this risk. Let's play that ad, and then I want to talk to you about that on the other side. We're going to play part of it. Obamacare is a disaster. What we'd like to do is totally kill it. I mean, as that just said—and this is fact, and you repeated it—if Trump succeeds, 45 million people could lose their health care. But the other thing is that six in 10 people have a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act. I mean, isn't overturning it—it's bad policy, obviously, but isn't it pretty bad politics? Well, let me just say, for a person who never rarely has any affinity for the truth, this is one of the times when Donald Trump is telling the truth. He wants to terminate the Affordable Care Act. In fact, in his crude mouth, he said, Obamacare sucks. No, it doesn't suck. It cures. It cures. But he's making it very clear. Just to remind, when we won the election in 2018 and took back the House and saved our country from him, people said to me, aren't you lucky that health care became such an important part of the campaign? I said, no, we weren't lucky. We made our own luck. We had 10,000 events at which people told their stories, told their stories. Thousands more people told their stories. And that's how we won back the House in 2010. So, as you indicated, the Affordable Care Act is people understand what it means in their lives, and it's very important. So, that's what's on the ballot. And that's a freedom issue. It's about the freedom to have good health, but also to have financial health and not be subject to bankruptcy because you can't pay your bills. But believe him when he says that. That's one of the only truths I have heard him say. So, believe him when he says that. Your health care is on the table. Oh, and believe him when he says he's proud of taking out a woman's right to choose a Roe v. Wade, how proud he is of that. Your health care, your personal decision-making is on the ballot. Yes, he's telling us exactly what he's going to do. Before I let you go back to your day, I did want to ask, I mean, going on among House Republicans right now, speaking of the House, he'd need them to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to vacate the speakership, as you know, in response to Congress keeping the government open with a funding bill she didn't like. But there's also been two more House Republicans who announced they're leaving early in recent weeks. It all feels very chaotic and crazy. What do you, I mean, is it possible that, because after Mike Gallagher leaves, there's going to be a margin of one. Is it possible, could you see a scenario where Democrats take the majority even before Election Day because it's so dysfunctional? Well, I told that to Hakeem Jeffries when he became our leader, and we're very, very proud of him and the whole leadership team. Any one of them could be speaker. Hakeem will be next and soon. Now, that could happen. But the fact is, is that the disrespect for the institution with these motions to vacate, the disrespect for the Republicans in the Congress with the departure of these Republicans, takes them to a precarious place. But I remind that I, at the end, only had to vote a margin of two because of one thing and another, and when we had the majority and we still got our work done. We passed a historic agenda under the leadership of President Biden and working with the House and the Senate in a very, shall we say, respectful, collaborative way. So it isn't—just because you have a small margin doesn't mean you can't get the job done, but you have to have unity to do it. And I say to the members, our diversity is our strength, our unity is our power, and that's how we got our work done. But just if I may get back to the Affordable Care Act for a moment, under the leadership of—the inspirational, visionary leadership of President Obama, we were able to get this done. For 100 years, presidents have tried to do that. And then—and again, the courage of the House Democrats and the strength of Harry Reid in the Senate. And then, under Joe Biden, to improve it, to have many more people insured at lower cost, he has been great. But we have to finish the job, and that's why this election is so important. So if What's-His-Name wants to use his donors' money to pay his legal fees, that's his problem. Our problem is he wants to have a budget that gives tax breaks to the wealthiest people at the expense of the well-being of America's working families and meeting their kitchen table needs. Unquestionably, what a perfect place to end. And I will just say, Speaker Mike Johnson is not Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, so I'm not sure. The margin may be a little harder. But thank you so much, as always, for joining us and taking the time this morning.