Speaker Emerita Pelosi on CNN

Joining us now in studio, the former Speaker of the House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the first time I've ever called you Congresswoman, as opposed to Leader Pelosi. Let me ask you, there was a very powerful moment this evening when President Biden specifically praised your husband, Paul, who we all know was grievously attacked. He called your husband as tough, strong, and as resilient as they get. I want to just show a little bit of that, if that's okay with you. Here tonight in this chamber is a man who bears the scars of that brutal attack, but is as tough and as strong and resilient as they get, my friend, Paul Pelosi. What did that moment mean to you, Congresswoman, and how is Paul doing? Paul's doing fine. He's still on a path. It'll take him another few months to be well, normal, but he is strong and resilient. What it meant was, is that so many of my colleagues, of course the Democrats, but many of the Republicans, have been very prayerful and kind about this. So some of them aren't, but most of them have been. And so when they responded to that, it had some authenticity for me. It wasn't just their applauding because it really matched the words that they have said. And it was lovely of the president to make mention of it, not because, just as a personal matter, but in terms of what it meant for our country, that any of us in the public arena could be under siege. And Speaker Pelosi, which I'm told I can still call you, which feels more natural if that's okay. Speaker Pelosi, there's something else I want to get your response to. And again, it is a minority of the Republicans that we're talking about, not a majority of them. But there was heckling like I've never really heard at a State of the Union address. Let's play some of that. Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I'm not saying it's a majority. I'll give you a copy. I'll give you a copy of the proposal. That means Congress doesn't vote. Well, I'm glad to see and I tell you, I enjoy conversion. Now, we should just point out, as a matter of fact, that Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida has proposed sunsetting all federal programs, which presumably would include Social Security and Medicare. What did you think of the heckling? I think that they were protesting too much. They knew that they had been identified as putting Medicare and Social Security on the table, and they were trying to dismiss that. But the fact is, it still is part of who they are. They never really supported it to begin with. But rather than go into that, as we go forward, the president has said, how do you intend to lift the debt ceiling, reduce the national debt? Tell us what your programs are. And up until now, they have been talking about it. And their leader of their Senate campaign committee, as you mentioned, Senator Scott, had that as a priority of what they would do. So this was sort of showbiz. It didn't bother you, though, the lack of decorum? No. Well, actually, they were, for them, fairly well behaved from what we see every day of the week in the House of Representatives, unfortunately. The flip side of that, and we were talking about this before you came on, was that the president interacted and reacted to that in a way that, you know, maybe showed people what he was made of. What did you think of that? Well, first of all, let me just say thank you for the opportunity to say how great I think the president was tonight. I mean, what do we want in a president? We want judgment. We want values. We want knowledge. Therefore, judgment springing from that. And we want connection to the American people. We want a hopeful message. And that's what he gave us. He proved it by what we have done, but recognizing there's much more to be done. So his interaction, I think, was a sign of his comfort level of all that I just said. He did talk about his desire to work with Republicans who are now in control of the chamber. Given your experience with dealing with or not dealing with people across the aisle, how realistic is that right now? Oh, I'm hopeful that that is possible, but all of it depends on the American people. President Lincoln, you've heard me say, he said public sentiment is everything. With it, you can accomplish almost anything. Without it, practically nothing. So the message has to go to the American people. This is what the choices are, chaos or stability. And they have demonstrated how chaotic they can be from the first day of their electing a speaker to their behavior on the floor. On the other hand, there are some in the infrastructure bill. We had 13 Republicans who voted with this, making it bipartisan. With the chips and science bill, we had 24 Republicans, but nonetheless, bipartisanship. Still counting votes. It was interesting to me because on the chips and science, they wouldn't vote with us until they saw we were going to win it on our own. And then they saw that that was evident, so they came on board. But you know, we always have to. We know that some of them know that they were for the bill the day before the chips and science and then the day of they managed the opposition to it. But we knew that many of them believed in making these chips in America and many and many Republicans we know went home to their districts and touted the bill, even if they voted against it. I did want to ask you, the president said about infrastructure. I do want to go back a little bit to what Dana was saying, because this context here of this speech is a president who may run for reelection pretty soon. And I mean, you've probably heard by now a recent poll found about 30 percent of only about 30 percent of Democrats say he should run again. It seems like a lot of Democrats, they're happy with Joe Biden. They think he's done a great job, but they're wondering if he should step to the side. You have made that choice on your own, ushering in a new generation of Democrats into the House. What do you say to that criticism? And do you think that he did anything tonight to quiet some of the rest of this among Democrats about should Joe Biden be the person leading the party into the future? Well, I mean, last weekend I was at the Democrat National Committee meeting in Philadelphia, and I know that there were some who would say perhaps we should consider somebody new. But even in the 30 percent poll that you said, like 90 percent of Democrats would be for Joe Biden if he runs. What they might hope for in this earlier stages of a campaign and what they have decided they would do are actually two different things. They are for Joe Biden. Joe Biden is a person of vision, knowledge, judgment, strategic thinking to get the job done. He was a remarkable two years, a remarkable two years, and again, connects very empathetically with the American people. So I hope he runs. I'm for him if he runs. And I know that the Democrats will fully embrace him. If he runs, it's over. I don't think there will be any primary challengers to him. Dana was talking to AOC earlier today, and she said something, Dana, correct me if I'm wrong, to the effect of she appreciates the primary process. I mean, do you think that there do you think there will be any Democrats who jump in to try to challenge Joe Biden on this generational argument? No, I don't. I think that you have to weigh all of the equities. Yes, the age issue is something that we all have to contend with in every line of work. But I do think that the fact is weighing the equities. This is a president, 12 million jobs, all of the things that he has done. He has a record unmatched by any recent president. I mean, maybe Franklin Roosevelt, who wasn't recent, but Franklin Roosevelt had 319 Democrats. We had 220 and got done that record of achievement. So he knows how to lead. He knows he has a big vision, a shared vision with America. He is a unifier. He really is. It doesn't go looking for differences. He goes to look for hopeful unity. And he talked about four unifying things when he talked about. He talked about the cancer moonshot. He talked about veterans. He talked about the issues that relate to fentanyl, but also mental health issues that sort of relate to that, where we've made some progress in a unified way. So he's always hopeful about that. So I think he made progress. He gave us hope. He made it clear. We have much more to get done. We didn't finish our job, but we really went down the path in a way that demonstrated that he's a president with great judgment. Sometimes that judgment comes with age. I remember when Jerry Brown was running for office when he was young, he said it's time for a change. Then when he ran for governor the second time, he said there's no substitute for experience. Experience counts for a lot. I think tonight he showed the energy, the empathy, the hopefulness that a presidential candidate would have. I think it was a triumph for him, for the country, and certainly for the Democrats. People were so excited about his presentation tonight. All right. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, thank you so much for being here, and we're glad Paul is on the mend. It's always good to see you. Thank you so much for doing that. Lovely to be with you. Thank you.