Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union.  Below are the Speaker’s remarks:

 

Dana Bash.  We still do not know which party is going to control the House of Representatives, as Western states continue to count votes.

 

Let's go now to a woman who knows that part of the country extremely well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat of California.

 

Thank you so much for joining me this morning, Madam Speaker.

 

I want to, of course, ask about all of – everything having to do with the election, but I want to start by asking you about your husband, Paul.  How is he doing?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, thank you for asking.  Good morning.

 

Each day takes us closer to recovery.  It's a long haul, but he's doing well, comforted by the good wishes and especially the prayers of so many people throughout the country.  We thank them all for that and, again, so many have said, ‘I'm going to be sure to vote because this has gone too far.’

 

But, anyway, I – he is surrounded by our children and grandchildren and the rest.  And the doctors say a little less activity, a little more rest.  But thank you.

 

Dana Bash.  Let me ask you about the fact that right now, as we speak, the Democrats need fourteen seats to win control, Republicans need seven.

 

Half of the 20 seats are outstanding.  Many of them – half of them, I should say, are in your home state of California.  Will Democrats keep the House?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, we will see when the people have finished speaking and the votes have been counted as cast.

 

I'm very proud of our Democratic candidates, both the incumbents seeking reelection, and our Red to Blue, our challengers.  They never took any guidance from those who would say, ‘this is over, Democrats can't win because history says.’

 

That conventional wisdom was conventional, and it certainly wasn't wisdom.  And they knew their purpose.  They knew why they were running, to protect our democracy, save our planet, protect our values and the rest.  And they did not heed any guidance of, ‘You should change your message.’  They knew their districts.  They related to their constituents.  And they have produced a great result.

 

Who would have thought two months ago that this red wave would turn into a little tiny trickle, if that at all?  But we never believed that.  We believed.  I think believing is one of the most important pieces of it.  Believe.  They believed in themselves.  They believed in our country.  They believed in our plan, their plan to win.

 

Dana Bash.  Madam Speaker –

 

Speaker Pelosi.  So, we will see.

 

Dana Bash.  You said that they knew their districts.

 

You know all the districts.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Yes.

 

Dana Bash.  Especially when it comes to the votes still out in California.

 

I mean, how – where are you right now?  How confident are you about potentially keeping control of the House?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, our purpose, my purpose in all of this is to, first and foremost, protect our incumbents.  And that is what we have done in California.

 

And we – where we had seen opportunity to grow our Majority, that has been our priority, both in California and elsewhere.  We're disappointed as to what happened in New York, because that is a setback, in terms of our calculations before.  But we will see.

 

There are so many votes still out.  I have said this is like the Olympics.  Half a second, you can be gold, silver, bronze or honored to be an Olympian.  So, we will see where this takes us.

 

But I think you see a path to the future that is much brighter than what was predicted by the punditry and those who want us to change our message.

 

Dana Bash.  You mentioned New York.  In fact, four of your losses came from a very, very blue state in New York, including your colleague Sean Patrick Maloney, your fellow leader.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Yes.

 

Dana Bash.  It might make the difference between winning and losing control.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  That's right.

 

Well, let me first say, Sean Patrick Maloney did an outstanding job as the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  He and the team that he assembled deserve a great deal of credit for keeping us with a path.  I'm sorry about his loss.  It's a big loss to the Congress and the country.

 

But I do want to salute President Biden for his campaigning, President Obama, all of it raising the urgency of the election and the awareness that people must vote, and that they shouldn't listen to those who say this is a foregone conclusion because of history, but it's about the future, and get out there and vote.

 

Dana Bash.  What happened in New York?  What do you think?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, I think – here's what I always say, you know, as a former Chair of the California Democratic Party.

 

You have to take every district at a time.  You cannot make sweeping overviews the day after the election or within the time of awaiting the count, just every district at a time. Our message, People Over Politics, lower costs, bigger paychecks, safer communities, served us well in the rest of the country.

 

Every race has to be analyzed about what happened in that race, if you really are going to learn anything, rather than draw a conclusion.  In the course of the campaigns, when people would ask me about a particular race, I’ll say, ‘I don't know.  I haven't been on the ground there.’

 

Dana Bash.  Right.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  I have been on the ground on many of the races.  And so I was confident.

 

But it was interesting to me that people would talk about these races who didn't really know what they were talking about.  And I think the results have – are evidence of that.

 

We're still alive.  But, again, the races are close, and we just – we don't pray for a victory.  I was – I grew up in a political family.  You don't pray for the victory, but you pray that God's will, will be done.  And, on that Sunday, that's what we pray – on this Sunday.

 

Dana Bash.  Madam Speaker, you alluded to this when I asked about your husband, but I just want to ask specifically and kind of point blank about the fact that there has been such extremism, such political violence.

 

And what happened to your husband was horrific.  Do you think that that had an impact on voters as they cast their ballots?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  I don't – I know that what people tell me, that's anecdotal.

 

And we always say that the plural of anecdote is not data, necessarily, but it is a trend in what I'm hearing.  But it wasn't just the attack.  It was the Republican reaction to it, which was disgraceful.

 

And that I think, really – the attack is horrible.  I mean, imagine what – how I feel, as was the one who was the target, and my husband paying the price, and the traumatic effect on our family.  But that trauma is intensified by the ridiculous, disrespectful attitude that the Republicans – and there's no – nobody disassociating themselves from the horrible response that they gave to it.

 

Dana Bash.  Do you think that turned –

 

Speaker Pelosi.  I don't want to go further into that.

 

Dana Bash.  That turned voters off?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  They tell me so.

 

Dana Bash.  You have talked about the need for a vibrant Republican Party.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Yes.

 

Dana Bash.  House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, he's working the phones, probably as we speak, trying to firm up the votes he needs to become Speaker, if Republicans do in fact take the House.

 

As somebody who has been Speaker for a combined eight years, do you think Kevin McCarthy has what it takes to be Speaker of the House?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, let's just get through the election, okay?  They haven't won yet.  They have been measuring for draperies.  They have been putting forth an agenda.

 

They haven't won it yet.  Let's – after we – after the election is concluded, depending on who is in the Majority, there will be judgments made within their own party, in our own parties, as to how we go forward.  It's not up to me to make any evaluation of what their possibilities are.

 

Dana Bash.  Well, you are uniquely qualified to understand what it takes to be Speaker of the House.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Yes, I do.  I do.  I –

 

Dana Bash.  Does he have it?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, why would I make a judgment about something that may or may not ever happen?  No, I don't think he has it.  But that's up to his own people to make a decision as to how they want to be led or otherwise.

 

What is important, though, is that this election has been a victory For The People, for the candidates who had the courage to run in the face of any predictions, for the grassroots people, VIPs, our volunteers in politics, knocking on millions of doors to get out the vote.

 

Don't ever underestimate.  Now, see, I'm a former party chair, so I'm ‘own the ground.’  You have to own the ground.  And owning the ground took us to the place that we are now, much closer to victory than anyone would have predicted.

 

And, of course, our President, President Biden, and President Obama being out there to make people aware of the importance of this election, and that the prospects were that we could win to offset some of the punditry that were wedded to the past, when we're – that we know elections are about the future.

 

But I don't – I don't really get into Republican Caucus politics.  That's up to them.  But, nonetheless, we still think we have a chance to win this.  But nobody would have ever expected that we would be this close.  Well, we expected it, but the, shall we say, ‘conventional wisdom,’ however conventional it was or how unwise it was.

 

But let me just salute the Senate.  This is so – such a cause for celebration.  Chuck Schumer was so correct when he said it was a victory For The People and for the country.  I personally know that it's a joy to Harry Reid, wherever – in Heaven, as he is, that his state came through with the victory that gave us the Majority in the Senate.

 

Dana Bash.  Madam Speaker, you told my colleague Anderson Cooper that your decision about whether to stay in the House Leadership will be affected by the attack on your husband, Paul.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Yes.

 

Dana Bash.  As a human, anybody could understand that comment to mean that you're a wife who is dealing with trauma in your family after that unbelievable attack.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Yes.

 

Dana Bash.  Another way to look at it, as somebody who's covered you for a long time, is that maybe you're emboldened and you feel more of a responsibility to stay.

 

Which is it?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, the fact is, any decision to run is about family and also my colleagues.

 

And what we want to do is go forward in a very unified way, as we go forward to prepare for the Congress at hand and then, after some respite, get ready for the next election.

 

I don't want to be – I don't – I say to the Members, recreate and re-create are the same word.  We – people have to recreate.  They have to rest.  They have to get ready.  But, nonetheless, a great deal is at stake, because we will be in a Presidential election.

 

So, my decision will then be rooted in what – the wishes of my family and the wishes of my Caucus.  But none of it will be very much considered until we see what the outcome of all of this is.

 

Dana Bash.  And –

 

Speaker Pelosi.  But there are all kinds of ways to exert influence.

 

I mean, just – Speaker has awesome power, but I will always have influence.

 

Dana Bash.  Do you intend to make your decision by the time the Leadership elections are scheduled to take place, which is November 30th?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Yes.  Yes, that – we have – we have a couple more weeks before.  Just – we have a couple more weeks.

 

Dana Bash.  But you will make a decision before that?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  Of course.

 

Well, you know what?  I'm not asking anybody for everything.  People are campaigning.  And that's a beautiful thing.  And I'm not asking anyone for anything.  My Members are asking me to consider doing that.  But, again, let's just get through the election.

 

Dana Bash.  Your Members are asking you to continue running again?

 

Speaker Pelosi.  There are only so many hours a day, only so many hours in the day.

 

And we are so completely focused on our political time, our official time, on making sure that we win and prepare for the lame duck, whether it's debt ceiling, or whether it's other legislation that is necessary For The People as we go forward.

 

So, I have a day job.

 

[Laughter]

 

Dana Bash.  Yes, you do.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  I do.  And, again, part of it is to be the political leader and to get us the best possible victory, and then not worrying about my future, but for the future of – for the American people.

 

Dana Bash.  Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, appreciate you coming on.

 

Speaker Pelosi.  My pleasure.  Thank you.  Good morning.

 

Dana Bash.  Thank you.

 

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