House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is making no excuses for working with President Donald Trump on infrastructure legislation — boasting Democrats have leverage in the talks.
Just because there’s friction between House Democrats and the president over congressional investigations, a massive $2 trillion infrastructure package that Trump and Democrats have agreed upon is something both sides can support, she argued in a podcast with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel posted Tuesday.
The remarks began at the 12:42-minute mark.
"People say to me, ‘How can you go talk to him about infrastructure when they won’t give us the information for the Mueller report?’” she said.
“And I say, I have to,” she continued. “If we think that there’s a way that we can build the infrastructure of our country working in a bipartisan way, we have that responsibility. We can handle it. We can also make sure that the constitution is respected.”
But she argued Trump's desire to pursue an infrastructure package that’ll show he can get things done aside from the tax overhaul gives Democrats an advantage.
“He needs it, that gives us leverage,” she said. “And I'm happy to — well, I shouldn't ever use the word happy, but — I would be delinquent if I didn’t try to work with him to get something done for the American people.”
She said she believes Trump is serious about getting infrastructure done.
“I do. Because he needs it,” she said. “He has nothing. What does he have to call a tax bill that gave 83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent in our country? That's his accomplishment."
Pelosi also warned that Democrats shouldn’t be goaded into impeaching the president.
"That’s why I have said when people keep after me on the impeachment, he’s not worth it. He’s not worth it because he wants us to go to that place so that we’re not focusing on whatever else," she said.