House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blew off a question about closed-door impeachment proceedings, opting instead to tout progress on the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Pelosi made the comments during a press conference memorializing the late Democratic Maryland Rep Elijah Cummings, who passed away early Thursday morning. She waved away a question from Cheddar’s J.D. Durkin, dismissing it as “Republican talking points” before changing the subject.
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“On the USMCA you just said a short time ago that you are making progress every day. Leader McConnell has charged in recent days, as has the president, that ‘Speaker Pelosi is still blocking the USMCA because Democrats’ impeachment obsession is blocking urgent work for Americans.'”
“What is happening behind closed doors?” Durkin continued. “Are there ways for Democrats to better convey good faith progress to prevent Republican leaders and the president from charging you are trying to block this?”
Pelosi waved to the other seated reporters in the room, asking, “Anybody else want to put the Republican talking points on the table? We can get rid of all of them at once.”(RELATED: Pelosi Treated Trump Staff With ‘Disrespect’ After Storming Out Of Meeting, According To WH Deputy Press Sec)
She then ignored Durkin’s question about transparency and instead addressed the progress on the USMCA alone, “In response to your question rather than their misrepresentations.”
“I can honestly say I think every day we’re becoming closer,” Pelosi continued, “The meeting yesterday with the trade representative, with some of our task force, I think they will meet again later today. Perhaps at one more time and then we should just see. The issue is do we have enforcement. So the people who are saying that don’t know what they’re talking about or have a different agenda they want to present but we feel very good about being on the path here. We aren’t there yet because we don’t have the enforceability assurance that we need to have. While we have some good things in the bill, it is only a list of good things unless it can be enforced.”