rep. pelosi: when people ask me, "are you afraid of what might happen?" i say no, because of the goodness of the american people, the strength of our democracy, we will prevail. my motto is the flag is still there. francine: she has been the face of her party for a generation spending two decades as the top house democrat. nancy pelosi made history when she became the first female speaker in 2007.

until recently the most powerful woman in u.s. politics, she has faced attacks from republicans, a campaign that escalated under former president donald trump. rep. pelosi: we have an aberration in our country right now but hopefully that will not last too much longer. nonetheless, we have to strive for unity. sometimes you achieve it, sometimes you don't but we have a responsibility to act in a bipartisan, unifying, transparent, accountable way. francine: in this episode of "leaders with lacqua," i traveled to vegas where nancy pelosi was championing leaders. i asked her about the democrat'' chances at the presidential election, the biggest geopolitical threats, and what she has learned in more than 35 years in public office. francine: speaker pelosi, thank you so much for speaking to bloomberg.

you are one of the most recognizable and admired politicians out there. what did you learn in the last 40 years about leadership in politics? rep. pelosi: i learned a lot about leadership for a long time. observing it in others, recognizing what is needed to get the job done. and i always define it in this way, know your why, why you are doing this because you will be under attack. know what you're talking about. know how to get it done, think in a strategic way, and that is all up here and then also connect directly with people. if you can show them how important what you are advocating is so they trust your judgment and you have a plan, you will have followers, you will be a leader. francine: is it harder to do that in 2023 because of the divisions in america?

rep. pelosi: our goal is not inch by inch, it is long-term and it is always to bring people together. we have an aberration in our country right now, but hopefully that will not last much longer. nonetheless, we still have to strive for unity. sometimes you achieve it, sometimes you don't, but we have a responsibility to act in a transparent and accountable way. francine: how do you think president biden is doing? rep. pelosi: i think he's doing great, one of the best presidents in recent history, for decades. nobody has accomplished more since lyndon johnson or franklin roosevelt. whether it is the rescue package to rescue our country from covid and the rest, whether it is our infrastructure bill to build the country with good-paying jobs, whether it is the science and chips initiative to take us into the future.

whether it is ira, which is just remarkable to recognize the challenge of the climate crisis and to address it in a bigger way than we ever have, but recognizing more needs to be done. at the same time, recognizing our men and women in uniform and our commitment to them. francine: is it frustrating that he has achieved a lot on paper but he does not seem to get recognition from voters? rep. pelosi: it is hard to understand but we do not agonize, we organize. francine: but why? rep. pelosi: this is it -- please understand what he has accomplished, what it means to you at your kitchen table. and most people i am realizing are not thinking about politics that much. they are thinking about their own challenges and the rest and we have to have him relate to that. no one is better at that than he is. joe biden is mr. empathy. he cares deeply about people, he

truly does. he is a great president, he will be reelected. elections are hard. they are called campaigns, that is a war term. but we will be ready and as i say, we do not agonize over what is not, but organize for what will be. francine: what has it been like for democrats to be the minority? rep. pelosi: not a good thing, i don't recommend minority at all. we are going to win it back, we have every confidence in that. they said we would lose 40 seats, 30 seats at a minimum, and we lost five. that was not good enough, i wanted the majority, but we can win five seats, more than five seats. francine: how have you changed as a politician? rep. pelosi: i have mellowed out, become gentle. [laughter] francine: really? rep. pelosi: i don't know. no, i pretty much knew what i was getting into. i did not seek running for leadership, people encouraged me

to do so and i knew my why, i knew what was at stake and i knew how to get the job done. and, i knew how to draw people together. and the same advice i give others, i tell myself women have intuition. people don't talk about it so much but when i was young, that was what people talked about. intuition is a very valuable thing in leadership. when people say to me that they want to run for president, governor, or mayor, or even leadership in the congress, i say understand, you're going from a deductive reasoning, how do we get the legislation passed, to intuitive. there is a problem, you must act. the more time you do not, the fewer your options are. so be ready, know your subject, have good judgment, be wise.

francine: speaker pelosi, you stood up against president trump many times and it has gotten you into spots of trouble. are people more afraid now of taking him on? rep. pelosi: i didn't stand up to him many times. i stood up to him once and it lasted a very long time. yes, people are afraid of him now because, as you see, his desperation, in other words, it is one thing to say we have a disagreement on policy and we do. it's another thing to say that truth is not prevailing. it is another thing to say there is a recognition of all the violations of the rule of law that any person is above the law, undermining the press, which is -- the freedom of the press is the guardian of the gate of freedom, so he was clever. undermine the press, undermine the rule of law, i'm above the law. seeing the lengths to which he will go, of course, is more frightening. he is a threat to democracy, but

we intend to win. francine: he is so popular with the voters. rep. pelsoi: well, he is popular among his group. francine: are you surprised at how popular he is? rep. pelosi: surprised is not a word i use. it is interesting to see how there is a certain element of the population who will just go for him. they are people we would probably never get. they don't share respect for our values of the dignity and worth of every person and the rest, but there are some supporting and who are just afraid. and that is to be respected, so i respect all the people of america and when people ask me are you afraid of what might happen? i say no because of the goodness of the american people, the strength of our democracy. we will prevail. my motto is the flag is still there, as we say in our national anthem. francine: is there a republican presidential candidate that you could live with? rep. pelosi: i'm not into

republicans. i'm into democrats. hopefully, the republican party can find a candidate that america can live with. i say to the republicans all the time, take back your party. the republican party is a great party. it has done great things for the country. you are not a cult to a thug, you are a great grand old party and recapture that because america needs a strong republican party. a strong democratic party, too, but a strong republican party. so hopefully, as soon as we get through this, shall we say, cancerous situation we are in, the malignancy of trump, they will emerge in a strong way with the leadership that i know is there in the republican party. francine: up next, nancy pelosi's harsh assessment on china and why she thinks the world's two biggest economies must cooperate on climate change. rep. pelosi: we don't have shared values, but we have a shared planet, and we have to

work with the chinese to save the planet because they are now the biggest emitter, if not us, they're second. and they are part of the solution in all of this.

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francine: from taiwan, human rights to covid, china's relationship with the u.s. has been rocky. in recent months, washington has sent several high-profile officials to beijing to improve ties. will anything change? i continue the conversation with nancy pelosi, a longtime critic of the chinese government. when you look at geopolitics, what scares you the most? rep. pelosi: there are three things, one is security.

security, security, security. so important. security. secondly is economics, how do we relate economically, because that is the strength of all of our countries. and governance. governance. what is the strength of the democracy in your country? how do you treat people and respect them? what is the integrity of your economic system? so, those are how we relate as americans going abroad. on security, what is happening in ukraine is a challenge to democracy, not just there, not just in nato countries, but really to the world. putin does not share any values of justice and respect for the lives of people, concern for children or anything. and he is frightening, but what is doubly frightening is a

person like the former president who thinks that's ok. isn't that sad? it is so sad and so extreme that it is everything to me is not frightening, but an opportunity. francine: when you look at what the u.s. has been doing with china and how they should treat china going forward? rep. pelosi: china is a big country and so are we. we have to find an accommodation on how we treat each other, but in terms of the three things i named, security, china has been a violator of transferring technology of weapons of mass destruction to rogue countries. in terms of economics, they have been violating almost every trade standard of access of piracy, obeying wta rules and the rest.

in terms of governance, hong kong, tibet, the threat to taiwan and the rest, so we don't have shared values. but we have a shared planet, and we have to work with the chinese to save the planet. they are now, i think, the biggest emitter. if not us, they are second. they are part of the solution in all of this. i have been to china as much as i have -- since tiananmen square, 34 years, have been a strong critic of china in so many respects. security, economics and governance. still, we have to work together on certain areas and we have to find those. i don't think we find them by rewarding them. i think we find them by a mutual discussion about how we can go forward. francine: is that bringing them closer? rep. pelosi: that is up to them. francine: closer in a relationship with the u.s. so it becomes a better working relationship? also economically. rep. pelosi: our deficit with

china is immorality. when you see the fuss made about japan, it was 2 to 1, 3 to 1 sometimes of their imports into our country versus exports to theirs. with china, it is more than double that and when i first started criticizing china about the three areas i said, the trade deficit was $5 billion per year. people said you cannot make a fuss over that because the peaceful evolution will lead to this, that and the other thing. now the trade deficit with china is not $5 billion a year, it is $5 billion a week. we gave it to them. they use that money for their foreign exchange to go into other countries, buy up support and the rest of that, and we were accomplices. i've always criticized our policy in that regard. francine: how often do you get

asked about your trip to taiwan? rep. pelosi: not enough. i love talking about it, as a matter of fact. francine: do you think it's changed something in the way the u.s. and china speak to each other? rep. pelosi: well, president xi has always criticized my criticizing him. my colleagues, senators and the rest, had been to taiwan right before me. did you know that? did you know that? he never said a word. but i have been sort of outspoken about u.s.-china relations. and with a love for china, a love for the chinese people. when i was a little girl, they said if you dig a hole deep enough in the sand at the beach you will reach china. so we felt that we were all connected. so it is not with any dislike for things chinese or people chinese, it is about what? a genocide of the uighurs, a

suppression of democracy in hong kong while promising one country, two systems. taking down the culture, the language, the religion of the people in tibet, the threat to taiwan, the threat to democracy. the threat to freedom of speech. francine: what do you think happens with taiwan? rep. pelosi: we recognize china. our visit did nothing to alter that. we have communiques, laws that govern our relationship with china and our relationship with taiwan, which are very specific, and we are committed to helping taiwan defend itself should they be attacked. we don't want any change in status unless it would be done peacefully, but no aggression from either side. francine: we are seeing a downturn in terms of the economy

in china which could impact the rest of the world. do think president xi is losing control of it? rep. pelsoi: we and other countries decided to ride this tiger, and we poured money -- we just bought everything they had to sell, we increased it. and then when their economy is in trouble, we were, like, oh, it has an impact on us, surprise surprise, surprise surprise but it is not -- we don't want any country to suffer economically because people suffer economically. i understand this, it is a centralized economy. it is a one-man show. it is not anything about values, governance, integrity, certainly nothing to do with democratic freedom. this is pretty complete in terms of xi. he is a step backward from the

previous president. francine: the economy is actually falling. how do you read that? rep. pelosi: we don't wish a failing economy on anyone but we don't say, oh my gosh. some people have an attitude, i profited for it then, now, i'm not. but it was worth it to me to just go along with the whole china thing. money has been a sad factor in this because from the start, corporate america, corporate america just said we don't care about human rights. i don't think they mostly ever have. they don't care about human rights. the security pieces of it, they should have, but on the trade stuff, most small businesses that would want to trade to china were completely cut out, because the chinese said if you

want to sell to us, you must manufacture here. and if you manufacture here, we want to see your designs. and if we have your designs, we don't need you anymore. and by the way, you are not selling here, you can compete with us in the global market. francine: up next, nancy pelosi on why artificial intelligence can't be a free-for-all. rep. pelosi: we need guardrails, standards and the rest so that this double-edge sword does not do harm but instead does good.

francine: artificial intelligence, the buzzword that is dominating headlines and creating a frenzy in the tech world. the dangers of misinformation and fears of threats to privacy, security and livelihoods have forced governments to move to regulate it. it is a task lawmakers in the u.s. are grappling with. i continue the conversation with nancy pelosi. how much time do you spend thinking about elon musk? he is a force. rep. pelosi: none. i do think he is a force in terms of technology especially relating to ukraine, but i don't spend too much. we have a lot of strong leaders. i come from an area that is very, shall we say,

technologically on the move. and every year since i have been in office or even before, they said to me, you have not seen nothing yet. so we don't know what is next but i don't spend too much time thinking about him. francine: in terms of ai or technology? rep. pelosi: ai is a double-edged sword and that is in my district, to and from san francisco. and the people i know who care about our country, care about our country and know that it is a double-edged sword that we need guardrails, we need standards and the rest so that this double-edged sword does not do harm, but instead does good and it can do some good. but right now, we have a strike in the creativity industry, writers and actors and the rest, and there has to be respect for the creativity that they have. and ai has an impact, could have an impact on that. and we have to recognize that.

write laws to respect that. in our constitution, we have respect for copyright. francine: do we need to regulate ai and social media? rep. pelosi: we need to regulate that. social media has been a double-edged sword, doing tremendous damage and good. that is really sad, but who would want to reverse the ability to have health, technology and education and commerce and family communication and all the good things that spring from it? while at the same time seeing filthy, dirty stuff being presented to our children and the rest of that. so there has to be a way for families to know how to protect their children. i myself think that there is a regulation in the law that could be changed to protect children.

that is an ongoing fight that we have with the technology industry. francine: when we talk about leadership, it is also about grooming the next generation. is there anyone you would support in the democratic field? rep. pelosi: for president? francine: for president or senator? rep. pelosi: i'm supporting adam schiff for senator in california. we have 40 million people in our state. our senator who is very revered, senator feinstein, has been a champion in california in the country, whether you're talking about assault weapons bans, she has been the leader in passing legislation for that. whether you're talking about protecting natural resources, whether it is water, forests, again, it's a big state. the fourth economy in the world. and we need full strength in the senate. francine: there have been younger democrats saying a senior senator, criticizing her. rep. pelosi: welcome to my

world, people criticize everybody. francine: should they not criticize? rep. pelosi: they can do whatever they want, it is a free world, and i can criticize them for criticizing her. the fact is she has been really so much a champion. to tell you the truth, over the years, there have been many men who have had concerns in their service, some of them young. but you never even heard about them and i'm not going to tell you who they are. francine: the big elephant in the room because we are in italy, there are rumors that you will end up as ambassador. rep. pelosi: we have an ambassador. francine: will you serve your full term as congresswoman? nancy: absolutely, positively, no question about that. the question is what do i do beyond that. francine: you're not going anywhere for now? rep. pelosi: no, i'm here. francine: thank you for joining us today. rep. pelosi: my pleasure, thank you. thank you so much.

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