appointments to the climate -- the select committee on climate. ok? thank you all very much. reporter: thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] >> house minority leader kevin mccarthy also held his weekly briefing with reporters today. he too spoke about president trump's meeting with week with north korean leader kim jong un and yesterday's testimony from president trump's former personal attorney, michael cohen. this is 15 minutes. mr. mccarthy: be kind. i have my cousin with me today. he stopped by. all right? does it work? i don't know.

try anything. good morning. there's a lot going on right now, as you all know. i want to be sure the vital threat to the integrity of this institution doesn't go without knowledge. the democrats are considering changing our -- or eliminating the motion to recommit. these minority rights date back no to 1909. 100 years -- date back to 1909. 100 years ago. it was created with the stated purpose of giving the minority a right to have a vote upon its position upon great public questions. recently these positions have been met with bipartisan support. as you know, 26 democrats joined republicans yesterday to make a flawed piece of legislation a little bit better. by doing so, a motion to recommit was adopted. this was the second time in n. -- an m.t.r. has passed so soon. the first was adopted nearly unanimously. and it has divided the democrat leadership, as many of you have written about. but what's so unfortunate,

democrats now think about changing the rule. rather than reconcile the differences within their own party, that they are driving the division, democrats want to rig the rules and suppress the minority party's speech on the house floor. i want to be very clear and make no mistake. changes to the m.t.r. would be a nuclear option. and it would leave a stain on this majority just two months in. you all know the history. in the last 24 years in america, republicans have been the majority party for 20 of those 24. never once did we discuss, did we bring up the option, or even entertain the idea that we would silence the minority. never once. not during a sit-in not duringnition nig that they did -- sit-in. not during anything that they did. they want to silence a minority? that's wrong. yesterday there was a hearing, to weeks ago i put out questions

for chairman schiff. i even have more questions now. in the hearing with mr. cohen, he said that he talked to chairman schiff. the question i have, what did they talk about? how many times did they discuss, did staff meet, where did they meet, did they travel to meet? just as i had the question before about his meeting with glen simpson, with fusion g.p.s. what did they talk about? how often did they meet as well? you know, adam schiff said a -- set a standard that said devin nunes had to recuse himself. it looks as though adam schiff has met that same standard. yesterday during that hearing, there's always been the saying that politics stops at the water's edge when the president is gone. i know we have differences of opinion. but we come from one country. when president trump is meeting

with north korea, trying to get a denuclearization agreement, the idea that we could not postpone, that we could not show the rest of the world that america stands together to denuclearize north korea, i think that was another misstep by this majority. let's go to questions. reporter: the president said that he believes kim jong un didn't know about the reasons do you naudible] -- agree? mr. mccarthy: you know, just two years ago at the state of the union, we watched someone's parents be a guest of this president. i'm also very proud of the fact when i was majority leader we passed the sanctions against rth korea and named it after that person. the president has just left north korea, i mean, just left

vietnam, a meeting with north korea. and he kept those sanctions in place. i do not see the leader of north korea as somebody who is a friend. we know what happened to otto. we know what this country has done. i support the president in his effort to denuclearize them. but i do not have a misbelief that this -- of who this leader is. yes? reporter: to that end, motions to recommit, you talked yesterday off the floor to some of us about the gun policy vote and you said, you know, suggested some of these votes are just for politics. we've seen the minority use motions to recommit as a political vote -- mr. mccarthy: you've seen who? reporter: we've seen the minority party use motions to recommit as a political vote to weaponize and put to the other side -- make them squirm and take tough votes. isn't that really what the effort behind the m.t.r., to kind of put the other side on icy footing? mr. mccarthy: no.

the used exactly for what it is. remember the process -- reporter: [inaudible] -- document that vote and then turn that around -- [inaudible] -- mr. mccarthy: does it document every vote in yes. remember the process of a majority. a majority controls the committee, a majority has a rules committee. and in this rules committee, how open are they to amendments to bring any amendment to the floor? which is the only way the minority has an opportunity to have a debate and ability to change the bill. so in essence, what is an m.t.r. motion to recommit? it's our only amendment we get to a bill. and every chance we get, we want to improve whatever comes forward. and that is what we do. it doesn't mean the bill is good enough. but we're going to improve the bill every chance we have. and as long as they continue to close the rules on us to have amendments on the floor, remember, 20 of the last 24 years republicans were in the majority. never once did we try to stop an

m.t.r. from the idea of having the right to do it. did they do things that were political? yes, they did. but they had the right to say it. they had the right to make their options. they had the right to be heard and offer it. just as we should. just as any minority should. yes, ma'am. reporter: the republicans had an amendment yesterday. lesko had an amendment. mr. mccarthy: should we only have one? that was very complex. you should have many. reporter: i wanted to ask about the debt limit and how you think that that should be handled, whether or not it needs to be part of a deal that includes other elements to be negotiated, or if the debt limit can be suspended or raised on its own? mr. mccarthy: i think the debt is one of the greatest threats there is to this nation. i don't think it should be taken lightly. i think we should have a discussion, i know the democrats have changed how a debt limit will pass. i think on a bipartisan level, we should sit down together and find a way that we can stop this

spending behavior of this government. and actually curve from we can pay off our debt. that's why i think it should always be voted on by itself, with any avenues we can add together to actually change the direction of spending of america. reporter: republicans yesterday spent a lot of time attacking cohen's credibility. but they didn't seem to spend a lot of time defending the president against cohen's accusations. did any of cohen claims about the president's wrongdoing or his alleged criminal activity give you cause for concern? mr. mccarthy: i'm not on the committee. so i didn't get to watch the whole part of it. now remember, the democrats wanted to have this hearing very early. why? because cohen's going to jail. why? for lying. i thought one of the excerpts that i saw was probably one of the most interesting ones. is that cohen said that he did not go to prague. if you follow all of it back, to what the democrats use, that is how they created the das yea

with the whole belief that there was -- dossier with the whole belief that there was russian collusion, based upon cohen going to prague. to me that was a very interesting -- reporter: what about the documentation that -- mr. mccarthy: i'm just saying, he made that statement as well. reporter: when the fact that cohen brings documentation, you don't have to take him at his word, look at the evidence. does any of that give you pause about allegations against the president? mr. mccarthy: from what i've seen and what we've investigated, it doesn't give me pause whatsoever about this president. reporter: nothing from cohen yesterday -- mr. mccarthy: i didn't hear anything new in the process, no. reporter: was there any coordination between yourself and leaders, freedom caucus leaders, who were questioning mr. cohen yesterday ahead of time. were you brought in to discuss strategy of how they would approach that? mr. mccarthy: i think jim jordan did an excellent job as a ranking member. i thought the committee did an excellent job of getting to the point. just like any committee, one thing i do is -- as the leader, i meet with all the committees.

but most of it's all left to them to work. this is their expertise. this is what they do. this is what they focus on. reporter: when do you expect to name members of the select committee on climate security? some democrats -- mr. mccarthy: i already named before i walked out here. it's today. reporter: could you share them with us? [laughter] >> last question. reporter: the u.s. trade representative said yesterday that he may not need congress to sign off on any type of understanding between the u.s. and china in regards to a trade deal. do you think that congress should have the opportunity to weigh in? mr. mccarthy: if it's not a treaty, then the constitution says we don't. i support the president in his effort, trying to have a more level playingfield with china. let's way to -- wait to see what it is. if you simply check via constitution and other authority, that is true. reporter: on the cohen hearing, democrats are now saying they want to hear from donald trump jr., allen wiseleberg, some of

the allegations that cohen made. what do you make of that? mr. mccarthy: that they're doing exactly what they said before the election, that their whole goal was to try to impeach the president. it's not about the challenge we face as america. it's not about the challenge that we face to make the next century ours. this is purely political. to even have a hearing, while the president is overseas in vietnam negotiating with north korea, says a lot about this new majority. says a lot about what their agenda is. i thought jim jordan made a very clear point, what were the town hall meetings happening in nadler's district? or coming's district prior? it was all about the impeachment of this president. if you watch the questioning of some of the new freshmen democratic members, all they talk about is impeachment. that's their goal. i don't think that's what america wants to see happen. i don't think that's where america wants that we can find and work together. i don't know if you had any more

questions about schiff. none of you asked. reporter: you don't think those two men could maybe offer support for the president since republicans yesterday -- some were saying didn't really offer as much support for the president as they would like to see? mr. mccarthy: why don't we talk about infrastructure? why don't we talk about our opioid epidemic and how we can cure that? why don't we talk about health care? why don't we talk about raising prices of drugs? -- about the raising prices of drugs? there are so many things we can talk about. there are so many things that are -- american families are talking around their kitchen table, i don't believe what the democrats are putting as their agenda is what america's looking for. thank you very much. reporter: thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019]

>> the house is done for the day and the week. earlier, members passed a bill that extends the time gun background checks can occur from three days to 20. this follows the passage of a measure yesterday that expands background checks and times close loopholes regarding individual sellers. the house returns tuesday for legislative work. see it here on c-span. >> here's a look at our primetime schedule on the c-span networks --

>> c-span's "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, we discuss this week's senate finance committee hearing on drug prices. which included seven major drug makers. then a former senior counsel in the white water investigation talks about the future of the robert mueller investigation. be sure to watch c-span's "washington journal" live at 7:00 eastern friday morning. join the discussion. >> earlier today president trump spoke to u.s. troops stationed in alaska. the president's on his way back to washington from his second meeting with north korean leader kim jong un. he talked about military equipment, fighting isis and the strength of the u.s. economy. from angelina rang, this is 25 minutes -- anchorage, this is 25 minutes.