c-span.org/dnc, or listen on the free c-span radio app. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. created by america's cable television companies as a public service and brought to you by your television provider. >> earlier today, house speaker nancy pelosi discussed the convention, the 2020 presidential campaign, and the future of the postal service. this portion is about 15 minutes. >> madame speaker, thank you again for joining us. we have a lot to cover in 30 minutes. housee the speaker of the

. and now the vice presidential candidate is san francisco's own, let harris -- kamala harris. i wonder if you could talk about your relationship with her and what she brings to the ticket? speaker pelosi: i would love to talk about that. first, i would like to thank jane for her beautiful statement and aia for their leadership over the years. working with them has been so special because they have the beauty of design, the commitment ,o sustainability, and again anything we talk about, the climate crisis, environmental density andousing, proximity to work, all of those things, the aia has been at the forefront.

their value system is very authentic. to ahey are committed built future with design to meet the housing needs of our community in a way that sustains the planet. i feel very honored that they are sponsoring -- i don't know if it is a whole series, but this presentation today. yes, i'm sitting in front of, speaking of design, the painted ladies. these victorian homes are one of the most photographed, they tell me, pieces of architecture anywhere and very recognizable as san francisco. here, we are very proud of kamala harris, born in oakland across the bay. our district attorney here in san francisco. she will bring to the campaign but more importantly, to the vice presidency and to the white house, values that are similarly

expressed by jane there about our constitution of which she has been a knowledgeable defender, about her future of -- future, of which she is the face of and we are all very excited about her being the vice presidential candidate. others have made history like geraldine ferraro nominated here in san francisco. i was chair of the host committee. it was thunderous when she was nominated as vice president. the republicans had their nominee but this nominee will be more than history. she will be vice president. she will be history and she will be progress. >> we are here in the middle of this convention week, a celebratory time for democrats. many can't shake the feeling that trump is going to potentially win again.

in 2016, he surprised a lot of us. what do you say to those who are concerned the president could pull off a win in november? house speaker pelosi: let me congratulate the democratic national committee on a great opening night. i was overwhelmed by every aspect of it, inspirational he -- speech by michelle obama and what a masterful presentation of her values and what a display of generosity of spirit that she would present the way she did. it was really a tour de force. and bernie sanders, was he not fabulous? he really put it out there with all of the values and the practical politics of what we have to do. of course, i was proud of all the house members who were well represented in the course of it. we will go more into that but to your question, there is no question that we are prepared to win the election if the election were held today.

we would increase our numbers in the house, we would win the senate and most importantly, because the fate of the nation is riding on our winning the white house. the election is not today. will the republicans put up every obstacle to participation that they can? you see what they are doing with the post office and you see what they are doing with accepting foreign influence into the election, the list goes on. you know what? when a president says what he says, forget about him. he is just trying to scare people. people cannot be scared. we had an earlier meeting where eric holder and many of our supporters but eric holder said everybody should have a plan on how they should work, and we all agree that plan should be vote early so that they cannot stand in the way of your vote being counted as cast.

lie, cheat, and steal, which they are prepared to do. we -- unlike 2016, we will be vigilant, prepared and we have our plan to win, engineering back from the 77 days from today, 11 weeks, engineering back to what we have to do to win. our message is don't pay attention to what the president says. he just wants you to think your vote doesn't count but you know that it does. >> speaker, it's a pretty remarkable thing i've heard you say before but what concerns you the most right now weeks from election day when you talk about lying, cheating and stealing -- the post office is up there and we want to get that -- to that in a minute but what else concerns you about the selection -- about this election? say,er pelosi: let us just

i wear my hat is the former chair of the california democratic party. grassroots organizing is where i have sprung from into the political arena. we know how to get out the vote even in these virtual times what we need to do to do it. in terms of your question, the post office in this time of the coronavirus is election central. it really is where the action will be. that's why they are trying to disrupt it in such a blatant way. they hit a nerve with the american people that is one of the sinews of connecting the american people. we were colonies until we became -- until we had a postal system that connected us and strengthened us as a nation as we went forward. it means everything, it hits home for people. so they have actually, in the horror of what they want to do to the postal system -- remember this, 1.2 billion prescriptions were delivered by

the postal service last year in 2019 before coronavirus. well over 90% of prescriptions that are delivered for the v.a. somebody handed me a note -- it's reuters reporting the postmaster general pauses all postal reforms after outcry. he should. nearly 100% of the v.a. drugs were delivered by mail. this is how people get their medicine. six days late, it makes a difference to their lives and their health and their sense of security. we will put into law what we need to see to protect the postal system and that is a health issue now, even more so because of coronavirus. people shouldn't have to choose

between voting and their health. they should be able to vote by mail. >> we will talk more about the postal service a little bit later but i want to say the president talked about the postal service yesterday in minnesota and he brought you up on the campaign trail. the president said you don't love america. you've been serving this country since 1987. what's your reaction to his comments? speaker pelosi: every president says something as disgusting as that, which is frequent, i think he is projecting his own sentiment. i was raised in baltimore, maryland and little italy and baltimore, maryland. my father was in congress when i was born and he was the mayor and our family, we were devoutly catholic, proud of our italian-american heritage, fiercely patriotic as most immigrant families are, fiercely patriotic and, in our case, staunchly democratic. the love of america is in our

dna. it's in our neighborhood and my great-grandmother lived at the white house in baltimore were one of the flags of the war of 1812 was made. we have advertised so don't pay attention to him. it's a sad thing. in terms of loving america, i can say without any fear of contradiction, i have a greater respect for the office of the president than the current occupant of the white house. >> you have the presidential election to focus on and the majority -- you are defending your majority for the first time since 2010 when republicans took over. what is the banner headline for house democrats going into 2020? what is the message you are carrying out to people? speaker pelosi: when we won in 2018 and showed that left to their own devices, this was our year, no presidential anything, that our message would prevail.

of course, we were with our colleagues in the senate and our message then was for the people, for the people we would lower the cost of health care by lowering the cost of prescription drugs and preserving the pre-existing condition benefit. for the people, we would lift up paychecks, lower health care costs, bigger paychecks by building the infrastructure of america in a greenway and for the people, we would have healthier government, a clear government bypassing, which we did, hr one, to remove the special interest privileges that this campaign system allows and honor some of john lewis's proposal to remove obstacles of participation and include the voting rights act. that's a winning message. health care, health care, health care were the most important issues in that campaign that was before coronavirus and that

still remains the focal point for us. of course, we will delve into infrastructure and the greenway but they are all health issues. -- climate issues, but they are all health issues, clean air, clean water. their lead and we hope they will follow ours as well with the biden/harris ticket, build america better. our members have the framework, talking about jobs and health and cleaner government and the rest. they have the framework to present their case in their districts. the lesson for today, the headline would be, democrats increase their numbers as we protect our incumbents.

if you want to talk politics, remember this, when we won 40 seats in 2018, people said it -- isn't going to be a wave or a tsunami? whatever it is it's little drops , of water. many of those races were very close. 31 of the seats we won then were trump districts. he wasn't on the ballot. a lot of people didn't turn out and he is on the ballot now so now people will turn out so we have to fight to hold those 31 seats that are trump districts as well as protect some of our other incumbents as well as grow our numbers. we are not taking anything for granted. we lean on the leadership of the dnc to not yield one grain of sand. it's virtual ground and we are ready for that. we are prepared to have our message be progressive and bold and non-menacing as we go into the districts we need to win as well as to help with other races, governors, statehouses

and the united states senate and, most of all, the electoral college to win the white house. our conversation with our members is we have to put one good day in front of another, no wasted time, no underutilized resources and no regrets the day after the election. >> the u.s. house is currently on it district work break, but nancy pelosi has decided to call members back to washington to work on legislation regarding the u.s. postal service. the chamber gavels in on saturday with the first vote expected about an hour later. watch that life on c-span. coming up monday, host master general louis dejoy testifies on post office operations and the upcoming election. that begins live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span two.

>> now, texas republican congressman will heard and former texas representative beto o'rourke hold a virtual discussion with axios on generation z and the future of politics. is ar next guest representative of texas's 23rd congressional district, congressman will heard, joining , joining us live from san antonio, texas. officer. former c.i.a. you have been the only black republican in the house and he represented -- represent a more than two thirds latino district. i am curious, for younger listeners interested in entering politics, what is your