secret history of trump's limit" and then the author of "growing up with missiles," watch our coverage of the tucson festival of book this is weekend on book tv on c-span2. >> coming up, u.s. army veteran irene riverts on her book "beyond the call" about three women who went beyond their regular duty to help women in afghanistan and further the mission. >> one thing shaina scared with me, she felt there were times men tried to break her and test her and see if women could hack it. they had their gearing thashe weapons, carrying it and she pulled the women aside and said no matter what happens, don't you dare start crying and you better keep up. because she's like i have a feeling they're going to try to

test us. that's exactly what happened. the women kept up step to step. >> eileen rivers, sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> earlier today, house speaker nancy pelosi held her weekly briefing with reporters at the capitol, she spoke about president trump's summit with north korean leader kim jong un and yesterday's testimony from president trump's former personal attorney michael cohen. this is 20 minutes. ms. pelosi: good morning. with all the excitement going on around here and in the world, thank you for being here this morning. we talk about while that's all going on, keeping the house running here. very proud of joaquin castro's legislation to overturn the president's ill-conceived idea

about undermining the constitution of the united states, very proud of the work he did to have us be ready when the president made -- took his action so that the congress, the house, was ready to honor the institution which we serve. article 1 of the constitution, the legislative branch, presents the legislation now over to the senate. yesterday was a big day for us. for many of us who worked for years on gun violence prevention, it was a big day when the bipartisan background check act of 2019 passed with such a strong vote on the floor of the house. the night before, many of us were at the -- to observe the 25th anniversary of the brady bill. that was historic. when it happened. and has saved many lives since. millions of -- people have not

been able to get -- millions of people, millions of times people have not been able to get a gun who shouldn't have a gun. but now we have expanded to include online sales and gun show sales as well. which happened yesterday. just anecdotely, i was especially happy because of all the -- mike thompson worked for such a long time, the chair of the gun violence prevention task force, a bipartisan bill with congressman king of new york, the -- to have congresswoman bass tell the story, her story of her son losing his life. t was policy and personal. i just anecdotely tell the story of when we passed the bill before, the brady bill, i was relatively new member of congress, chuck schumer, now the leader in the senate, was our champion. he led the way and he was fearless.

some of us had just the grass roots, the retail member-to-member contacts and the first time we did not succeed to pass the rule. so some of us went over to see mr. brady, a person from your profession, really such a talented man who as you know was shot at the same time president reagan, sadly, was. he sand sara have been such an inspiration. she's a guardian angel of it all for so many years even after his passing. that day we went over, some of us, we were so in awe of jim brady and so we went over after we had lost the vote and said, we're here for two reasons, to whip the rule and to pay our respects to you. to which he said without a second said, well at least you accomplished one of those things. anyway, they were relentless,

they made a difference. the beat goes on as we continue. at the same time we're following through with what we promised in the campaign for the people. one, to lower the cost of health care by lowering the cost of prescription drugs and to the energy and commerce committee has a hearing on prescription drug costs on ways and means, will do so shortly. the che has -- committee has had hearings on the affordable care act and protecting pre-existing conditions. lower costs and bigger paychecks, building the infrastruck which are of america in a modern way. -- one egard, the committee, infrastructure and transportation committee, has had their hearings, governors build the, mayors, to record as we go forward with

legislation yesterday in the education and work force committee, they were -- they marked up a bill for school construction which would be part of the infrastructure legislation. train structure, bigger paychecks, part of bigger paychecks is the equal pay for equal work legislation which was marked up in committee yesterday too. so the three things, lower health care costs, bigger paychecks, the third, h.r. 1, cleaner government. that bill is marked up, it will come to the floor perhaps next week. we're very excited about it because it reduces the role of big, dark, special interest money in politics and also strives to reduce the voter suppression that is so prevalent in our country. we were pleased to establish, -establish the elections subcommittee in the house administration committee headed

by marcia fudge she had the first hearing out of washington in brownsville, texas, a couple of weeks ago, very well-attended, very important. part of h.r. 1, though, is also to reassert and repass the h.r. 4 which is the voting rights act headed by terri sewell of alabama. we hoped, we introduced it this week in preparation for the visit to selma this weekend. first weekend in march. as you know. those of us -- in addition to that we said we'll pass gun violence prevention. we did yesterday in the house and now it goes on. we have another bill on the floor today to expand on that in terms of a timetable. we said we'd do the equality act and we'll be marking that up, announcing that in about 10 days, two weeks perhaps. we're going to do dreamers and t.p.s. in the same time frame.

we'll continue with equal pay for equal work. again, a lot of high profile events going on around here. the ur work to support financial well being of america's working families goes on. the president is returning from vietnam, from his meeting with kim jong un, i guess it took two meetings for him to realize that kim jong un is not on the level. he was a big winner. kim jong un is getting to sit face-to-face with the most powerful person in the world, the president of the united states, and really it's good that the president did not give him anything for the little he was proposing. as you probably know he said he would shut down one of his -- he he would going to,

shut that down but what we want is denuclearization. they didn't agree to it in the first meeting, didn't agree to it in the second meeting and as you know they wanted lifting sanctions without the denuclearization. i'm glad the president walk aid way from that diplomacy is important, we always support it. but the prospect for success, god bless you, the prospect for success seemed dim in light of the insincerity of kim jong un. i have been to north korea, pyongyang, beyond the d.m.z., very serious concerns about north korea, always hopeful that diplomacy can take us to a place, ever suspicious on the motivations of the person like kim jong un. earlier, i was last weekend, i was pleased to lead a delegation to the munich security conference and then on to

brussels for nato meetings. i'm proud to say that our delegation was part of other delegations that went, over 50 members of congress were there, house and senate, democrat and republican. reasserting our commitment to the transatlantic relationship between the u.s. and europe as well as our commitment to nato to strengthen it. people seem very happy to see such bipartisanship, house and senate, with a very positive message of importance of that region to us. so those are some of the things that have been going on here. and right now, we're debating gun econd bill, h.r. 1112, violence prevention. if i run out the door it's because i have to go make a ote. reporter: he seemed to side with kim jong un on the question of

the worm bier -- wormbier, student who died. ms. pelosi: i'm not familiar with what he said. reporter: he said kim jong un denied knowing about it and he believed him. ms. pelosi: i don't believe kim jong un is on the level and the president has believed putin over his own intelligence officials. the president said that but it's strange. there's something wrong with putin, kim jong un, in my view, thugs, that the president chooses to believe. reporter: what should the consequence be the president did violate campaign finance laws while in office? ms. pelosi: i haven't -- let me just say, i read you what we're doing here. we're constantly busy. so i didn't sit dun and watch

the proceedings yesterday but i do know what i saw in the reporting of many of you is that chairman cummings was just a magnificent maestro and each and every one of our members did a very good job in trying to elist the truth to try to get to the facts. some of it was confirmation, as jerry connolly said. some of it confirmed things they had heard otherwise. some of it as you heard was possibly new. some of the high profile statements seemed new. again, i'm not in any position to verify what he said. but that would be, mr. cummings had, i trust his judgment. he had some questions about suspicions that might be true.

reporter: [inaudible] ms. pelosi: i'm not going into that. we have two investigations, a mueller report we're all anxiously awaiting, and as was indicated, one thing i saw widely reported was that the witness said that other issues that he was aware of were under consideration by the southern district of new york. so let's see what that is. but again, impeachment is a divisive issue in our country and let us see what the facts are, what the law is, and what the behavior is of the president. i've said to some of you running up and down the hall, right now, what i'm concerned about is the president's undermining of the constitution of the united ates, which is again ill-advised declaration, totally wrong. i was at the board they are past weekend. what he's proposing is going on there is not reality. i wish you could all go to

laredo for the week of the birthday of george washington and honor george washington and martha washington, so patriotic. that concerns me more than what may or may not be said now. when the facts are known, we'll make a judgment then. i'm also concerned about what the president is doing, what's happening in terms of climate change and our public policy arena that he's still in denial. i'm concerned about his heaping praise on a tax bill that gives 83% of the benefits to the top 1% and ignores the needs of people as we write budgets. i'm more concerned abhis policy than his personality. however, when he facts are known, then we can make a judgment. do you e gun bill, what think -- do you think you can

get 60 votes in the senate and if they cannot advance in the senate, what would you say they've achieved? ms. pelosi: these bills are bipartisan, especially the one yesterday that was the heart of the matter. you know the one that we had worked so hard on for such a long time today that is an important continuation of that you heard me say it over and over, public sentiment is everything. 90% of the american people, 90% of the american people support background checks even members of the national rifle association. most of them who are gun owners have had their background checks and they have no -- they personally don't avoid that. so 90%. some of the figures are tunning -- are stunning though. did you know that 43 children or teenagers die from gun violence in our country a day. in a day. so i think public sentiment is going to play.

i quote him all the time, abraham lincoln, public sentiment is everything, with it, you can accomplish almost anything, without it almost nothing. public sentiment is there. i think the public is tired of moments of silence. tired of mass murders and high profile tragedies. but these tragedies happen in the lives of american people every single day. so i'm -- i count the votes in the house, not the senate, as you know. but i do think that when the opportunity is there for a bipartisan bill, which is very discreet and focused and is the bill that will save the most lives, that hopefully we can get a positive vote from the senate reporter: yesterday house republicans passed another motion to recommit. an amendment on that gun bill. there's some reports out there that democratic leaders and yourself are considering changing house rules to perhaps give more notice and have

members more time to read these motions to recommit. how seriously are you considering these changes and then also, the minority leader's office is threatening this would ground all ledge sthrigse a halt if you do -- [inaudible] -- ms. pelosi: i don't know that he has authority to do that. the power of the speaker is awesome. [laughter] however -- they should remember that. however, i'm a big believer in respecting the whole house and the rights of the minority to have their say. i do -- put me in a different category. i think you should just vote against all motions to recommit. it's a procedural vote. it's a gotcha on the part of the opposition. let's make life easy, just vote against them. should there be some review of everything that we do, we have a modernization -- select committee on mode earnization from our side, chaired -- modernization from our side, chaired -- from our side chaired, yes, by mr. kilmer of

washington state. and they are going to be having open hearings on issues of concern -- well, let me make it their announcement about their agenda. but i think that's an appropriate place for some of that discussion to take place. in the meantime, vote no. reporter: to that end, on the question about the -- talking simultaneously] reporter: the power of -- [inaudible] -- is awesome. [laughter] ms. pelosi: do you agree? or is that a one-man show? [talking simultaneously] reporter: to follow-up on john's question here. ms. pelosi: maybe so. maybe not. reporter: the idea, though, that some of these roll call votes on m.t.r.'s are good votes for your members, to show voting against leadership, if they're from swing districts, if they're freshmen. that was the case in 2007. is that not a good vote for some of them to take? how so? ms. pelosi: just vote no. because the fact is a vote yes is to give leverage to the other side. the surrender the desk raj on

the floor of the house -- leverage on the floor of the house. so again, we have -- our members are so fabulous and they're so great. weren't they wonderful in the hearings? the hearing yesterday, now they're behind closed doors and in intelligence. but if it weren't for you, as exofficio, i would love to be in at that room and hear what's going on, but i unfortunately don't have time for that. my view is that they should vote no. on it. there are plenty of other times when they can vote no, express their -- shall we say -- opposition to the leadership on the form of a bill, you know, vote against a bill. but in terms of the order of the house, it's a procedural vote. i suggest a no vote. should there be some discussion of any what have we do here, we now have established a modernization, select committee on modernization, of congress, and, happily, the minority leader has appointed people to it. we're still waiting for his

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?