President Trump commended House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi for promoting bipartisanship in her victory speech Tuesday night. He also said she deserved the win.
In all fairness, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by the Democrats. If they give her a hard time, perhaps we will add some Republican votes. She has earned this great honor!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018
Some thought he was being sarcastic, but at his fiery Wednesday press conference he insisted he was being sincere.
"She worked hard for it," Trump said.
Something the two leaders have spoken a lot about is is the cost of prescription drugs. They are both committed to lowering the staggering prices, Pelosi noted at her own post-election press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
The cost of prescription drugs "is something the president has talked about," she said.
But it wasn't all roses. At one point she noted that Trump has a tendency for "fear mongering," particularly on the campaign trail.
Still, Pelosi said the House is going to focus on restoring integrity in government and tamping down on special interest money. In regards to other issues, the Democrat said she spoke to McConnell about working with him on infrastructure.
She's optimistic about the chance for bipartisanship because she has a history of successful negotiations.
"I worked very productively with President Bush" when the Democrats controlled Congress, she recalled. For instance, they "passed one of the biggest energy bills in American history" and they both cooperated on PEPFAR (The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief).
"The point is we worked together," she said.
"We're not going for the lowest common denominator," she said. "We're going for the boldest common denominator. We welcome other ideas and we look forward to a new era."
“We are trying to unify our country,” she concluded.
Yet, one reporter noted that Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have already signaled that they are going to demand President Trump release his tax returns, hardly a unifying move.
"Our committees will make their decisions," Pelosi responded. "When we go down these paths, we know what we’re doing and we’ll do it right."
Congress has "a constitutional responsibility for oversight," she said.
Trump is well aware of the potential investigations against him via Congress and sent the Democrats a threat. If they investigate him, he said there will be no cooperation on deals.
While many Democrats have criticized Pelosi's leadership and want her to step aside for a younger lawmaker, she defended herself as being "the best person" for the job going forward.
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