Transcript of Pelosi Interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos

New York City - Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week for an interview discussing the latest on gun violence, inflation and the baby formula shortage. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

George Stephanopoulos.We're joined now by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Madam Speaker, thank you for joining us this morning. This is not what we expected to be discussing this morning. But your reaction to the shooting - is there anything Congress can do? Speaker Pelosi.Well, of course, we are trying to do something about gun violence, but let me just say: our hearts are so sad for the families affected by this. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. That certainly is inadequate. We can never replace their loss. But they should know - I hope it's a comfort to them that so many people in our country are sad for them. George Stephanopoulos.- are grieving.Speaker Pelosi. - are sad for them, are grieving for them.

One thing - and I think the governor was right about the social media companies being - having some responsibility. But there has to be vigilance. Did no one know - any of his friends, school, work, where he purchased any of this? People have to alert other authorities if they think that someone is on a path to terror - domestic terrorism, to violence of any kind, especially when you combine this severe gun violence with the racism that is clearly a part of it.

George Stephanopoulos.How can we hold these social media companies accountable? You do have this free speech issue.Speaker Pelosi. Well, obviously, we have to balance the free speech issues, but you also have to be able to - when you see a prospect for violence, and it doesn't just - it's not just one thing. It's communities of similar thinking who gravitate toward each other.

That's what produced some other violence in our country as well. And America is a great country. Our freedom is so important to us, but that freedom also carries public safety with it, and we have to balance those.

George Stephanopoulos. Did you ever imagine you would be Speaker of the House when our greatest national security threat, according to so many analysts, is domestic terror?Speaker Pelosi.Well, as the statistics have been showing us, there's more of a threat of domestic terrorism and violence than international global terrorism affecting our homeland.George Stephanopoulos. Let's talk about inflation right now. This is something on the minds of all Americans. It's certainly going to be working against Democrats heading into the midterms. Is there anything you can do between now and November to bring prices down?Speaker Pelosi. Well first, if I just may, on this weekend, we were sadly observing the one millionth - the death of one million people from COVID. The sadness in our country - a million people dying, and we have to do something more about that. And we're hoping that our Republican colleagues -George Stephanopoulos.The legislation is stalled in the House right now.Speaker Pelosi. Well, it's not stalled in the House.George Stephanopoulos. The Senate, excuse me.Speaker Pelosi. It's stalled in the Senate. Let's put it that way. So we value all of us, and this - what happened last night was an assault on community, community safety and the rest, as well as COVID undermining communities in such a way.

Okay, let's talk about inflation. First of all, a few things. Inflation, what - what causes inflation? One is when unemployment goes down, inflation goes up. That's not anything to accept. When wages go up, inflation goes up. That's one. When supply goes down, cost goes up. So supply is affected by COVID and supply chain problems that we have because of COVID and also because of the war in Ukraine. Now I don't - there is a Putin Price Hike at the pump. Not all of it to him, but a large part of it.

So what can we do? Well, we - this past week, we've introduced within our conference - a bipartisan, actually friendly conference - our U.S. Competition Act of 2022. I don't know if that will be the title. That's always a debate, but it will address supply chain. It's very important to make America independent and self-sufficient so that we're not as dependent on product coming from overseas, whether it's because of COVID or whatever else. But also because of not having shared values. So holding up our supply for reasons - using that leverage on us.

So this is very important. First part of the bill, we'll have $52 billion for chips. Chips are essential to our manufacturing here. Chips and semiconductors. The next part of it, $40-some billion are for supply chain concerns specifically. And the rest is about education and research, et cetera.

So again, this will help bring it down. We also this week - no, that was last week, and we're working on that now, and this week we will have on the Floor of the House, legislation for market manipulation and how companies are - we need to have a bright light of transparency on how companies are making big profits at the expense - and this is in the energy sector - at the expense of the consumer. And we also are having the same kind of hearings in appropriate - in the Agriculture Committee on how we can increase competition, again, so that we can lower food prices.

George Stephanopoulos. So many families are also facing this baby formula shortage right now, dire shortage across the country. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Republican from here in New York, is laying this on President Biden and his shipping of pallets of baby formula to the southern border. She has a tweet right there where says, 'As American families face empty shelves, this is unacceptable.' Is that why we're facing this shortage?Speaker Pelosi. As usual, her statement is totally irresponsible. Babies are crying. We need to get them food. And the President has - now what we're doing this week in the Congress is, again, Bobby Scott, Chair of the Education and Labor Committee, that's the jurisdiction - that will lower some of the regulations, et cetera, so that it's easier to buy it. Fifty percent of the - of WIC - 50 percent of the -George Stephanopoulos. The Women, Infants and Children program.Speaker Pelosi. WIC. And so loosening that. But in addition to that, Rosa DeLauro, who has been on this case for a while - she was the Chair of the Agriculture Subcommittee of Appropriations when she - now she's Chair of the whole Committee.

But she has been working on this to have some funding so that we can immediately purchase, overseas - there are four countries, Chile, Mexico, Ireland and the Netherlands, that have supply that might be available to us.

The President is quite correct. We must do something as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible, and use caution, for these babies. But we have to move quickly to do that. And part of this is, again, the supply chain issue.

George Stephanopoulos. Finally, Madam Speaker, the January 6th Committee, as you know, has voted to subpoena Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and several other Republican members of Congress.

I know you give the Committee wide berth right now, but if the - Leader McCarthy and the other Republicans continue to hold out, will the House vote to hold them in contempt?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the Committee will take this one step at a time. But I'm very proud of the Committee. They're working in a very strong, bipartisan way to seek the truth, to find the truth of what happened with an assault. People say to me, 'Well, this is unprecedented.'

Yeah, well it's unprecedented for the President of the United States to incite an insurrection on the Capitol, on the Congress, on the Constitution, in that manner. And we must seek the truth. And I'm proud of the work of the Committee.

George Stephanopoulos.Madam Speaker, thanks for your time this morning.Speaker Pelosi. Thank you. My pleasure, sadly.

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