Pelosi calls on Republicans to 'stop the circus and get to work' on addressing the coronavirus crisis

At a press conference on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded Republicans for "continuing to ignore" the COVID-19 crisis.

Video Transcript

NANCY PELOSI: This is a red alert and all hands on deck, but it should have been a long time ago. The president and the Republicans in Congress have ignored by delay, distortion, denial. Deaths have been caused.

And what are they doing now? Continuing to ignore in spite of these numbers that should be so compelling that are an imperative for us to act upon this. Every kind of avoidance of taking responsibility has been witnessed. Every chance that we had for testing, tracing, treatment, mask wearing, separation, sanitation [? that ?] science tells us to do, they have ignored. Their contempt for science and their disdain for governance-- science says wear a mask. Governance says let's enforce that. Science, governance, that's not what they're about. That's not what they're about.

And what that is is they're engaged in an absurd circus right now refusing to accept reality. The Republicans are shamefully pretending and proceeding without recognizing what our responsibility is and making it even harder to address the massive health-- health-- and economic crisis that we're facing.

A delayed ascertainment of the major harm caused to the presidential transition is something of another subject. Right now, we are talking about addressing the crisis, the pandemic. If we do so scientifically, we will be able-- we will be able to open our economy. We'll be able to open our schools safely. We'll be able to do so in a way that recognizes the tragedy that has befallen us in our country because of the Republican denial of science and disdain for governance.

So stop the circus and get to work on what really matters to the American [INAUDIBLE], their health and their economic security.