MITCHELL: Madam Speaker, I well remember that day, June 6, 2019, when, try as I might, you refused to say anything at all that was critical of the president in front of the American cemetery, which is hallowed ground. I know you have to go but one more thing, this is courtesy of CNN, this is tape of a conversation that I believe took place on March 19, where the president can be heard saying that he always wanted to play down the threat of the coronavirus when he was first warned about it initially on January 28th by his National Security Adviser. Let me play this very brief segment for you and get your reaction.

(clip)

TRUMP: I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down.

WOODWARD: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: Because I don't want to create a panic.

(end clip)

MITCHELL: So the president's explanation is that he was trying to play it down because he did not want people to panic. Your comment about that? That was taped on March 19.

PELOSI: The fact is that the coronavirus and the threat that it was is a reality. A president should face that reality. The way to avoid a panic is to show leadership, to say this is what the challenge is, we're going to use the best scientific evidence that is available to us to contain it, we are going to make sure that we can stop the spread of it. That is what stops a panic, not ignoring it and then finding out that a hundred -- and then later saying, well, the a couple of hundred thousand people, that goes with it, that's not that many compared to how many die of the flu in a few years or whatever.

So I think that what he said there connotes two things. One, his weakness. He didn't know how to cope with a challenge to our country. Secondly, his disdain and denial for science, which has the answers. We could have contained this early on. But bigger than all of that, bigger than all of that, was his total disregard for the impact on individual families in our country. Imagine losing a loved one to a virus that didn't even -- they didn't even know about seven or eight months ago, the end of last year. And to have a president use that as an excuse. What he was actually saying is, I don't want anybody to think anything like this happened on my watch, so I'm not going to call any more attention to it, it's a hoax, we expect a miracle, it's going to go away magically. Something's very wrong with this. And it can be captured in the statement that the president made about that.

I don't know -- I mean, again, I just don't know why there isn't some kind of intervention by those who are surrounding him professionally, or any goodwill on the part of his own family, to say something is very wrong here, we have to have an intervention for the good of our father, Donald Trump, and for the good of our country.

But it's all the more reason why we have to remove every obstacle to participation in the vote, because as you see, they're carrying this crusade, this mission that they have, that identifies with dictators and thugs, and again, as I've said over and over again, Putin, his friend. He's Putin's puppet, all roads lead to Putin. What does Putin have on him personally, politically, professionally, financially? We'll find out when we see his tax returns. But this is really sad. It makes us wonder how we ever would be so competitive in races between Democrats and Republicans who just had a difference of opinion as to the role of government when we see how distorted the presidency can be.

I'm really excited about Biden, I think he's going to be a great president. I never saw any hatred coming from Kamala Harris and neither did the president. But he's always projecting his negative attitudes onto other people. But it won't be long, in eight weeks we'll be celebrating the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic House of Representatives. A cornerstone of what we do is to have bipartisan transparency in what we do so the public can make its own judgment about us, and when we do so, to do so as a result of a free and fair election, not to be frightened by anything that he says. Again, we don't agonize, we organize. And that's what we intend to do.