POOL

Washington - 3 November 2020

++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY WHITE FLASHES++

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker:

"We have held the House and now when all of the votes are counted, we'll see how much better we will do than that. We are a situation where some of the states have just said we're not counting anymore until tomorrow morning. And of course, the West Coast has not chimed in yet. So there's more to come. Our race this time was all about health care. This was vote your health. We had that in the last election. Our for the people agenda was we're going to lower health care caused by lowering the cost of prescription drugs, preserving preexisting conditions. It became the issue of the 2018 election under the leadership of them of the policy committee that Congress, the Madam Chair with the co-chair of then carrying that message into this election because it is of concern to the American people. It is amplified by the coronavirus. So our purpose in this race was to win so that we could protect the Affordable Care Act and that we could crush the virus, that we could stop the spread of it, that we could reward our workers who risk their lives to save lives and now might be losing their jobs. And that we can put money in the pockets of the American people. So I'm very, very proud of the fact that tonight, relatively early, we're able to say that we have held the House."

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker:

"Now we have to win the White House and we're well on our way to doing that. But again, we were just speaking to our friends in Virginia. Over two million votes have not been counted in Virginia yet. So we're waiting to see what that brings in and what that means for the presidential race."

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker:

"It's not over till every vote is counted and there are plenty more votes to count. In that we haven't even started in my state of California, the whole west coast and beyond. And again, we look forward to coming together in our. Democratic majority in the Congress of the United States, that success would not be possible without your leadership. Thank you, Madam Chair. Cheri Bustos, thank you all. Good evening."

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4295804

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is confident that the Democrats will hold the House of Representative and was optimistic that they would pick up more seats, saying "it's not over until every vote is counted."

"Now we have to win the White House and we're well on our way to doing that," Pelosi said in a news conference Tuesday night.

Pelosi did not answer questions about whether she had spoken to Joe Biden's campaign.

Biden and President Donald Trump were locked in tight races in battleground states across the country Tuesday night as they concluded an epic campaign that will shape America's response to the surging pandemic and foundational questions of economic fairness and racial justice.