2016 is a bizarre year to be in politics, with a looming presidential election that will likely pit conventional DC-insider Hillary Clinton against controversial outsider Donald Trump. But U.S. Rep. and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says she’s not worried.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi: ‘I guarantee it,’ Trump won’t be president
“Take it to the bank.”
Vjeran Pavic for Recode
“Donald Trump is not going to be President of the United States,” Pelosi said on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher. “Take it to the bank, I guarantee it.”
She said that she is urging her Republican friends to “take back your party.” In response to the proposal that Trump uses social media better than other politicians, Pelosi blamed ratings-hungry media outlets for amplifying his visibility.
“Social media has democratized elections even further,” she added. “People hear things that may or may not be true, but nonetheless, the democratization of communication is good for a democracy.”
She also discussed the second iteration of the Innovation Agenda, a Congressional effort to defend America’s economic interests by working with and learning from tech businesses. And Pelosi confirmed that, for related reasons, she sides with Apple and its allies in the recent encryption battle against the FBI.
“If we don’t sell our products overseas and be pre-eminent, we will not be as secure,” she said. “I think the Apple argument, ‘no back door,’ is the security argument. If we open it up, who’s going to buy our technology?”
Comprehensive immigration reform was the only plank of the first Innovation Agenda, in 2005, that did not receive Congressional action. Pelosi praised President Bush as having made a valiant effort at reform and suggested that no reform will happen unless the people afraid of immigrants taking their jobs are placated first.
“If you want to pass an immigration bill, pass a big jobs bill first,” she said. “In their minds, an immigrant took their jobs — which they didn’t. When the economy is doing well is when we should be trying to pass this kind of legislation.”
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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