Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/house-minority-leader-reacts-to-gop-torture-compromise Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reacts to the announcement that President Bush and Senate Republicans reached a compromise Thursday on handling terror suspects. The deal reportedly defines what forms of interrogation constitute illegal torture. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Our Newsmaker interview with the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. We have also extended an invitation for a matching interview with House Republican Majority Leader John Boehner.Congresswoman Pelosi, welcome.REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), House Minority Leader: A pleasure to be here. JIM LEHRER: Today's deal that was announced late today between the White House and the Senate on military tribunals and interrogation rules for terrorists. What do you think of that? REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, I haven't seen the particulars of it, but the principles that we have heard in the news report sound very much like legislation proposed by the Democrats last week in the House Armed Services Committee, which was an approach that would enable to us get the most reliable intelligence to protect the American people, that will enable us to prosecute those responsible for 9/11, and bring them to justice, and would do so in a manner that was consistent with the Geneva Conventions so as to protect our American soldiers should they come under questioning.That was rejected in the House Committee, so I'm not surprised that Chairman Duncan Hunter is holding back his approval. JIM LEHRER: Well, do you expect him to finally give in on this or do you know? REP. NANCY PELOSI: I don't know. He's not fond of deals that are made between the Senate and the White House without the House participating. JIM LEHRER: I see. But just based on just the rough knowledge that we all have of this, it looks to you, at least, as if the president and the White House blinked on this? REP. NANCY PELOSI: Yes, indeed. I think that the authority that Senators Warner, and Senator McCain, and Lindsey Graham, and others, and certainly Secretary Powell, for obtaining reliable intelligence to protect the American people, as I said, to bring those responsible for 9/11 to justice and do so in a way that protects our troops, has finally — they impressed that upon the president and persuaded him. JIM LEHRER: And so, unless Duncan Hunter and others who feel the way he does rise up in some way, you think this will be enacted into law before you all adjourn next week? REP. NANCY PELOSI: I don't know. It may come to the floor of the House and Senate, if it has time to go to conference and back. I don't know if that can be done before the election. But, again, we haven't seen the particulars of this and, as you know, the details are very important.