Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference

Washington, D.C.-Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference on May 25, 2016. Below is a transcript of the press conference.

I’m just running a little bit late. I just came from a memorial service for Harry Wu. His passing in April took us all by surprise. We were shocked and saddened by it.

He was such a champion for human rights in China, always reminding us that we lose all moral authority to talk about human rights anywhere in the world if we do not talk about them in a place where we have a big commercial relationship, a place like China.

He also reminded us constantly as he worked to spread the word about the Laogai, the labor camps where torture, hunger, and forced labor were the order of the day, and making products for sale in our own country. He gave us evidence of that over and over again.

What he said was-he was a prisoner for 19 years-the most excruciating form of torture by the prison guards to the prisoners was to tell them nobody even knows you’re here, they don’t even remember you, they don’t know why you came here. And for decades I had worked with him to make sure that the prisoners know that they are not forgotten.

Harry will not be forgotten. He will be sorely missed, Harry Wu.