STUART VARNEY (HOST): Mercedes, 30 seconds. This is a financial program. We're very interested in what kind of legislation can be passed in this Congress. Speaker Pelosi was asked about the debt ceiling, didn't give a proper response to -- I didn't hear a proper response. Do you think anything will get done as things stand now?
MERCEDES SCHLAPP (WHITE HOUSE STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR): You know, the Democrats have made it very difficult. They are actually showing their cards. We know clearly that for them, they have no willingness to move the agenda forward in terms of whether it be USMCA, whether it be infrastructure. They're obviously -- we are having these negotiations on the budget, on what could happen with the debt ceiling, but at the end of the day, the political stunt that Nancy Pelosi has tried to pull off, it's failing. It's a failing political strategy and the American people are reading right through this, seeing right through this, and noting that the Democrats are more worried about impeachment and investigations than they are about actually working with Republicans, working with the president to solve the big issues that we have in our country and to ensure that we're able to continue to be in a position of strength. Which we know is due wholly because of what President Trump has been able to accomplish.
VARNEY: Mercedes Schlapp, thank you very much for jumping on real fast after Speaker Pelosi's press conference there. We always appreciate you being with us. Thank you, Mercedes.
SCHLAPP: Thank you so much.
VARNEY: Thank you very much. I might, just before we go to Dan Henninger, I just want to point out that that question about the debt ceiling, and can anything get done, not answered by Speaker Pelosi, and that is hurting the market. When she started to speak, we were down 300. Now we're down 363. I don't think the market was encouraged by what she had to say.
