The Hill’s Morning Report — Pelosi steps down after historic 20-year run

by Kristina Karisch - 11/18/22 6:20 AM ET

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

After two decades at the top of Democratic congressional leadership, the Nancy Pelosi era has come to an end.

The Speaker announced Thursday that she will not be seeking reelection for a party leadership position, though she will remain a member of the House, The Hill’s Mike Lillis reports. Pelosi, who was first elected to her California congressional seat during a 1987 special election, has led House Democrats since 2003. In 2007, Pelosi shattered the glass ceiling when she became the first woman ever to ascend to the House Speakership — a feat she repeated in 2019.

“She’s a tough, effective, focused, disciplined woman,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a close Pelosi ally, said Thursday morning. “I wasn’t always on the same side as her — and it’s not pleasant being on the other side of her — but she knew how to bring a disparate group of people together to get the job done. For women, the doors have been opened wider for all of us because of what she did.”

Over the course of her leadership career, Pelosi helped steer the congressional response to the 2008 recession, guided the passage of the Affordable Care Act, secured trillions of dollars in emergency relief through the COVID-19 pandemic and made the decision to impeach former President Trump — not once, but twice. She also launched the special investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

This year’s midterm elections will factor into Pelosi’s legacy. The expected GOP red wave never materialized; instead, Democrats were able to cling to dozens of toss-up seats in battleground districts, limiting the Republican gains.

“History will note she is the most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history,” President Biden said about Pelosi in a Thursday statement. “There are countless examples of how she embodies the obligation of elected officials to uphold their oath to God and country to ensure our democracy delivers and remains a beacon to the world.”

With Pelosi stepping back from the leadership ranks, she makes room for a younger generation of Democrats to assume key party positions.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also announced Thursday he will remain in Congress next year but won’t seek a leadership position. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the third-ranking Democrat in the House, said he looked forward to assisting “our new generation of Democratic Leaders,” naming Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and Reps. Katherine Clark (Mass.) and Pete Aguilar (Calif.), who are expected to seek the top three spots, respectively. Multiple sources told The Hill that Clyburn — who was crucial in securing Biden’s nomination in 2020 — wants to remain in the top tiers of leadership, and that he would run for the assistant leader role (The Hill).

Hoyer’s actions clear the way for Jeffries, the current chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, to jump several rungs up the leadership ladder to replace Pelosi in the next Congress, when Republicans take control of the lower chamber. If Jeffries secures the position in the coming weeks, he would become the first new House Democratic leader in two decades and make history of his own: No Black politician has ever led either party’s caucus in the House or Senate (The New York Times).

At the end of Pelosi’s time in congressional leadership, The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell have five key takeaways from her historic tenure.

▪ The Washington Post: “I feel balanced about it all”: Pelosi reflects on two decades at the top.

▪ Politico: The legacy Pelosi never wanted: The groundbreaking Speaker’s aversion to impeachment led her to short-circuit the oversight process. The price was two acquittals for Trump and a weakened Congress.

▪ Time: Pelosi reflects on her not-quite-end of an era.

▪ The Washington Post: Poised to succeed Pelosi, who is Jeffries?

The Jan. 6 House committee has established a subcommittee to craft possible criminal referrals and examine “all outstanding issues” facing the panel as it races a deadline to complete its work. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the panel formed the subcommittee about a month ago, grouping a number of the committee’s lawyers to examine how to move forward on unresolved subpoenas, investigative loose ends, as well as any recommendations to the Department of Justice (The Hill).

“We need to have a decision as to what we do with the members who did not recognize the subpoenas,” Thompson said. “It’s cleaning up every unfinished piece of work for the committee. And that part of it just fit better in some subcommittee. Let them come back and report, and we’ll make a decision.”

The Hill: Jan. 6 panel hits back at former Vice President Pence over new interview.

One of the people dodging a subpoena from the committee is Trump. The Hill’s John Kruzel breaks down where the various investigations into the former president stand as he enters the 2024 race, from the latest in the Department of Justice’s probe of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and the overlapping Fulton County, Ga. and federal investigations into 2020 election subversion as they relate to Trump and those in his orbit.

The Hill’s Niall Stanage explains how Trump and likely 2024 rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) match up across a few crucial categories: Polling, fundraising, their governing records and more.

Related Articles

▪ Politico: New York Democrats look for someone to blame after election catastrophe.

▪ The Hill: Kari Lake declines to concede in Arizona governor’s race, says she’s assembling a legal team.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.): Herschel Walker “crossed a line” with attacks against family.

▪ The New York Times: Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-Colo.) race is nearing a conclusion, or a recount.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ CONGRESS

This week’s bruising leadership fight in the Senate exposed simmering tension between Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Trump’s closest ally in the Senate, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. Graham voted this week to fire McConnell as Senate GOP leader, sharply criticizing McConnell’s leadership of the Senate Republican Conference during a private meeting this week.

Graham then told reporters that he voted to elect Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) as Senate Republican leader because he thought a change was needed. That earned Graham a sharp rebuke on Twitter Wednesday evening from Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff and campaign manager, who accused Graham of flip-flopping on immigration reform.

▪ The Atlantic: The new majority. Republicans are coming to Washington not to legislate or to govern, but to fight.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) to serve as top Republican on the Senate oversight committee.

The Senate on Thursday voted to begin debate on a bill to codify same-sex marriage protections that the Supreme Court granted in 2015. Senators in a procedural vote advanced the legislation, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, in a 53-23 vote.

Cloture and the final vote on the bill is expected to take place the week after Thanksgiving. A subsequent vote will be necessary in the House due to an amendment’s inclusion, leading to President Biden’s signature (The Hill).

The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress —or the “Fix Congress” committee — is set to disband permanently, but its biggest recommendation in its last report is to make sure that dissolution isn’t truly permanent and the report isn’t truly final. The report says Congress should create a modernization subcommittee on the House Administration Committee (Roll Call).

“Our work is not done,” said Vice Chairman Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.). “One of our recommendations is to continue this work as a subcommittee of House Admin. I hope that will happen and believe that will happen.”

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Missiles hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure Thursday as Russian forces stepped up attacks in the eastern part of the country, reinforced by troops pulled from Kherson in the south, which Kyiv recaptured last week.

“Punishment for all Russian atrocities — both present and past — will be unavoidable,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted Thursday as news broke that a Dutch court ruled an airliner shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014 during fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces was hit by a Russian-made missile. The court sentenced two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader to life in prison for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, which killed all 298 passengers and crew. Moscow called the ruling “scandalous” (Reuters).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday denied that this week’s deadly missile explosion in Poland and subsequent disagreements over the missile’s origin indicated a lack of communication and coordination with Ukraine after Zelensky and Western leaders issued contradictory statements.

“We’ve been in regular contact with our Ukrainian partners throughout. I spoke to my Ukrainian counterpart,” Blinken told reporters at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Thailand. “We’re sharing the information that we have and, again, the investigation is ongoing.”

Blinken did not answer a question about whether the incident cast doubt on Zelensky’s credibility, instead blaming Moscow for placing immense pressure on Kyiv. Western officials believe an errant Ukrainian air defense missile crossed the Polish border on Tuesday, killing two people (The Washington Post).

▪ Reuters: North Korea fires long-range missile landing near Japan, drawing condemnation.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Iran rebuked by UN over stonewalling of its nuclear investigation.

▪ The Washington Post: Lionel Messi’s likely last World Cup inspires hope in beleaguered Argentina.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Italian Catholic bishops release first report on sex abuse.

➤ ADMINISTRATION

The Biden administration on Thursday announced updated guidelines that will make it easier for those struggling with their student debt to discharge it in bankruptcy. The new bankruptcy policy from the Justice and Education Departments allows federal student loan borrowers to prove that they’re experiencing financial distress that would require a fresh start.

The agencies may recommend that a bankruptcy judge discharge a borrower’s student debt if they find their case warrants it. Currently it’s difficult — if not impossible — for someone to walk away from their federal student debt in a standard bankruptcy proceeding (CNBC).

“Today’s guidance outlines a better, fairer, more transparent process for student loan borrowers in bankruptcy,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.

The Hill: Biden administration looks to Supreme Court to continue student debt relief program.

The Biden administration in June promised complete relief for student loan borrowers from Corinthian Colleges, a move that would affect some 500,000 people following the school’s fraud scandal. But since then, debtors tell The Hill that the process has been fraught with inconsistencies, confusion, finger pointing and a lack of communication from the Education Department about their loan relief. Some borrowers and advocates worry that the program will take months if not years to kick in while the kinks are worked out between loan service providers and the administration (The Hill).

OPINION

■ Which party has a game plan for the future? We’re about to find out, by Mary C. Curtis, columnist, Roll Call. https://bit.ly/3TM2sc8

■ Trump faces five major investigations. He has dozens of ways out, by Ankush Khardori, contributor, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3hQfAQy

WHERE AND WHEN

👉 The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House convenes for a pro forma session at 11 a.m.

The Senate will reconvene for a pro-forma session on Nov. 22 at 5:30 p.m.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Briefing at 10:15 a.m. He will deliver remarks and meet with business and labor leaders at the White House at 1:30 p.m.

Vice President Harris is in Bangkok, Thailand, where she will attend events for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Harris will speak at the APEC CEO Summit at 12:30 p.m. local time. At 6:45 p.m.,, she and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend a reception with His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua and Her Majesty Queen Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana.

The second gentleman will join the APEC spousal program for a tour of the Arts of Kingdom Museum at 9:30 a.m., and attend the program’s luncheon at 11 a.m. At 1 p.m., Emhoff will visit Wat Pho, also known as the Chapel of the Reclining Buddha. He will then join the vice president at the 6:45 p.m. reception.

Secretary Blinken is in Bangkok for the APEC Ministerial Meeting.

Mitch Rosenthal, a pioneer in substance abuse treatment and the founder of Phoenix House, the nation’s first and largest nonprofit treatment organization, died Monday night at Weill-Cornell Medical Center in New York City. He was 87. Rosenthal, whose substance abuse treatment model was copied by hundreds of organizations in the United States and abroad, was an opinion contributor to The Hill.

ELSEWHERE

➤ TECH

Hundreds of Twitter’s remaining employees resigned ahead of a Thursday deadline that required them to sign a pledge to work more hours or request severance, further depleting the site’s workforce after Elon Musk fired over half its staff when he took over late last month and key executives exited one after another (The Verge and The New York Times).

The departures have left multiple of the platform’s critical systems down to two, one or even zero engineers, a former employee told The Washington Post. Twitter also told employees that the company’s office buildings will be temporarily closed, effective immediately, with a planned reopening on Monday (BBC).

▪ The Hill: Senate Democrats ask FTC to investigate Twitter after “alarming steps” by Musk.

▪ The New York Times: How to prepare for life after Twitter.

▪ TechCrunch: New Twitter accounts will have to wait 90 days before buying a subscription.

▪ NPR: Misinformation threatens Twitter’s function as a public safety tool.

➤ COST OF LIVING

In the online shopping revolution, the supermarket was a holdout, writes The Hill’s Daniel de Visé, but the pandemic changed that. Online grocery sales leapt from $2 billion in August 2019 to $8 billion in August 2020, according to industry trackers.

Two years later, more Americans than ever buy groceries online: 28 percent in 2022, up from 23 percent in 2021, according to Gallup. But sales are seesawing, and the industry’s future is one of retailing’s big unanswered questions. Inflation and looming recession have some shoppers questioning those $14.95 delivery fees. And then there’s the nightmare of “substitutions” — where delivery shoppers can swap out unavailable products for something not quite right, leaving you with raspberry vinaigrette when all you wanted was raspberries. And with Thanksgiving around the corner, most consumers still prefer to choose their own turkeys for the big day.

▪ The Economist: Even a global recession may not bring down inflation.

▪ Bloomberg News: Long is the way out of the global inflation fight, and hard.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday reported a global coronavirus case increase last week for the first time in months. Weekly cases have been either stable or on the decline since mid-July, according to the organization’s weekly epidemiological reports.

But last week saw a 2 percent increase in cases, raising the number to 2.3 million infections, WHO reported (U.S. News).

Simple blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease, long coveted by doctors and researchers, have hit the market, representing a potentially powerful tool to help diagnose the illness, which affects 6.5 million Americans. The tests detect tiny amounts of abnormal proteins in the blood to determine whether the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s are present in the brain (The Washington Post).

“If you had asked me five years ago if we would have a blood test that could reliably detect plaques and tangles in the brain, I would have said it was unlikely,” Gil Rabinovici, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco, told the Post. “I am glad I was wrong about that.”

▪ The New York Times: Five unusual COVID-19 symptoms — and what to do about them.

▪ The Washington Post: Therapists say they can’t meet high demand as anxiety, depression linger.

▪ NPR: How banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can’t pay for health care.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,076,683. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,344 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Congratulations to the Morning Report Quiz winners! They Googled and guessed their way to answers about Thanksgiving traditions past and present.

In the winner’s circle: Stan Wasser, Patrick Kavanagh, Robert Bradley, and Kathleen Kovalik.

They knew the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is tied for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit. Both started in 1924, and only Philadelphia’s parade is older.

The most popular Thanksgiving side dish, according to Statista, is in fact mashed potatoes.

Even though presidents have informally been given turkeys as gifts for decades, President George H. W. Bush first issued a presidential turkey pardon in 1989.

And quizzers will be loath to know that the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates Thanksgiving dinner will be 20 percent more expensive this year than it was in 2021.

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch. Follow us on Twitter (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!