‘Iconic, heroic, trailblazing’: Democrats praise Pelosi’s tenure following retirement announcement
Several Democrats, including those running to fill Nancy Pelosi’s seat, have praised the former House speaker for almost four decades in office.
House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, called Pelosi an “iconic, heroic, trailblazing, legendary and transformational leader” in a statement.
“She is the greatest Speaker of all time,” he added. “Guiding her life’s work has always been her strong faith, tremendous patriotism and belief that we have a Republic worth keeping.”
Senator Adam Schiff, of California, said that Pelosi has been “an indelible part of every major progressive accomplishment in the 21st century”, while describing her as a “mentor and friend”.
“Her voice carried far beyond the walls of Congress,” Schiff said. “She represented the United States on the world stage, trailblazing while balancing the demands of an unruly Congress, and like Ginger Rogers – she did it backwards, and in heels.”
Meanwhile, Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff for congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who launched a primary challenge against the speaker emerita prior to her announcement, said Pelosi’s tenure “defined a generation of politics” and described her decision to retire as “doing something truly rare in Washington: making room for the next one”.
Another challenger, state senator Scott Weiner, praised Pelosi’s legislative accomplishments: “Millions of lives have been transformed for the better through the laws she has passed and the example of fearless leadership she has provided our country.”
Key events
Further to my previous post about a new country joining the Abraham Accords, Axios is reporting that it will be Kazahkstan, citing a US official.
Earlier we told you Donald Trump will be holding multilateral meetings with five Muslim-majority central Asian countries this afternoon, and according to Axios, Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will signal his intention to join the accords then in a call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kazakhstan and Israel have had full diplomatic relations for over 30 years, so “the move is designed to reinvigorate the Abraham Accords as the US-led framework for cooperation between Israel and the Arab and Muslim world”, according to the official. The move was initiated by the Kazakh president, according to the report.
Trump has previously told the news agency that a priority for him is to restore international support for Israel, whose reputation has been decimated by its assault on Gaza which is widely agreed to be a genocide.
“This is going to show that the Abraham Accords is a club that many countries want to be a member of and it will be a step for turning the page on the war in Gaza and moving forward towards more peace and cooperation in the region,” the official told Axios.
Per Axios’s report:
Thursday’s announcement is not groundbreaking on its own. There’s no history of conflict between Israel and Kazakhstan, nor any current restrictions on Israelis visiting or conducting business in Kazakhstan.
For Kazakhstan, which also signed an agreement with the US on critical minerals on Thursday, it’s a chance to earn some goodwill in Washington.
For the Trump administration, bringing regional players like Saudi Arabia or even Syria into the accords is a bigger priority, but much more delicate diplomatically.
Donald Trump looks on after a man fainted during an announcement about weight-loss drugs in the Oval Office today.
A White House reporter has it that it was Novo Nordisk executive Gordon Findlay who collapsed in the Oval Office a short while ago. We’ll bring you any more updates on that as we get them.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff said that a new country would be announced tonight night as entering the Abraham Accords, a landmark achievement at the end of the first Trump administration that normalized relations between Israel and several Muslim-majority nations.
Reuters reports that Witkoff, who was heavily involved in the brokering of a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza, told a business forum in Florida that he would be returning to Washington for the announcement, declining to say which country it would be.
In August, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was eyeing Azerbaijan as the next country to join the accords, along with other Central Asian allies of the US.
The countries that already signed the accords in 2020 are Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. (Sudan also signed the general declaration, but its bilateral agreement has been delayed due to the ongoing crisis of its civil war).
During that event a man collapsed in the Oval Office, prompting White House officials to immediately end the event and escort press out of the room. His identity and status is unclear, according to NBC News. A CBS News reporter captured this pic.
Trump signs executive order to slash prices of obesity drugs
In the Oval Office today, the president announced an executive order that cuts the prices of some obesity drugs by pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
Some of the medication, known as GLP-1 weight loss drugs and taken orally, could now cost as little as $150 per month, pending approval by the FDA. The cut in price will also mean that Medicaid and Medicare will cover the cost of these obesity drugs.
Speaking today, Trump said that this is “a great day for American health and health care and for all of American patients,” but also said that it would be “devastating” if the the sweeping tariffs he’s implemented – and the supreme court are deliberating – were to be scrapped by a “negative decision”.
“During Covid, we made almost no medicine here. We had to go to China, we had to go to Ireland, we had to go to other places,” Trump said. “Now we’re making it. We’ll soon be making it all here again, because of tariffs and my election.”
Oversight Democrats request interview with former Prince Andrew’s as part of ongoing Epstein investigation
Democrats on the House oversight committee have sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, to request his cooperation in their ongoing investigation into the handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, including sitting for a transcribed interview.
“Your long-standing friendship with Mr. Epstein, indicate that you may possess knowledge of his activities relevant to our investigation,” the lawmakers write to the former prince, who has officially been stripped of his royal titles. “This close relationship with Mr. Epstein, coupled with the recently revealed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together,’ further confirms our suspicion that you may have valuable information about the crimes committed by Mr. Epstein and his co-conspirators.”
The committee’s top Democrat, Robert Garcia, said that rich and powerful men have “evaded justice for far too long”, noting that the former prince has the “opportunity to come clean and provide justice” for the survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
‘Iconic, heroic, trailblazing’: Democrats praise Pelosi’s tenure following retirement announcement
Several Democrats, including those running to fill Nancy Pelosi’s seat, have praised the former House speaker for almost four decades in office.
House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, called Pelosi an “iconic, heroic, trailblazing, legendary and transformational leader” in a statement.
“She is the greatest Speaker of all time,” he added. “Guiding her life’s work has always been her strong faith, tremendous patriotism and belief that we have a Republic worth keeping.”
Senator Adam Schiff, of California, said that Pelosi has been “an indelible part of every major progressive accomplishment in the 21st century”, while describing her as a “mentor and friend”.
“Her voice carried far beyond the walls of Congress,” Schiff said. “She represented the United States on the world stage, trailblazing while balancing the demands of an unruly Congress, and like Ginger Rogers – she did it backwards, and in heels.”
Meanwhile, Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff for congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who launched a primary challenge against the speaker emerita prior to her announcement, said Pelosi’s tenure “defined a generation of politics” and described her decision to retire as “doing something truly rare in Washington: making room for the next one”.
Another challenger, state senator Scott Weiner, praised Pelosi’s legislative accomplishments: “Millions of lives have been transformed for the better through the laws she has passed and the example of fearless leadership she has provided our country.”
Edward Helmore
US airline regulators are expected to publish a list of 40 airports serving “high-volume markets” where air traffic will be reduced on Friday, a move that would force airlines to cancel thousands of flights and create a cascade of scheduling issues and delays at some of the nation’s largest airports.
The Federal Administration Agency has said flights are being reduced to maintain safety during the ongoing federal government shutdown, now the longest recorded and with no sign of a resolution between Republicans and Democrats to end the federal budget standoff, now in its 37th day.
Experts predict hundreds if not thousands of flights could be canceled. The cuts could represent as many as 1,800 flights and upwards of 268,000 seats combined, according to an estimate by the aviation analytics firm Cirium.
ABC News said it had obtained a list of affected airports, which includes Atlanta, Boston, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, all three New York City-area airports and Chicago O’Hare.
The flight reductions, the outlet reported, will start at 4% on Friday and work up to 10%. The flights affected by these reductions are scheduled during the hours of 6am to 10pm.
The likely airspace shutdown comes two weeks before the Thanksgiving holiday – typically the busiest travel period of the year – and raises pressures on lawmakers to reach a deal to end the shutdown.
Johnson says that he’s confident supreme court will say Trump’s tariffs are legally sound
On the subject of Wednesday’s supreme court arguments, the House speaker said that a majority of the court will agree that the Trump administration has the “legal authority” to continue its sweeping tariffs. This, despite skepticism from almost all of the justices on the bench, including the conservative wing of the court.
Johnson remained confident today:“ If I felt like the executive branch had overstepped its bounds on trade or on the tariffs or something, I would have stepped in … I believe that what [Trump’s] done is well within the bounds. And so we’ll see what the court does.”
Johnson also referred to Nancy Pelosi’s decision to not seek re-election as a direct consequence of the internal fighting within the Democratic party. “That is a very important sign that I hope that you all will delve into” Johnson said. “Even the famous San Francisco liberal is not far left enough for the neo-Marxists.”
Johnson continues to blast Mamdani’s victory in New York
At his daily press conference at the US Capitol today, House speaker Mike Johnson continued to disparage Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in New York.
“A 34-year-old Marxist is now the leader of the Democratic Party,” Johnson said, despite that Mamdani identifies as a Democratic Socialist.
“Right now, the energy is on the side of the Marxist. Look no further than the top two Democrats here in Congress this year, every day they have to bend the knee to the socialists,” the speaker added, referring to Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minoirty leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of whom represent New York, and have been resolute that members of their party should not support the GOP-drawn funding bill to reopen the government.
“If they vote to reopen the government, the Senate Democrats are afraid that the radicals in their party will say that they caved,” Johnson said today.
Top Senate Republican continues to pour cold water on Trump’s filibuster ambitions
John Thune, the Senate majority leader, continues to dismiss any hopes of abolishing the filibuster, despite Donald Trump’s insistence.
“There just aren’t the votes in the Senate, and for that matter, not even close,” Thune told the Daily Caller.
A reminder, there are two ways to eliminate the procedural mechanism. The first, and most straightforward method, requires changing the language of the Senate rule 22. This, however, requires a two-thirds majority in the upper chamber to formally change the text (an unlikely order).
The other avenue, known informally as the “nuclear” option, which works by using a simple majority to set a new precedent in the Senate. Notably, this isn’t a rewrite to the actual rules, so it only pertains to legislative business at hand.
Lauren Gambino
As speaker, Pelosi guided House Democrats through moments of extraordinary consequence: the 2008 financial crisis, the passage of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act in 2010 – her greatest legislative achievement – and, in her final years of leadership, sweeping climate and infrastructure measures under President Biden.
Her tenacity – and self-assuredness – is legendary. “I have no doubt that if I decided to run, I would win,” Pelosi told CNN in an interview that aired earlier this week. “That isn’t even a question.”
Even after losing the gavel following the 2010 midterm wipeout, when some in her caucus urged her to step aside, she ran for leader again and won. Eight years later, she reclaimed the speakership, navigating a divided caucus that included an historic class of Democratic women and new progressive voices unafraid to clash with the party’s leadership.
Over two decades, Pelosi became one of the most vilified figures in Republican politics, targeted in attack ads that turned her into a symbol of everything the right reviled about Democratic governance. Shortly before the 2022 midterm elections, the vitriol spilled into violence, when a hammer-wielding assailant broke into their San Francisco home and attacked her husband, later saying he planned to kidnap Pelosi and interrogate her.
Lauren Gambino
Pelosi’s decision comes amid an intra-party reckoning over its aging leaders.
In 2022, she relinquished her role as House Democratic leader, declaring that the “hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect”. But she chose to remain in the House, where Democrats bestowed on her the title of “speaker emerita”.
Pelosi played a key role pushing Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in 2024. Biden’s decline in office, and his eventual withdrawal from the campaign, exacerbated concerns about age and term limits. Several long-serving House Democrats are facing challenges from younger candidates calling for generational change, and Pelosi allies such as Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Jerry Nadler of New York have already announced their retirements.
Pelosi’s departure from the race, long anticipated, will jolt the primary fight for a rare open Democratic seat in the heart of San Francisco she has occupied in Congress since 1987. Two Democrats have already jumped into the race and more will likely join.
Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker, will not seek re-election to Congress
The former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will not seek re-election to Congress in 2026, she announced in a video today.
“I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” said Pelosi, 85, who represents most of San Francisco and has spent almost 40 years in office.
The lawmaker is currently serving her 20th term in Congress, and in 2007 she became the first female speaker of the House.
“I was able to represent our city and our country around the world with patriotism and pride. I say to my colleagues in the house all the time, no matter what title they have bestowed upon me, there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say, ‘I speak for the people of San Francisco’,” Pelosi continued in today’s video announcement.
