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Tag: Nancy Pelosi
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Eric Swalwell Throws His Hat in the Ring for California Governor – LAmag
As Gavin Newsom wraps up his last term as California’s governor, several contenders are lining up to replace him. The latest to enter the race is Representative Eric Swalwell
Rep. Eric Swalwell officially launched his campaign for California governor on Nov. 20, declaring himself a “protector and fighter” for the state. The East Bay congressman made the announcement during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Thursday night.
“Our state, this great state, needs a fighter and a protector,” Swalwell told Kimmel. “Someone who will bring prices down, lift wages up.”
Swalwell’s two main objectives if elected are clear: pushing back on Donald Trump and making California more affordable. Swalwell believes the next governor must keep Trump “out of our homes, streets and lives” while also ushering in a new era of California that focuses on lower costs, economic growth and modernization.
“Nancy Pelosi selected me for the Intelligence Committee and to help lead the impeachment of a corrupt president,” Swalwell said in his promotional video on his website.
Swalwell’s entry comes amid an already crowded lineup. Among the 14 publicly declared candidates are Tom Steyer, a hedge fund billionaire and 2020 presidential candidate, Antonio Villaraigosa, former mayor of Los Angeles, and Betty Yee, the California Democratic Party’s vice chair.
However, Swalwell believes he is the best fit for the position.
“No one will keep Californians safer than I will,” Swalwell said. “No one.”
Scroll to continue reading
The California gubernatorial election will take place on Nov. 3, 2026, and the primary election is scheduled for June 2, 2026, according to the California Secretary of State.
Cristal Soto
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Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker, to retire from Congress after this term
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has wielded enormous power in Congress and in the Democratic Party for decades, announced on Thursday that she will not seek reelection and will retire from Congress after her term ends in early 2027.
Pelosi, 85, made her decision public in a video released Thursday morning that begins as a letter to the people of the San Francisco area, whom she has represented in the House since she was first elected in 1987.
“I will not be seeking reelection to Congress,” Pelosi says in the nearly six-minute video. “With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative.”
“As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” Pelosi says. “We have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way. And now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy, and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.”
Pelosi’s decision was months in the making. While she had drawn some Democratic challengers in her San Francisco area district, she has repeatedly expressed confidence that she would once again win her party’s nomination, should she run again.
Pelosi served as speaker from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. She was the first woman to ever serve as House speaker and built a reputation for both legislative success, including passage of the Affordable Care Act, and for shrewd leadership, with her influence over House Democrats widely seen as unusually strong, even as she sometimes faced critics and complaints. Since leaving the speakership, she has remained a confidant and ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is spearheading Democratic efforts to win back the majority in 2026.
As recently as last month, Jeffries told CBS News he had not had any conversations with Pelosi about whether she should run for reelection or retire.
“I strongly support any decision that she makes,” Jeffries said. “She is a legendary member of Congress, a legendary public servant.”
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, a member of the California delegation, also praised Pelosi’s contributions, including her efforts this week to pass Proposition 50, a ballot redistricting initiative that could net additional Democratic seats in the state.
“Nobody wants to get in her way when she wants to achieve a political outcome, and she played that role and lifted up the delegation and gave us the help and support that we needed, truly a team effort,” Aguilar said. “She’s the greatest of all time.”
Pelosi’s video announcement was not only a reveal of her decision, but a testament to her career and accomplishments.
Speaking over a montage of San Francisco landmarks, Pelosi says in the video that the city has “always been synonymous with the future” and with diversity. Pelosi then praises the city for addressing challenges head on, including HIV/AIDS, which has long been a focal point for her in Congress, where she advocated for policy changes and funding.
She then speaks in the video over soft, piano music with reflections that weave together her perspectives on her district and the country with an urgent, future-focused message about the continued need for leadership, be it on domestic policy or foreign policy, where she built a career as an outspoken proponent of human rights.
Pelosi also cites her Roman Catholic faith as a keystone of her political life and quotes St. Francis of Assisi.
Former President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed Pelosi as the “best Speaker of the House in American history.”
“When I was President, we worked together to grow our economy, create millions of jobs, and make historic investments in our nation’s future,” Biden said in a statement. “She has devoted much of her life to this country, and America will always be grateful.”
Former President Barack Obama said Pelosi “has served the American people and worked to make our country better.”
“No one was more skilled at bringing people together and getting legislation passed – and I will always be grateful for her support of the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said in a statement Thursday.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed those sentiments.
“There will be so many things to say about the legendary Nancy Pelosi’s transformational tenure in Congress—but for now, let’s start with ‘Thank you, Madam Speaker,’” Clinton said.
At White House event Thursday, President Trump struck a different tone. Asked about Pelosi’s retirement, Mr. Trump said, “I think she’s an evil woman. I’m glad she’s retiring.”
Robert Costa
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Looking back at Pelosi and PolitiFact
Almost since PolitiFact’s 2007 founding, we’ve been covering Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who announced her retirement, effective in January 2027.
We first fact-checked the former House speaker on Aug. 25, 2008, when she characterized then-presidential candidate Barack Obama as a state legislator with a history of bipartisanship, a claim we rated Half True. In all, we have rated Pelosi’s statements 56 times on Truth-O-Meter, with a median rating of Half True.
Political analysts consider Pelosi, 85, one of the most effective legislative leaders in recent U.S. history. With small margins, Pelosi was mostly able to keep her caucus united behind legislative goals on health care, the environment and other issues.
Her ability to raise money for Democrats was one reason she remained as minority leader when she lost her speaker’s gavel after the 2010 midterms and ascended again to speaker in 2018, when the Democrats won the majority. Pelosi lost the speakership when the GOP won the chamber in 2022. She left her leadership position but remained as a rank-and-file member.
Pelosi was known for her effectiveness outside the public eye — in Capitol cloakrooms and private dinners. Republicans targeted her sometimes awkward rhetorical style in front of television cameras, combined with her representation of one of the nation’s most liberal districts, in San Francisco.
On the internet, Pelosi has been falsely accused of being drunk (many, many times); of spending extravagantly on her hair; of falling; of crying in public; of being arrested; of palling around with drug kingpin El Chapo; of calling Americans stupid; of being expelled from the House; of being divorced by her husband; of being arrested and disappeared by U.S. marshals; of committing treason; and of being executed.
When a hammer-wielding intruder attacked her husband Paul in their home in 2022, conspiracy theories flourished, fanned by President Donald Trump and others, including that the entire episode was a “false flag” event.
Here’s a rundown of memorable Pelosi moments in recent fact-checking history.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., gestures during her weekly news conference on June 11, 2009. (AP)
Pelosi vs. Trump: Ripped speech, policy fights, Jan. 6
Pelosi and Trump have a long-running rhetorical feud. When a reporter asked Trump about Pelosi’s retirement announcement hours after she made it, Trump called her “an evil woman.”
In 2018, Trump falsely said Pelosi “came out in favor of MS-13,” the criminal gang. Pelosi had criticized Trump for using the term “animals” during an immigration meeting, but she hadn’t said anything positive about MS-13.
In 2020, after Pelosi dramatically ripped up a paper copy of Trump’s State of the Union address from her seat behind the president, Trump said, “I thought it was a terrible thing when she ripped up the speech. First of all, it’s an official document. You’re not allowed. It’s illegal what she did. She broke the law.”
We rated that Pants on Fire. Pelosi ripped up her own duplicate copy of Trump’s address, not the official version sent to the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act, so it would not have been illegal to destroy it.
Pelosi earned a Mostly True for saying in 2017 that Trump’s first-term tax bill “would have cut his taxes by $30 million in 2005.”
But she earned a False in 2020 for saying Trump is “morbidly obese.” Trump had told reporters that he was taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent against COVID-19, an approach that mainstream doctors called dubious; she said it was not a sound idea for someone “in his, shall we say, weight group.” Even if Trump was fudging his official height and weight, he would have needed to be substantially heavier to meet a level of morbid obesity.
The pair’s most bitter exchanges revolved around Jan. 6, 2021, the day Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as Congress formally counted the 2020 electoral results. Rioters entered Pelosi’s office and called for her as they marched through the Capitol.
Trump has repeatedly said he requested “10,000 National Guardsmen” to provide security at his supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021, rally but that Pelosi “rejected it.” As early as Feb. 28, 2021, we rated that False. In subsequent fact-checks, we found no new information to support Trump’s assertion about Pelosi and National Guard troops.
Pelosi played a central role on landmark health care legislation
One of her biggest policy legacies is the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which was Obama’s top policy priority in 2009. The bill dominated the early political debate of his presidency, and Pelosi, as speaker, had a key role in securing Democratic support for Obama’s vision.
Pelosi accurately discussed some policy differences between Democratic and Republican health care bills, such as the Democratic proposals’ protection for people with a preexisting condition.
But we also found truth in one Republican criticism involving the bill — that Pelosi had said Democrats “have to pass their terrible health care bill so that the American people can actually find out what’s in it.” That was close to what Pelosi really said, though that Republican Party of Texas’ synopsis ignored her comments about why the legislation made her proud.
Pelosi was a star fundraiser, but we found one of her money claims misleading
Between 2000 and 2024, Pelosi raised $86.6 million for her campaign committee and an additional $51 million for her leadership political action committee, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign finance information.
Despite her fundraising prowess, she exaggerated in 2017 when describing Wall Street money raised by Republicans and Democrats. She said, “Wall Street comes out en masse with its money against House Democrats every election.” But she had cherry-picked three campaign cycles in which Republicans held the House majority while ignoring election cycles in which the Democrats were in control, including two in which Pelosi was speaker. We rated the statement Mostly False.
Pelosi’s Pants on Fires
Pelosi’s four Pants on Fire ratings included:
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Her 2010 blog post saying that then-House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, “admits ‘we are not going to be any different than we’ve been’” by returning to “the same failed economic policies” that “wrecked our economy.” We found that Boehner had been talking specifically about social issues, not the economy, and that the video clip she shared removed that context from Boehner’s statement.
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Her decision in 2011 to promote a chart showing Obama has “increased the debt” by 16%, compared with his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who had increased it by 115%. The chart included a major calculation error, ignored different lengths of presidential tenure and cherry-picked the most favorable measure.
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Her 2016 claim that until shortly before her statement, China and Russia had “never voted with us at the U.N. on any sanctions on Iran.” We found eight Security Council resolutions over a decade threatening, imposing or continuing sanctions against Iran in which Russia and China approved.
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Her 2019 statement that a voter-roll purge in Wisconsin would mean that more than 200,000 registered Wisconsin voters would be prohibited from voting. We found that a purge could have potentially removed more than 200,000 people from the voting rolls, but they would not be “prohibited” from voting; anyone could re-register, including on Election Day.
That one time we fact-checked Pelosi in real time, kind of
We once fact-checked Pelosi in person, on television, in real time. And this time, it wasn’t on policy.
In 2018, this reporter was president of the Washington Press Club Foundation, which mounts an annual black-tie congressional dinner. Pelosi has been a frequent guest speaker at the event, and that year, she began her remarks by thanking members of the head table, including “President Louis Jacobson of FactCheck.org.”
I interrupted her. “Actually, PolitiFact.” As the audience laughed, Pelosi quickly pivoted.
“That’s OK, staff,” she said. “It was Mostly True.”
(C-SPAN)
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Nancy Pelosi retiring after nearly 40 years in Congress
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she will retire from Congress, ending speculation that one of the most powerful women in American politics would seek another term.
A historic career nears its end
The early-morning announcement on social media from the speaker emerita comes after Californians voted to redraw the state’s congressional maps — a move that could add as many as five Democratic-held seats to Congress to counter Texas Republicans’ move to redraw their own maps at Trump’s request.
“Dear San Francisco,” she said in a nearly six-minute video showing the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco’s Castro District and the Transamerica Pyramid, signaling the end to her career. “I will not be seeking reelection to Congress.”
Pelosi, appearing upbeat and forward-looking as images of her decades of accomplishments filled the frames, said she would finish out her final year in office. And she left those who sent her to Congress with a call to action to carry on the legacy of agenda-setting both in the U.S. and around the world.
“My message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” she said. “We have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way.”
Pelosi said, “And now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.”
Pelosi’s departure will cap a storied political career spanning nearly four decades. Her current term ends in January 2027, but her decision not to run in 2026 opens the door for new Democratic voices to seek her San Francisco House seat.
Pelosi, 85, was first elected to the House in 1987 and made history as the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House — a role she held twice during her 38 years in Congress.
Out for a walk early Thursday, Bryce Ioken, one of her constituents, said he was grateful for her service.
“Everyone has a time. Sunsets are beautiful,” he said. “At the end of the day, she’s given us a lot to be thankful for.”
End of an era: Pelosi to step down, party looks forward
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the only female House speaker, says she will not run for re-election. Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, at Rutgers University, gives insight on the Democratic icon.
New candidates step forward
Among those entering the race are state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Saikat Chakrabarti, a left-wing activist, software engineer and former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York).
Wiener was among the first to address her retirement.
In an early morning statement, he credited her for pushing to address the AIDS crisis and for fighting for gay rights – and people like him.
“Speaker Emerita Pelosi is more than a legislator — she is an icon of American politics,” Wiener said. “She led the fight for healthcare and obliterated Trump when he tried to repeal it. She passed two economic recovery packages, financial reform, and the biggest investment in climate action in history. She wasn’t just a Speaker of the House — she was the greatest Speaker in United States history.”
Chakrabarti also chimed in: “Thank you, Speaker Emerita Pelosi, for your decades of service that defined a generation of politics and for doing something truly rare in Washington: making room for the next one.”
Leaders thank Pelosi for service
Former Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who is now mayor of Oakland, credited Pelosi for paving the way for so many women, including herself. “Thank you, Nancy — for the fierce fight, the unwavering courage, and your decades of service,” Lee said on X.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media: “Nancy Pelosi has inspired generations. Her courage and conviction to San Francisco, California, and our nation has set the standard for what public service should be. Her impact on this nation is unmatched.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) also thanked Pelosi for her service Thursday, but couldn’t resist a dig at the Democrats, or the perception that the party is moving father to the left with Tuesday night’s election victory for Democratic socialist mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani.
“Even the famous San Francisco liberal is not far left enough for the neo-Marxists,” Johnson said.
Legacy of leadership
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the leader of House Democrats and possibly the next Speaker of the House, greets backers at a Democratic election watch party at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on November 7, 2006. (
A mother of five and a wife, Pelosi became one of the nation’s most consequential legislative leaders, steering the House through wars, economic crisis, a pandemic, and an attack on democracy.
She began her political career as a volunteer for the Democratic Party, rising through the ranks to serve as a state representative to the Democratic National Committee and later as chair of the California Democratic Party’s Northern Division.
Known as a prolific fundraiser, Pelosi chaired the host committee for the 1984 Democratic National Convention at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.In 1987, she won her first and last competitive race for the House. She won a special election to represent California’s then-5th District, which included San Francisco.
A force in Washington
Rep. Nancy Pelosi speaks with staff on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in January 2003. Pelosi became the first woman to lead any of the four congressional caucuses in January 2003 when she was elected as House minority leader. (Photo by Melina Mara
Pelosi shattered glass ceilings for women in Washington, becoming House minority whip in 2001 and elected as Democratic leader in 2002 — both firsts for a woman.
In 2006, she helped Democrats reclaim the House majority for the first time since 1993, paving the way for her historic swearing-in as Speaker of the House on Jan. 4, 2007.
During her first term with the gavel, Pelosi worked alongside President Barack Obama to pass the Affordable Care Act, one of her defining legislative achievements. She also helped usher in the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2010, ending the ban on openly gay and lesbian service members.
When Republicans regained control of the House that year, Pelosi was re-elected as minority leader — a position she used to continue shaping the party’s direction.
In 2019, she reclaimed the gavel after Democrats retook the House — becoming the first person in more than 60 years to do so.
Pelosi was on the front line of Democrats’ battle with President Donald Trump, overseeing his impeachments in 2019 and 2021.
Her tense relationship with Trump culminated in the viral moment when she tore up his State of the Union speech in 2020.Under President Joe Biden, Pelosi helped shepherd major legislation through the House, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and Biden’s sweeping climate and social spending bill.
Beyond domestic policy, Pelosi was a vocal advocate for voting rights and gun control. Internationally, she championed human rights, especially in China, and made history in 2022 when she became the first U.S. House speaker in 25 years to visit Taiwan, despite warnings.
Pelosis targeted
Aerial footage of the Pelosi home in Pacific Heights shows a window was broken and police combing through the property. Oct. 28, 2022
Pelosi’s office in Washington was targeted during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. And in the aftermath, she urged lawmakers back to certify Biden’s victory and later created the House select committee to investigate the attack.
In October 2022, her husband, Paul Pelosi, was violently attacked in their San Francisco home while she was in Washington. The attack was politically motivated.
Weeks after the assault, Pelosi announced she would step down from House leadership, marking the end of her historic 19-year run as Democratic leader.
Across the political spectrum, Pelosi was seen as a master strategist — one whose sharp discipline and signature icy stare came to define her leadership style: respected, unrelenting, and rarely ignored, even by members of her own party.
Pelosi says to stay positive
Nancy Pelosi retiring after nearly 40 years in Congress
Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she will retire from Congress, ending speculation that one of the most powerful women in American politics would seek another term. More: https://www.ktvu.com/news/nancy-pelosi-retiring-after-nearly-40-years-congress
At the end of her retirement announcement, Pelosi urged America to be positive.
“With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Pelosi said in the video. “As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this: Know your power, we have made history, we have made progress, we have always led the way. And now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy.”
Greg.Lee@fox.com (Greg Lee)
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Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker, to retire from Congress after this term
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has wielded enormous power in Congress and in the Democratic Party for decades, announced on Thursday that she will not seek reelection and will retire from Congress after her term ends in early 2027.
Pelosi, 85, made her decision public in a video released Thursday morning that begins as a letter to the people of the San Francisco area, whom she has represented in the House since she was first elected in 1987.
“I will not be seeking reelection to Congress,” Pelosi says in the nearly six-minute video. “With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative.”
“As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” Pelosi says. “We have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way. And now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy, and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.”
Pelosi’s decision was months in the making. While she had drawn some Democratic challengers in her San Francisco area district, she has repeatedly expressed confidence that she would once again win her party’s nomination, should she run again.
Pelosi served as speaker from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. She was the first woman to ever serve as House speaker and built a reputation for both legislative success, including passage of the Affordable Care Act, and for shrewd leadership, with her influence over House Democrats widely seen as unusually strong, even as she sometimes faced critics and complaints. Since leaving the speakership, she has remained a confidant and ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is spearheading Democratic efforts to win back the majority in 2026.
As recently as last month, Jeffries told CBS News he had not had any conversations with Pelosi about whether she should run for reelection or retire.
“I strongly support any decision that she makes,” Jeffries said. “She is a legendary member of Congress, a legendary public servant.”
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, a member of the California delegation, also praised Pelosi’s contributions, including her efforts this week to pass Proposition 50, a ballot redistricting initiative that could net additional Democratic seats in the state.
“Nobody wants to get in her way when she wants to achieve a political outcome, and she played that role and lifted up the delegation and gave us the help and support that we needed, truly a team effort,” Aguilar said. “She’s the greatest of all time.”
Pelosi’s video announcement was not only a reveal of her decision, but a testament to her career and accomplishments.
Speaking over a montage of San Francisco landmarks, Pelosi says in the video that the city has “always been synonymous with the future” and with diversity. Pelosi then praises the city for addressing challenges head on, including HIV/AIDS, which has long been a focal point for her in Congress, where she advocated for policy changes and funding.
She then speaks in the video over soft, piano music with reflections that weave together her perspectives on her district and the country with an urgent, future-focused message about the continued need for leadership, be it on domestic policy or foreign policy, where she built a career as an outspoken proponent of human rights.
Pelosi also cites her Roman Catholic faith as a keystone of her political life and quotes St. Francis of Assisi.
Former President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed Pelosi as the “best Speaker of the House in American history.”
“When I was President, we worked together to grow our economy, create millions of jobs, and make historic investments in our nation’s future,” Biden said in a statement. “She has devoted much of her life to this country, and America will always be grateful.”
Former President Barack Obama said Pelosi “has served the American people and worked to make our country better.”
“No one was more skilled at bringing people together and getting legislation passed – and I will always be grateful for her support of the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said in a statement Thursday.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed those sentiments.
“There will be so many things to say about the legendary Nancy Pelosi’s transformational tenure in Congress—but for now, let’s start with ‘Thank you, Madam Speaker,’” Clinton said Thursday.
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Nancy Pelosi announces she will retire from Congress after her term ends in 2027
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Nancy Pelosi announces she will retire from Congress after her term ends in 2027 – CBS News
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Nancy Pelosi, first woman to be speaker of U.S. House, will retire from Congress
Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, speaks during a news conference on redistricting at the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Sacramento on Friday, Aug. 8, 2025. She announced Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, that this will be her final term in Congress.
dheuer@sacbee.com
WASHINGTON
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congress’ first woman leader, known for presiding over the U.S. House with an iron fist and a compassionate heart, said Thursday she won’t seek another term next year.
“I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know. I will not be seeking reelection to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Pelosi said in a video posted Thursday morning.
The San Francisco Democrat, the Baltimore-born daughter of one city mayor and sister of another, was a dominant force during her 20-year run as her party’s House leader.
In her first stint as speaker from 2007 to 2011, she won passage of the Affordable Care Act. The overhaul of the U.S. health care system that made it easier for millions to obtain coverage but also ignited angry protests over its mandates and its costs, protests that still inflame political discussion today.
Pelosi, 85, was first elected to Congress in 1987, and was House Minority Leader from 2003 until 2007. She also held that position from 2011 to 2019 when Republicans controlled the House but made a rousing comeback in 2019 as Democrats regained the majority. Pelosi quickly became the party’s leading voice of opposition to President Donald Trump.
Once Joe Biden became president in 2021, she was instrumental in securing passage of economic plans to help people impacted by the Covid downturn.
Pelosi vs. Trump
She also presided over two impeachments. In 2019 Trump became only the third president to be impeached. Like the other two, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, he was acquitted in the Senate. Two years later, he was again impeached, this time for his actions involving the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He was again acquitted in the Senate.
Pelosi rarely let up. She upended the usual decorum at Trump’s 2020 State of the Union a few weeks after he was impeached for his activity involving Ukraine. She sat behind Trump and then tore a copy of Trump’s address in half after he was done.
The speaker, though, found Democrats, particularly younger House members, were growing impatient with her traditional way of getting things done. They wanted more outspokenness, more confrontation with Trump.
She stepped down from leadership in 2023 but remained in Congress. And she remained angry with Trump. “He’s just a vile creature. The worst thing on the face of the Earth,” she told CNN’s Elex Michaelson recently.
Pelosi’s husband, Paul, got the spotlight in 2022, when a man broke into the couple’s San Francisco home and attacked him with a hammer. The assailant said he had wanted to take Nancy Pelosi hostage. Paul Pelosi suffered injuries to his skull. The attacker was convicted in 2023 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 8:28 AM.
David Lightman
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Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker, to retire from Congress after this term
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has wielded enormous power in Congress and in the Democratic Party for decades, announced on Thursday that she will not seek reelection and will retire from Congress after her term ends in early 2027.
Pelosi, 85, made her decision public in a video released Thursday morning that begins as a letter to the people of the San Francisco area, whom she has represented in the House since she was first elected in 1987.
“I will not be seeking reelection to Congress,” Pelosi says in the nearly six-minute video. “With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative.”
“As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” Pelosi says. “We have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way. And now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy, and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.”
Pelosi’s decision was months in the making. While she had drawn some Democratic challengers in her San Francisco area district, she has repeatedly expressed confidence that she would once again win her party’s nomination, should she run again.
Pelosi served as speaker from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. She was the first woman to ever serve as House speaker and built a reputation for both legislative success, including passage of the Affordable Care Act, and for shrewd leadership, with her influence over House Democrats widely seen as unusually strong, even as she sometimes faced critics and complaints. Since leaving the speakership, she has remained a confidant and ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is spearheading Democratic efforts to win back the majority in 2026.
As recently as last month, Jeffries told CBS News he had not had any conversations with Pelosi about whether she should run for reelection or retire.
“I strongly support any decision that she makes,” Jeffries said. “She is a legendary member of Congress, a legendary public servant.”
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, a member of the California delegation, also praised Pelosi’s contributions, including her efforts this week to pass Proposition 50, a ballot redistricting initiative that could net additional Democratic seats in the state.
“Nobody wants to get in her way when she wants to achieve a political outcome, and she played that role and lifted up the delegation and gave us the help and support that we needed, truly a team effort,” Aguilar said. “She’s the greatest of all time.”
Pelosi’s video announcement was not only a reveal of her decision, but a testament to her career and accomplishments.
Speaking over a montage of San Francisco landmarks, Pelosi says in the video that the city has “always been synonymous with the future” and with diversity. Pelosi then praises the city for addressing challenges head on, including HIV/AIDS, which has long been a focal point for her in Congress, where she advocated for policy changes and funding.
She then speaks in the video over soft, piano music with reflections that weave together her perspectives on her district and the country with an urgent, future-focused message about the continued need for leadership, be it on domestic policy or foreign policy, where she built a career as an outspoken proponent of human rights.
Pelosi also cites her Roman Catholic faith as a keystone of her political life and quotes St. Francis of Assisi.
Robert Costa
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Nancy Pelosi expected to announce she won’t run for reelection in 2026
Sources close to Nancy Pelosi expect the 85-year-old Democratic party stalwart to retire from politics next year.
Pelosi will make a speech addressing her future after Californians vote on whether to redraw the state’s electoral map to create more Democrat-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to NBC News.
RELATED: Election 2025: Everything Bay Area voters need to know before Nov. 4 election
The state’s ballot measure Proposition 50 seeks to offset mid-decade redistricting efforts in red states including Texas intended to maintain a Republican majority in Congress.
Pelosi has represented the majority of San Francisco since 1987. Multiple Democratic insiders reportedly said they don’t expect her to seek reelection in 2026.
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President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on May 3, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
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President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on May 3, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“She’s going to go out with Prop 50 overwhelmingly passing, and what a crowning achievement for her to do that,” one of those sources told NBC News.
Pelosi hasn’t addressed primary challenges from younger Democrats bidding for her seat in the midterm election, though she appears to have the resources to go on the offensive. Her team hasn’t addressed speculation about her plans for 2026 and beyond. She filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission in November 2024.
The former Speaker of the House has long been among the most powerful figures in Democratic politics. Pressure from Pelosi is believed to have led to former President Joe Biden abandoning his 2024 reelection bid.
Months earlier, Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
She’s also been an effective antagonist against President Trump, who won that election to serve a second term in office.
Trump has also had tough words for his Democratic rival whom he called “crazy” during a 2023 speech. In the same speech, Trump made fun of her husband, Paul Pelosi, who’d recently been attacked and seriously wounded by a hammer-wielding man who broke into the couple’s San Francisco home.
Brian Niemietz
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How One J6er Has Been Emboldened by His Pardon
When Cleveland Grover Meredith, Jr., arrived at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was divorced, unemployed, and the father of two young men who, like their father, share their names with Republican Presidents. Two years earlier, north of Atlanta, he had sold a car-wash business, called Car Nutz, after stirring up bad press with a billboard that read #QANON. A previous business of his, an auto spa, had gone bankrupt. Car trouble had delayed Meredith from getting to D.C. until hours after the insurrection. But he had conveyed his intentions for that day in Facebook posts and text messages, which had been troubling enough to compel his mother—an interior designer whose work has appeared in Southern Living—to call the F.B.I. On January 1st, Meredith posted to Facebook, “Allow your enemy to be boastful, to think he has won. Present yourself as weak, disorganized. Then eradicate.” Three days later, he sent a text that read, “We’re gonna surround DC and slowly constrict.” On January 6th, more texts: “War time” and “I’m gonna collect a shit ton of Traitors heads.” Meredith told an uncle that he planned to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on live television, prompting the uncle to respond, “What the fuck are you thinking.” Meredith wrote back, “Psychological warfare. I’ve been on the radar for a while now, they now I’m harmless.” On January 7th, according to prosecutors, he head-butted someone and then punched that person while they were on the ground. He also texted a friend, “I may wander over to the Mayor’s office and put a 5.56 in her skull, FKG cunt,” adding, “I hope you’re reading this Mr. FBI agent, FK U.”
The F.B.I. arrested Meredith, who goes by Cleve, at a Holiday Inn a mile from the Capitol. Inside his room were some THC edibles and a vial of testosterone. In Meredith’s trailer, authorities found a 9-millimetre semi-automatic firearm with a Stars and Stripes pattern, an assault-style rifle with a telescopic sight, approximately twenty-five hundred rounds of various kinds of ammunition—some of which could pierce armor, he’d noted in a text—and multiple large-capacity ammunition-feeding devices. He was charged with possessing unregistered firearms and unlawful ammunition, and with making a threat to injure someone from across state lines. In 2021, in a filing prior to Meredith’s sentencing, his then attorney, Paul Kiyonaga, claimed that Meredith had these weapons with him because he had come straight from a ski trip, in Colorado, where he had planned to do target practice with his sons if there wasn’t enough snow to enjoy the slopes.
Kiyonaga also offered a biographical sketch of Meredith. He grew up in a prosperous family, attended an expensive private high school in Atlanta called the Lovett School, and matriculated at Southern Methodist University before graduating, with an economics degree, from Sewanee: The University of the South. He married and had kids, and he spent his weekends racing motorcycles and cars. At some point, his marriage unravelled. According to Meredith’s ex-wife, whom Kiyonaga quoted in his filing, the dissolution of his marriage had resulted from his “extremism with politics and guns,” which had put him in “the prime place to be swept up into something.” Kiyonaga went on, “It was in the extreme and distorted conspiracy theories of QAnon and its angry call to action that Mr. Meredith felt he had found the illusory sense of purpose and meaning that eluded him.” A friend of Meredith’s, who did not align with him politically but found him likable, described Meredith to me, when I first reported on him, in 2021, as “a sheltered boy from the northern suburbs of Atlanta pretending he’s tough.” Meredith had never been convicted of a crime, but he had twice assaulted his father, according to a sentencing memo filed by the U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia—once even pushing his father’s head through a window during an argument. On another occasion, Meredith pointed a gun at a driver during a road-rage incident. Kiyonaga did not directly address these claims in his sentencing report, but he did quote Meredith’s father, who described his son as “a passionate American . . . drawn into the rhetoric and the lies of conspiracy theorist groups.”
He was first drawn to Donald Trump by a chance encounter. A former close friend of Meredith told me that Meredith had gone out to Aspen, Colorado, in the early nineties and worked as a valet at the Ritz-Carlton. Meredith came back from Colorado and said that he’d met Trump there. “And ever since Cleve’s brush with fame, he’s been a loyal guy to Trump,” the friend said. Meredith recently wrote on Facebook, in a message to someone who had apparently antagonized him, “I met Trump in 92, go ahead and fk with me and see what happens.” (Meredith did not respond to a request for comment about his alleged encounter with the President, but records show that he lived in Aspen, where Trump vacationed, around this time.)
Kiyonaga acknowledged that Meredith had “lost his way.” He noted an unspecified childhood trauma of Meredith’s and the loss of a sister to cancer when he was in his early twenties. He had suffered concussions, too, including a bad one from a recent motorcycle accident. The attorney cited the opinion of Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist and a former Army brigadier general, who, having examined Meredith for the defense, in the wake of his arrest, diagnosed him with depression, anxiety, and A.D.H.D. Kiyonaga told the court that Xenakis “believes that Mr. Meredith, with the stabilizing effect of comprehensive mental health care and appropriate medications, will be able to repair his life without posing a threat to himself or others or without repeating the conduct that placed him into his current predicament.” Kiyonaga went on, “The key . . . is that Mr. Meredith disengage from the corrosive online and political influences that caused him to commit the instant threat.” On September 10, 2021, Meredith pleaded guilty to all counts. He received twenty-eight months of prison time, plus three years of supervised release. The court strongly recommended that he receive “intensive medical health treatment.” On January 20, 2025, fifteen hundred and seventy-nine rioters of the January 6th insurrection had their sentences commuted or their cases dismissed, or were simply pardoned by Trump. Meredith was among them.
The Program on Extremism at George Washington University has compiled the most comprehensive public-facing data set on the J6ers. Its stated goal is to act as a resource for “understanding the scope of prosecutions and trends among those charged in connection with the Capitol attack.” Luke Baumgartner, a research fellow on the project, recently shared with me some of what he’s learned. “The majority of these folks still harbor some resentment toward these government officials, specifically Pelosi,” he said. “They still wax on about Barack Obama and conspiracy theories and how J6 was a ‘Fed-op,’ or an inside job, and that sort of thing. It’s the conspiratorial mind-set that these people are still perpetually stuck in.”
Some J6ers have already run afoul of the law again. Baumgartner has counted nearly two dozen people who have so far committed a variety of offenses since the insurrection, including three who have been arrested since Trump’s mass-pardoning earlier this year. “They range from physical assaults to child pornography or sex-abuse charges,” he said. In January, a Missouri woman, photographed holding Nancy Pelosi’s broken nameplate on January 6th, received ten years in prison for killing a woman while driving drunk. In April, a Tennessee man, who’d been among the first to enter the Capitol, was found guilty of plotting to murder F.B.I. agents last year. (In July, he was sentenced to life in prison.) Also in April, a West Virginia man, who had attacked federal law enforcement during the insurrection, was indicted on charges of armed robbery and assault after stabbing the owner of a Mexican restaurant. (He took a plea deal and is serving six months in jail for unlawful assault.) Then there is Jared Wise, a former F.B.I. agent—who yelled, “Kill ’em, kill ’em, kill ’em, get ’em, get ’em,” as Capitol Police officers were being attacked—previously charged with civil disorder, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and aiding and abetting an assault on law-enforcement officers. Wise’s case was dismissed when Trump took office, before Wise had entered a plea, and in early August he received a new job: he is now a senior adviser in the Department of Justice.
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Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer hosts annual luncheon with longtime friend and colleague, Nancy Pelosi – WTOP News
Whenever Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-5th) walks into a room, he’s usually greeted with hugs, handshakes, kisses on the cheek and gratitude for his more than 40 years in Congress.
This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
Whenever Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-5th) walks into a room, he’s usually greeted with hugs, handshakes, kisses on the cheek and gratitude for his more than 40 years in Congress.
But one longtime colleague stood out when she offered those same accolades Friday during the congressman’s 23rd annual Women’s Equality Day Luncheon in College Park attended by a few hundred people.
“Thank all of you for being here and supporting Steny Hoyer over the years,” said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.), who served as keynote speaker at the event. “When I talk about things that relate to women in the world … [and] having fairness in our society, we can be sure that Steny will be on the forefront.”
Without mentioning President Donald Trump (R) and other Republican leaders by name, Pelosi said there’s been efforts to restrict the women’s right to choose and to appoint women to leadership positions.
“Know that there’s nothing more wholesome for our country, whether it’s in politics and government, whether it’s in the academic world, whether it’s in the military, nothing is more enhanced than by the increased leadership and participation of women,” Pelosi said. “When women succeed, America succeeds.”
Women’s Equality Day is celebrated Aug. 26, to commemorate the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote and was ratified in 1920.
Hoyer has three daughters and two of his three grandchildren and three of his four great grandchildren are females. After the death of his first wife, Judy Pickett Hoyer, he remarried two years ago to Elaine Kamarck.
“I have been blessed with a lot of women in my life,” Hoyer said to some laughs and applause in the audience.
Hoyer, who turned 86 on June 14, and Pelosi, 85, have served in Congress together since the 1980s, but have known each other even longer, briefly working together in the early 1960s for U.S. Sen. Daniel Brewster (D-Md.). So when Hoyer makes an appearance these days, he is inevitably asked whether he plans to seek a to 24th term in Congress next year.
“We’re thinking about it,” Hoyer said in a brief interview after the luncheon. “I’m in this fight. This is a fight that is worth having. What is being done in Washington is making America less fair, [there’s] less investment in our future. I’m very concerned about it.”
But those concerns stop at violence, said Hoyer, reflecting on Wednesday’s shooting death of 31-year-old conservative activist, Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley State University.
“We know that there are people who think violence is an alternative — violence is an alternative that will cause chaos and death and diminish our democracy,” Hoyer said. “We need every one of us [to] reject the use of violence, particularly when it comes to political speech. Our democracy believes that debate resolves our differences, not violence.”
In the wake of Kirk’s death, bomb threats were made Thursday to Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) and several historically Black colleges and universities. On the same day, the U.S. Naval Academy was locked down after false reports of a gunman on campus led to the accidental shooting of a midshipman. Morgan State University said Friday that it received a bomb threat, that it determined was not credible, but still informed the FBI “out of abundant caution.”
Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-3rd) — who once. interned for Hoyer — attended Friday’s luncheon and also reflected on the recent events, including a school shooting Wednesday in Colorado.
“I don’t want to keep going down this course, and I just ask everybody to reflect on this moment and the choice that we have here,” said Elfreth, who plans to go forward with an open telephone town hall Monday that was scheduled before the Kirk shooting. “The only way to get through this is to recognize that we all have a part to play in fixing this.
Valerie Bonk
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Nadler’s retirement reignites debate over advanced age of many in Congress
When Jerry Nadler announced his retirement this week, he opted to directly address a question that’s been roiling the Democratic Party since Joe Biden’s withering debate performance last year: How old is too old to run for office?
The 78-year-old congressmember cited his age as a factor in his departure plans from a safe seat in New York City. And in doing so, he earned praise from some of the party’s younger agitators — though based on interviews, it’ll take more than a handful of elderly lawmakers like Nadler heeding their calls to step aside to repair the intra-party rift.
As it is, the vast majority of Democrats who are 70 or older are publicly running for another House term.
Against that backdrop, a trend of acknowledging the party’s age problem — often tacitly — is beginning to emerge, even as other senior members of the party are likely to stay put.
Four House Democrats, including Nadler, and four Senate Democrats over the age of 65 have said this year that they are stepping down from Congress. A fifth House Democrat said he would retire from his home district if Texas’ proposed redistricting maps survive legal challenges. Democrats believe even more departures could be coming with a government shutdown deadline looming and lawmakers evaluating their futures after returning from their August recess.
“These retirements are a great example of maturity from these leaders to make the difficult decision for them of knowing even after you’ve served somewhere for decades that it’s time for somebody else to lead,” Leaders We Deserve co-founder David Hogg said in an interview, specifically responding to Nadler’s news.
But 25-year-old Hogg, who has become a leading voice for generational change within his party, also pledged to continue his plan to financially support some candidates who challenge older incumbent Democrats.
“There is still more of a need for us to bring in some fresh blood into this party and help rejuvenate it,” he said, “and show people how the party is changing in the wake of a pretty major loss last election cycle.”
More than 80 House members are 70 or older, a statistic younger Democrats like Hogg cite to underscore their argument that a party in turmoil needs generational change. Only one House member is in his 20s, and the vast majority of older congressional members are expected to run for reelection.
Still, some Democrats who have announced their retirement have explicitly cited age as a factor.
Nadler told the New York Times that “watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that.” Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, 81, announced in the spring she wouldn’t seek reelection, saying, “It is now time for me to pass the baton” and this week praising the “new voices” as “so sharp, so articulate, so self-assured. It’s wonderful.”
Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, 67, likewise said earlier this year that “it’s important that people in my position do what they can to lift up the next generation of leaders” when unveiling her retirement. And 83-year-old Illinois Rep. Danny Davis told supporters in July when he decided to retire that “this would be a great time to try and usher in new leadership.”
As Democrats search for a path out of the political wilderness, they have faced a push for fresh faces from voters and activists who have urged their leaders to mount a more visible resistance to President Donald Trump. The impatience from younger Democrats has led several primary challengers to attempt to turn incumbents’ age into a liability. Three House Democrats have died in office this year, further fueling the contentious debate on the left.
“The boomer generation has held on to some of these seats for a long time,” said New York City-based Democratic strategist Evan Thies. “And we saw in the last election that even very accomplished, highly competent and productive elder electeds are now at risk of not winning their elections simply because they’re older.”
Even agitators like Hogg have carved out exceptions to their push to oust senior Democrats, which he insists is motivated by effectiveness and not solely age. Hogg, whose primary plans caused an uproar within the Democratic National Committee that culminated in his ouster as a party vice chair, has exempted Democratic luminaries like Nancy Pelosi, 85, from his anti-incumbent movement. And he has said the same of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 83, who still draws huge crowds even as he signals this term could be his last in the Senate.
“Generational change has been underway in the House Democratic caucus for the last several years, and it’s something that every caucus member, regardless of which generation they find themselves in, has embraced,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, 55, told reporters Tuesday when asked about generational change and Nadler’s decision. “What the record shows is leadership to rank-and-file-members to committee positions, and at all points in between.”
This year, House Democrats elevated a younger, rising star in the party, Rep. Robert Garcia, as their top member of the Oversight Committee, and Jeffries himself had participated in a changing of the guard when Pelosi stepped aside as speaker, along with her top lieutenants, Reps. Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn, to make way for a younger trio.
Rep. Jared Huffman took over as the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee from Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who stepped aside amid a cancer battle and later died. And Rep. Angie Craig won a caucus-wide election to be the top Agriculture Committee Democrat after Rep. David Scott also dropped his bid amid health questions.
In a move that some younger Democrats have criticized, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has actively recruited older, well-known Democrats like former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper in his long-shot bid to flip the upper chamber. Other Senate Democratic candidates are younger, including Rep. Chris Pappas, 45, in New Hampshire and the trio of Democrats running in Michigan.
Some senior House Democrats are keeping others in the party guessing about their future plans. Two top members of the previous generation of House Democratic leadership — Pelosi and Hoyer — have been publicly noncommittal on their re-election plans, though Pelosi has filed for re-election. And others who have faced competitive primary challenges amid broader health questions, like Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), have said they’re still running for re-election.
Hoyer spokesperson Margaret Mullkerrin said in a statement he was “focused on holding the Trump Administration accountable, protecting democracy at home and abroad, supporting federal employees and civil servants, and delivering for Maryland’s 5th District.”
Jumaane Williams, the 49-year-old New York City Public Advocate, applauded Nadler for stepping down after “watching what happened to the country, particularly around President Biden.”
“I think the party in general should be learning this lesson,” he said. “Hopefully, when it’s my turn, I have that lesson, too.”
With additional reporting by Jeff Coltin and Shia Kapos.
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Unlikely allies: Trump, Pelosi and the push to ban congressional stock trading
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It’s rare to find areas of agreement between President Donald Trump and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But they’re both supporting a congressional bill that will ban members of Congress and their households from trading stocks.
The legislation, which cleared its committee of jurisdiction in late July, has broad bipartisan support and will help root out public corruption while restoring Americans’ confidence in Congress.
Common sense would suggest that Congress shouldn’t be actively trading stocks and bonds while they’re holding office. And 86% of those surveyed in 2023 as part of a University of Maryland study favored a ban on congressional stock trading, with Republicans and Democrats showing nearly identical levels of support.
President Donald Trump and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized in an Aug. 14 interview, the credibility of the House and Senate is at stake when members trade individual stocks. He highlighted the “eye-popping returns” some members have earned, noting that “every hedge fund would be jealous of them.”
WHAT FED MUST DO NOW AFTER JEROME POWELL’S JACKSON HOLE EPIPHANY
From the perspective of a Treasury official, this issue goes beyond ethics. It touches the integrity of our financial system.
Markets rely on trust, transparency and a level playing field. When members of Congress trade stocks with access to information or influence that ordinary investors don’t have, it undermines public confidence in both government and the economy.
Treasury leadership has a vested interest in ensuring that policy is made to serve the public good, not to generate personal profit, because the credibility of the United States as a financial steward depends on it.
In addition to President Trump and Pelosi, there are several other unlikely bedfellows in Congress supporting the ban. They include liberals like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and conservatives like Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. Notably, both Mike Johnson, R-La., the House speaker, and Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the minority leader, support the ban.
ARE PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TARIFFS ACTUALLY WORKING?
Pelosi’s support for the legislation is noteworthy given her families’ well-documented history with stock trading. Last year, her husband, Paul, made headlines by selling between $500,000 and $1 million worth of Visa shares just a few weeks before the Justice Department brought a civil antitrust suit against the company. The transaction led to speculation that Paul Pelosi may have been tipped off by his wife, or contacts in the Biden administration, about the likelihood of a filing against Visa.
Filed just six weeks before the presidential election, the Visa suit’s monopoly claim was undermined by a simple fact: the network faces robust competition from other debit card companies, as well as newer payment networks such as Zelle and Venmo. But as the legal process unfolds, the issue of congressional stock trading remains. And the volume of activity is breathtaking.
Last year, 120 members of Congress made more than 9,400 trades, according to Capitol Trades, a platform that tracks market trading by U.S. elected officials. The performance by some of the members suggests they should move to Wall Street. The top 10 – six Republicans and four Democrats – all had returns exceeding 70%, according to another platform, Unusual Whales. And this was in a year when the S&P 500 only returned 25%.
There is destined to be even more trading this year. Through Aug. 19, there had already been nearly 9,200 trades, involving more than $395 million.
I HAD TO LEAVE CALIFORNIA TO SAVE MY BUSINESS. NOW THERE’S HOPE
Is this trading influencing public policy? It’s hard to know, definitively. But a few years ago, the New York Times examined trades made by members of Congress from 2019 through 2021. The paper reported that there were 97 senators or representatives “who reported trades by themselves or immediate family members in stocks or other financial assets that intersected with the work of committees on which they serve.”
In one instance, a California congressman disclosed that his wife sold Boeing shares on March 5, 2020. That was just one day before a committee he was a member of issued a report criticizing the company in connection with two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jet.
It’s rare for members of Congress to be prosecuted for market trading, but not unheard of. In 2019, a congressman from New York, Chris Collins, resigned after pleading guilty to having shared confidential company information with his son and lying about it to federal agents. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison (and later pardoned by President Trump).
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Stock trading by members of Congress, and the suspicion that activity engenders, contributes to distrust in government. Last year, a Pew survey found that just 2% of Americans believed the federal government would do what is right “just about always” and just 21% said, “most of the time.” That distrust is unhealthy for the country’s democracy, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, and makes it more difficult for either party to move its agenda forward.
Banning members of Congress from trading stocks would help restore trust in the federal government. A ban would also be an opportunity for members of both parties to come together in support of a measure that will benefit the entire country. That can’t happen soon enough.
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The Best New Memoirs by Women in the U.S. Political Sphere
These are some of the best political memoirs of 2024. Courtesy the publishers Women are climbing the ranks in American politics, from state positions to national offices—and in the case of Kamala Harris, holding the second-highest office as Vice President while campaigning for the U.S. presidency. Yet even as women make inroads at all levels, the political climate has grown more and more polarized, and the public discourse on power, policy and representation increasingly revolves around issues of gender. As a result, many high-profile women in politics have, in recent years, been inspired to share their stories in print, sparking an interest in books highlighting resilience in leadership, particularly from women who have overcome systemic barriers to attain influential positions.
Most recently, a new crop of biographies and memoirs by leaders like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have pulled back the curtain on not only powerful women’s political perspectives and decision-making processes but also their personal lives. The six recently published memoirs we’ve chosen to feature here highlight these leaders’ unique contributions to governance and American culture while offering an insider’s view of pivotal national events. They’re not always easy reads, but they’re all worth reading.
The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House by Nancy Pelosi
The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House by Nancy Pelosi. Simon & Schuster Nothing could have prepared Nancy Pelosi, 84, for the 2022 attack on her husband, Paul, at their San Francisco home. She opens her second book—her first, Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters, was published in 2008—by recounting this traumatic incident that shook her family’s sense of security. She writes that Paul, still unable to speak about it, bears the scars of that night both emotionally and physically. Pelosi’s commitment to and fight for democracy began in an era when few women held political office. Since then, she has been re-elected to the House eighteen times and served as the first female Speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. Throughout her career, she has consistently prioritized children and their futures, describing them as the cornerstone of her platform and the guiding lens for her political decisions, a theme she expands on in her latest book.
Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love and Liberty by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love and Liberty by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Simon & Schuster In her latest book, former First Lady and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took her editor’s advice to heart: to write as though she’s chatting with guests at a dinner party, blending political and personal stories. Each chapter reads like an essay, offering deep insights into her life beyond politics, including her close friendship with Canadian mystery novelist Louise Penny, her admiration for Joni Mitchell and the loyalty of her grade-school friends. Yet Clinton also writes about her efforts to help evacuate Afghan women to safety and describes the routine she and her husband, Bill, maintain, checking in with each other at the end of each day no matter where they are in the world. And she definitely doesn’t shy away from addressing her 2016 presidential election loss to Donald Trump or his persistent claims that the 2020 election was stolen. “Every day, I make an effort to turn my eyes to the future instead,” she reflects.
Melania: A Memoir by Melania Trump
Melania: A Memoir by Melania Trump. Skyhorse With just days remaining before the upcoming presidential election, former First Lady Trump has largely stayed out of the public eye. True to form, those hoping her book will offer insights into her politics may be disappointed—this quick read reveals little about her personal politics beyond her support for abortion rights and her opposition to the violence of the January 6 Capitol Riots. In this straightforward memoir, she reflects on her Slovenian upbringing, life in the spotlight, her relationship with Donald, her fashion career, the joy of motherhood and her advocacy work. She also discusses her entrepreneurial ventures, such as her jewelry line and skincare brand, and the pride she took in building her own career apart from her husband, even as her projects encountered setbacks. The publisher billed Melania Trump’s memoir as “an in-depth account of a woman who has led a remarkable life on her own terms,” and in that regard, it certainly delivers.
Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney
Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney. Little, Brown and Company Cheney’s sharply focused book addresses her decision to be one of only ten Republicans (and the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House) to vote for Trump’s impeachment following the January 6 insurrection in 2021. This action led to her removal as chair of the House Republican Conference. Her appointment by Speaker Pelosi to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol provided her with a direct avenue to share her account. The book’s title references the oath every elected official, including the President, swears, pledging allegiance to the Constitution above party loyalty. Cheney clarifies the “warning” in her subtitle on the last page of the prologue: “We cannot make the grave mistake of returning Donald Trump—the man who caused Jan. 6—to the White House, or to any position of public trust, ever again.”
Lovely One: A Memoir by Ketanji Brown Jackson
Lovely One: A Memoir by Ketanji Brown Jackson. Penguin Random House When President Biden appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court in 2022, it marked a historic milestone: she became the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the United States. Jackson opens her memoir with that pivotal scene, describing the moment she’s ushered into the room to take her oath, before moving into the story of her parents’ and grandparents’ struggles with segregation. Her Miami childhood is marked by hope and more opportunity than her forebears knew, as her parents work tirelessly to support her success. But Ketanji is already a bright, curious and reflective child—qualities that will carry her through Harvard, into motherhood and marriage, and ultimately to the Supreme Court. Her name, translated by her aunt, a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, means “lovely one,” which inspired the memoir’s title.
The Joy of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurrection, and Life’s Other Unexpected Curveballs by Amy Klobuchar
The Joy of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurrection, and Life’s Other Unexpected Curveballs by Amy Klobuchar. Macmillan Minnesota-born U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar gained national prominence as a Democratic contender in the 2020 presidential race. Her journey since then has been a whirlwind both publicly and personally: she stood alongside former Vice President Mike Pence on the night of January 6, as he certified President Biden’s victory amidst the insurrection, and in her personal life, she faced the loss of her father to Alzheimer’s, her husband’s COVID-19 hospitalization and oxygen support, and her own cancer diagnosis. Klobuchar’s humor and grounded personality shine through in her fourth book, starting with a lighthearted moment in the opening paragraph where her husband jokes about his “long-haul symptom”—his desire to avoid cleaning out the basement yet again—showcasing her resilience and strength.
Kristine Hansen
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DNC Day 3: Tim Walz accepts party vice presidential nomination, Bill Clinton tears into Trump
The Democratic National Convention’s third night is underway.After receiving the blessing of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, the focus on the second to last day of the DNC shifts to Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The former school teacher and football coach accepted the Democratic nomination as the party makes the case that Americans’ fundamental freedoms are at risk if Donald Trump returns to the White House.According to convention organizers, the theme for Wednesday’s events is “A fight for our freedoms,” a message that has become the centerpiece of Harris’ campaign as the Democrat has sought to paint a second Trump presidency as a threat to Americans’ ability to make choices about their own lives. Read live updates from Day 3 of the DNC below. Tim Walz speaks at DNC, accepts party vice presidential nominationGov. Tim Walz officially accepted the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nomination on Wednesday.He used his Democratic National Convention address to thank the packed arena for “bringing the joy” to an election transformed by the elevation of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.“We’re all here tonight for one simple, beautiful reason: We love this country,” Walz said.Walz had been working on his DNC speech for about a week, according to a person familiar with the matter, and has made edits in recent days to make it sound more authentic to his voice.Walz also practiced using a teleprompter for the first time since he was selected as Harris’ running mate as he was looking to use the speech to introduce himself to the American people. John Legend and Sheila E. go crazyJohn Legend and Sheila E. celebrated Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz with a rendition of son-of-the-state Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” at the Democratic convention.Legend started at the piano and the onetime Prince collaborator Sheila E. started at her signature standing percussion set before each grabbed a mic and rocked with a band at the center of the stage, tearing through the purple tune for an audience of blue delegates.Walz has gushed about the music of Minnesota, expressing his affection for Bob Dylan, the Replacements, Hüsker Dü and Prince, who died in 2016.Legend told The Associated Press before the convention, “I’m trying to do what I can to help protect our democracy and have someone with a really positive vision for the future elected. And I think Kamala is the right person.”He added, “I’m so excited that she’s infused so much energy into the campaign and that young people and so many people that I think felt concerned that they had to pick between two choices they weren’t excited about.”Buttigieg reflects on progress for American LGBTQ+ familiesButtigieg marveled at the pace of change in the country for LGBTQ+ families, saying it was “impossible” for him to believe 25 years ago that, as a gay man, he could be married with two children.“This kind of life went from impossible to possible — from possible to real — from real to almost ordinary, in less than half a lifetime,” he told the Democratic National Convention. He said it came about because of “the right kind of politics” and encouraged Americans to “choose a better politics. One of hope, of promise, of freedom, of trust. This is what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz represent.”Buttigieg: ‘At least Mike Pence was polite!’Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is taking shots at Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, saying, “At least Mike Pence was polite!” Speaking at the Democratic National Convention, Buttigieg, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020, said, “JD Vance is one of those guys who thinks if you don’t live the life he has in mind for you, then you don’t count.”Buttigieg said Trump’s selection of Vance shows he’s “doubling down on negativity and grievance. A concept of campaigning best summed up in one word: darkness. Darkness is what they are selling.”Oprah directs part of her remarks at independent and undecided votersOprah Winfrey returned to the DNC stage on Wednesday night. Winfrey delivered a famous endorsement to then-Sen. Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.The legendary talk show host, on Wednesday, encouraged voters to vote for Kamala Harris and said she was “fired up” about the election after listening to speeches on Wednesday by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. Without actually saying his name, Oprah Winfrey, at multiple points, made no-so-subtle jabs at Trump while also trying to appeal to independent and undecided voters.“We are beyond ridiculous tweets and lies and foolery,” she said of Trump, before referencing a recent comment he made to supporters about only having to vote once more — for him — and never again.”There’s a certain candidate that says if we just go to the polls this one time, we’ll never have to do it again,” Winfrey later said. ” Well, you know what? You’re looking at a registered independent who is proud to vote again and again and again because I’m an American and that’s what Americans do. Voting is the best of America.”Winfrey said she has “always voted my values,” and specifically called on independent and undecided voters to do the same. Winfrey, who long hosted her signature talk show from Chicago, also picked up on one of Democrats’ favorite themes of late, scoffing at Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance having once derided “childless cat ladies” as he argued that Americans should be having more children.Winfrey said that if a burning house belonged to a “childless cat lady,” neighbors would still help and “try to get that cat out too.”Poet Amanda Gorman recites original work ‘The Sacred Scene’“A people that cannot stand together cannot stand at all,” poet Amanda Gorman declared from the Democratic convention stage as she recited an original piece of verse penned for the occasion, “This Sacred Scene.”“While we all love freedom, it is love that frees us all,” Gorman’s poem said. “Empathy emancipates, making us greater than hate or vanity, that is the American promise powerful and pure.”The 26-year-old earned rare national fame for a modern poet when she read another poem she wrote, “The Hill We Climb,” at the inauguration of President Joe Biden 3 ½ years ago.Gov. Josh Shapiro takes the stagePennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was among Harris’ finalists to be her running mate, is speaking ahead of Walz Wednesday night after the convention rejiggered its schedule. Shapiro says, “We are the party of real freedom,” criticizing Republicans for trying to undermine elections and roll back abortion access.Democrats veer from their prepared scheduleDemocrats appear to be ditching their prepared schedule, passing over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and adding former Harris staffer Lateefah Simon, now an Oakland congressional candidate, and the vice president’s brother-in-law Tony West to talk about Harris’s biography.It remains to be seen if the convention will cut additional speakers to avoid running well over time like it did on Monday night when President Joe Biden’s address was pushed past 11:30 p.m. Eastern time.‘Uncommitted’ delegates say officials denied their request for a Palestinian to address the conventionDelegates of the “uncommitted” movement, which was sparked by dissatisfaction with President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, announced to reporters at the DNC late Wednesday that officials denied their request for a Palestinian to speak during the convention.The group of 36 delegates have outsized influence as they stem from pivotal battleground states like Michigan.“I have asked for the vice president to call us back and tell us that the suppression of Palestinian Americans does not belong in the Democratic party and a Palestinian speaker will speak on this stage,” Uncommitted National Movement co-founder Abbas Alawieh said. “I’m waiting for the call.”The development comes shortly after the parents of an American who is being kept hostage in Gaza by Hamas spoke at the DNC, urging the release of the hostages and the need for a cease-fire.Pelosi recalls Jan. 6The rest of Pelosi’s time on stage has focused on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, where many rioters were targeting the then-speaker and, when they couldn’t find her, ended up trashing her congressional office.“The parable of January 6 reminds us that our democracy is only as strong as the courage and commitment of those entrusted with its care,” she said, adding that America must choose leaders who believe in free and fair elections. “The choice couldn’t be clearer. Those leaders are Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.”Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi greeted at the DNC with a standing ovationPelosi, who has been seen as the architect behind Biden’s decision to step down as the nominee, spoke about the president’s achievements before quickly pivoting to the woman who stood by him for the last three and a half years.“Personally, I know her as a person of deep faith, reflected in her community, care and service,” the California Democrat said.Clinton says Trump is fighting for ‘me, myself and I’He told the Democratic convention: “The next time you hear him, don’t count the lies — count the I’s.” Adding some corny humor, Clinton said, “He’s like one of those tenors opening up before he walks out on stage trying to get his lungs open by saying: me, me, me, me. When Kamala Harris is president, every day will begin with you, you, you.”Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and first daughter Chelsea Clinton watched from the arena was the former president spoke.Former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, who once secured the Democratic nomination for president in a race against Donald Trump, spoke on the convention’s stage on Monday.Clinton’s a fan of the Golden ArchesClinton is emphasizing Harris’ time working at McDonald’s to emphasize that she’s working to help people like them.“When she was a student, she worked at McDonald’s,” Clinton said. “She greeted every person with that thousand-watt smile and said, ‘How can I help you?’ And now, she’s at the pinnacle of power, she’s still asking ‘How can I help you?’”Clinton added: “I’ll be so happy when she actually enters the White House because, at last, she’ll break my record as the president who has spent the most time at McDonald’s.”Former President Donald Trump is also a frequent consumer of the golden arches’ food.Former President Clinton returns to the DNCFormer President Bill Clinton said President Joe Biden has, like George Washington, enhanced his legacy by deciding to leave office. Praising Biden at the start of his Democratic National Convention speech, Clinton said of Biden, “He healed our sick and put the rest of us back to work.”Clinton, who left office more than 23 years ago, also cracked jokes about former President Donald Trump’s age — and his own.“I actually turned 78 two days ago,” Clinton said. “The only personal vanity I want to assert is that I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”He did not mention that Biden, 81, is older than both of them.Clinton, the nation’s 42nd president and a veteran of his party’s political convention going back decades, drew a contrast between Harris and Trump.“In 2024, we got a pretty clear choice, it seems to me: Kamala Harris for The People, and the other guy who’s proved even more than the first go around that he’s about me, myself and I,” Clinton said. “I know which one like better for our country.” Hakeem Jeffries casts Trump as ‘an old boyfriend’ who ‘won’t go away’House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries began his speech Wednesday night with a nod to President Biden, saying he would go down as one of the “most consequential presidents of all time.” But Jeffries, who if Democrats win back the House in November would become the first Black speaker, quickly pivoted to the new nominee, saying Harris is a “courageous leader, a compassionate leader and common-sense leader.”Jeffries then spoke on Trump, saying the former president is like “an old boyfriend who you broke up with, but he just won’t go away.”“He has spent the last four years spinning around the block, trying to get back into a relationship with the American people,” the New York Democrat said. “Bro, we broke up with you for a reason.”Mindy Kaling steps in to host as the DNC enters prime timeMindy Kaling is the celebrity host of the prime-time hours of night three of the Democratic convention, and she touted her ties to Vice President Kamala Harris as she introduced herself.“For those of you who don’t know me I am an incredibly famous Gen Z actress who you might recognize from “The Office,” “The Mindy Project” or as the woman who courageously outed Kamala Harris as Indian in an Instagram cooking video,” Kaling said.The actor, comedian and screenwriter from Massachusetts is the daughter of immigrants from India, and she and Harris made masala dosa together in a video four years ago.Democrats keep hammering Republicans about Project 2025Project 2025, the policy document that some conservatives had hoped would serve as a blueprint for a future Trump administration, keeps getting lots of camera time at the Democratic convention.On Wednesday, it was comedian Kenan Thompson who toted the book on stage.“Ever seen a document that can kill a small animal and democracy at the same time? Here it is,” said Thompson, a Saturday Night Live star, who got his start on the Nickelodeon kids comedy show “All That.”Trump and his campaign have repeatedly sought to distance themselves from Project 2025. But the document, which is hundreds of pages long and written by Trump allies and officials in his administration, has continued to dog him.And Democrats aren’t about to stop.Among the proposals included in the document are far more stringent abortion restrictions. The authors also want to dramatically downsize the federal government and give the president the authority to replace tens of thousands of workers with loyalists.“Everything we just talked about is very real. It is in this book,” Thompson said.“You can stop it from ever happening by electing Kamala Harris,” he concluded.Kenan Thompson pokes fun at Project 2025 Comedian Kenan Thompson brought back the huge “Project 2025” tome as he introduced a bit talking to various Americans who would be impacted by the book’s policies. “You ever see a document that can kill a small animal and democracy at the same time?” he said.But as he began, tech issues prevented Thompson from going through with the bit with a Nevada delegate named Matt. After several seconds of trying to fix the problem, Thompson moved on to the next delegate, saying, “Sorry, Matt!” and the bit continued.Stevie Wonder performs ‘Higher Ground’Stevie Wonder used his keyboard as a podium on the stage of the Democratic convention, giving a brief speech before breaking into “Higher Ground.”“We must choose courage over complacency, it is time to get UP! And go vote.”He asked the audience, “Are y’all ready to reach a higher ground? Because you know we need Kamala Harris.”The 74-year-old musical luminary then broke into his 1973 classic from the album “Innervisions,” accompanied by a DJ and dancers clad in white.Wonder also sang at the 2008 convention in Denver that brought the nomination of Barack Obama.Former Jan. 6 committee chairman says Trump ‘would rather subvert democracy than submit to it’Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., spoke Wednesday night about the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The former chairman of the Jan. 6 committee warned at the convention “about going back to the dark history,” of political violence and racial segregation. “They wanted to stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history,” he said. “Thank God they failed.”Thompson warned of what would happen if Trump would once again lose and refuse to accept the results of the election. “He would rather subvert democracy than submit to it. Now he’s plotting to do it again,” he added.Georgia’s former lieutenant governor urges fellow Republicans to ‘dump Trump’Geoff Duncan, the former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, is eliciting a raucous response from Democrats in the convention hall as he lays into Donald Trump.“Our party is not civil and conservative. It’s chaotic and crazy,” he said of Republicans before urging others to “dump Trump.”Addressing his fellow Republicans, Duncan said, “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot.”Another former Trump White House official backs HarrisA former Trump administration White House official said she made the right decision when she quit her job.Olivia Troye told the Democratic National Convention that being in Trump’s White House was “terrifying” but what truly keeps her up at night is the possibility of the former president reclaiming the office.Troye said the traditional values that she says made her a Republican growing up are the same values that have led her to support Harris for president.Turning to her fellow Republicans, she said a vote for Harris is not a vote for a Democrat but rather a vote for democracy. ‘This is a vision for America that Donald Trump will never understand,’ congressman says on stageRep. Pete Aguilar, the highest-ranking Latino in Congress, said that Trump is a threat to the values his immigrant family grew up with in Southern California.“Only Kamala Harris and Tim Walls will protect the American dream so that every family can earn a living, own a home, and reach their full potential,” Aguilar said. “This is a vision for America that Donald Trump will never understand. All he knows is chaos and division.” Democrats turn their attention to the borderRep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, who served as a surrogate to the then-Biden campaign, kicked off what will be a series of speeches Wednesday night focused on immigration and security at the U.S. border with Mexico.Video below: Hear some of Escobar’s remarks After a video played showing Republican opposition to a bipartisan border deal earlier this year, Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut took the stage. Murphy was the top Democrat negotiating the proposal with conservative senators.“I just want to let you know that everything you just saw in that video, that’s exactly what happened,” Murphy said. “It would have had unanimous support if it weren’t for Donald Trump.”Singer Maren Morris performs ‘Better Than We Found It’Singer Maren Morris brought her plea for progress “Better Than We Found It” to the convention.The Grammy winner from Arlington, Texas, has been leaning more toward pop recently but struck a decidedly country tone on the stage at the United Center.“God save us all from ourselves and the hell that we’ve built for our kids,” she sang. “America, America, We’re better than this.” The song was released in 2020 in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and was viewed as an implicit rejection of former President Trump’s rhetoric.Morris has been a vocal supporter of liberal causes and has publicly sparred with other country music figures on issues including trans rights.She’s also set to be among the performers at a 100th birthday celebration for former President Jimmy Carter next month. Also expected onstage are music icon Stevie Wonder and legendary talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who gave a critical endorsement of then-Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Poet Amanda Gorman was also set to take the stage.Family of hostage in Gaza calls for a cease-fire and hostage releaseJon Polin thanked Biden and Harris for their work trying to secure a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza. Acknowledging the “agony” of civilians in Gaza as well, he said, “In a competition of pain there are no winners” and called for a swift agreement to free the hostages and stop the fighting in Gaza.Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been a staunch critic of Israel as it has responded to the Oct. 7 attack, was seen at the convention clapping as the parents of the Israeli hostage spoke about the need to not only bring back hostages but to end the “civilian suffering” in Gaza.Halie Soifer, the head of the Jewish Democratic Council of America and former national security advisor to Harris when she was senator, said in a statement Wednesday after the Polins’ speech that “Jewish Americans are proud to stand with Vice President Harris because she stands with us on every issue, including strong support of the US-Israel relationship.”The parents of an American hostage in Gaza receive a standing ovationSen. Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced his constituents, Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who has been held hostage in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.They were among the family members of six American hostages in attendance in Chicago to raise awareness about their family members’ plight.Polin and Goldberg-Polin, wearing a notation that it’s been 320 days since their son was taken captive, received a standing ovation from conventiongoers, who chanted “Bring them home.”While the Polins spoke, the camera cut to the various people in the room who were shedding tears for the parents.It comes after Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of Omer Neutra, were given a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention last month. After Hersh’s mother talked about her son’s love of travel, geography, music and music festivals, she described the events of Oct. 7 and the injuries her son sustained before being taken hostage.As he spoke, Hersh’s father told listeners that while he was speaking at the DNC, he doesn’t think releasing the hostages should be a matter of politics.“This is a political convention, but needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home, is not a political issue,” he said. “It is a humanitarian issue.”“In a competition of pain there are no winners,” Polin added.Both Polin and Goldberg-Polin spoke of the other hostages and hostage families.In an emotional moment, Goldberg-Polin closed the speech with a message for her son.“Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong. Survive,” she said.A record number of DNC delegates identify as LGBTQ+According to the Human Rights Campaign, over 800 DNC delegates identify as LGBTQ+ — a record — and over 50 identify as trans or nonbinary. During her speech, Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general and an openly gay woman, spoke about LGBTQ+ rights. In addition to other remarks, Nessel declared, “I got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand.”Voters reminded to pay attention to Congressional races in addition to presidential raceDemocratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene told party faithful it’s not enough to win the White House.“A Democratic Congress is how we turn promises into progress,” she says, which would enable Harris and Walz to enact their policy agenda. Democrats only need to pick up a handful of seats to retake the majority in the House from Republicans.Wasserman Schultz talks about the repercussions of the Dobbs decisionFlorida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was also bumped from the program on Monday, is getting a chance to address the convention Wednesday night.The former DNC chair is using her remarks to highlight the story of a Florida woman who, because of the state’s restrictions on abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, was forced to carry to term a child with a fatal illness, only to watch the newborn die just hours after birth.“This is Project 2025 in practice,” she says. “It’s what Donald Trump and JD Vance want for the whole country.”The big book is back as Democrats again take aim at Project 2025Prop-politics is back as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is taking a page from an oversized printed copy of the conservative Project 2025, saying he wants to share it with undecided voters. Polis says the plan would jeopardize IVF and only values heterosexual couples where the man holds a job. Project 2025 was developed by Trump supporters but has been formally disavowed by the GOP nominee.Minnesota connections abound ahead of Walz’s DNC speechIt’s Walz’s night at the DNC, and there are lots of touchstones to the Minnesota governor sprinkled throughout the programming.Harris-Walz campaign officials note that elementary students from Moreland Arts & Health Sciences Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota, were tasked with leading the Pledge of Allegiance. According to the campaign, those students benefited from the free breakfast and lunch program that Walz signed into law as Minnesota governor.Also, the campaign says the national anthem was sung by Jess Davis, a mathematics teacher selected as Minnesota’s teacher of the year in 2019.Congressman compares Democrats’ immigration stances with that of RepublicansNew York Rep. Tom Suozzi is implicitly contrasting Democrats’ stance on immigration with Republicans.The Republican convention last month was dominated by calls to shut down the southern border and ratchet down admissions to the U.S. And though Republicans say they don’t oppose immigration — only those who enter the country illegally — Trump also tightly limited immigration during his presidency.Souzzi pointed out that the U.S. has long been a nation of immigrants, including his own relatives who came from Italy.“To be a nation of immigrants is hard,” he said. “You have to work for it.”Democrats appeal to former Trump votersThere are more videos of former Trump supporters no longer backing the GOP nominee being played at the DNC.It’s a theme to which convention programming has been returning throughout the week, perhaps aimed at other former Trump backers now looking for a new political home.Harris’ campaign, and Biden’s before that, has been angling to attract Republican support heading into what’s anticipated to be a tight general election campaign.Abortion-rights advocates praise HarrisReproductive justice leaders took the DNC stage to applaud Harris’ long history as an abortion rights advocate.Mini Timmaraju, president of the national reproductive rights group Reproductive Freedom for All, highlighted states where abortion rights will be on the ballot this year, including Arizona and Montana — the latest states where voters will be able to decide in November whether they want to protect the right to an abortion in their state constitutions.“The people will get to have their say this November,” she said.Alexis McGill Johnson, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood, told the stories of a Georgia woman who drove to South Carolina for abortion care but arrived the day the state’s six-week ban went into effect, of Texas doctors who have sent patients “to wait in hospital parking lots rather than provide the emergency care they need,” and of Idaho hospitals airlifting patients to other states.“We cannot call ourselves a free nation when women are not free,” she said. Oprah Winfrey will make DNC appearanceannot call ourselves a free nation when women are not free,” she said.Talk show legend Oprah Winfrey will appear at the DNC on Wednesday night, according to a person familiar with the schedule who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans.Winfrey delivered a famous endorsement to then-Sen. Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign. It’s not yet clear whether she will endorse Harris, who is vying to become the first Black woman elected president. Day 3 of the DNC has begunThe third day of the convention has officially been gaveled in by Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey. Day 3 speakers and performersMini Timmaraju, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for AllAlexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action FundCecile Richards, reproductive rights activistKelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights CampaignJessica Mackler, president of EMILYs ListMaría Teresa Kumar, Founding President and CEO of Voto LatinoU.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of New YorkSen. Cory BookerAftab Pureval, mayor of Cincinnati, OhioCavalier Johnson, mayor of Milwaukee, WisconsinRashawn Spivey and Deanna Branch, lead pipe removal advocatesU.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of DelawareU.S. Rep. Grace Meng of New YorkGov. Jared Polis of ColoradoU.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of FloridaSuzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Keith Ellison, Attorney General of Minnesota Dana Nessel, Attorney General of MichiganJon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-PolinMaren Morris (performance)U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of TexasU.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of ConnecticutJavier Salazar, sheriff of Bexar County, TexasPete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic CaucusCarlos Eduardo Espina, content creatorOlivia Troye, a former Trump administration national security officialGeoff Duncan, the former Lieutenant Governor of GeorgiaU.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of MississippiSgt. Aquilino Gonell, retired U.S. Capitol police officerU.S. Rep. Andy Kim of New JerseyOlivia Julianna, content creatorStevie Wonder (performance)Kenan Thompson and Guests on Project 2025Mindy KalingU.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem JeffriesFormer President Bill ClintonSpeaker Emerita of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy PelosiPennsylvania Gov. Josh ShapiroAlexander HudlinJasper EmhoffArden EmhoffU.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of NevadaAmanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate (performance)Gov. Wes Moore of MarylandU.S. Transportation Secretary Pete ButtigiegJohn Legend (performance)Sheila E. (performance)Sen. Amy Klobuchar of MinnesotaBenjamin C. Ingman, a former student of Gov. WalzTim Walz, the governor of Minnesota
CHICAGO —The Democratic National Convention’s third night is underway.
After receiving the blessing of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, the focus on the second to last day of the DNC shifts to Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The former school teacher and football coach accepted the Democratic nomination as the party makes the case that Americans’ fundamental freedoms are at risk if Donald Trump returns to the White House.
According to convention organizers, the theme for Wednesday’s events is “A fight for our freedoms,” a message that has become the centerpiece of Harris’ campaign as the Democrat has sought to paint a second Trump presidency as a threat to Americans’ ability to make choices about their own lives.
Read live updates from Day 3 of the DNC below.
Tim Walz speaks at DNC, accepts party vice presidential nomination
Gov. Tim Walz officially accepted the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nomination on Wednesday.
He used his Democratic National Convention address to thank the packed arena for “bringing the joy” to an election transformed by the elevation of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“We’re all here tonight for one simple, beautiful reason: We love this country,” Walz said.
Walz had been working on his DNC speech for about a week, according to a person familiar with the matter, and has made edits in recent days to make it sound more authentic to his voice.
Walz also practiced using a teleprompter for the first time since he was selected as Harris’ running mate as he was looking to use the speech to introduce himself to the American people.
John Legend and Sheila E. go crazy
John Legend and Sheila E. celebrated Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz with a rendition of son-of-the-state Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” at the Democratic convention.
Legend started at the piano and the onetime Prince collaborator Sheila E. started at her signature standing percussion set before each grabbed a mic and rocked with a band at the center of the stage, tearing through the purple tune for an audience of blue delegates.
Walz has gushed about the music of Minnesota, expressing his affection for Bob Dylan, the Replacements, Hüsker Dü and Prince, who died in 2016.
Legend told The Associated Press before the convention, “I’m trying to do what I can to help protect our democracy and have someone with a really positive vision for the future elected. And I think Kamala is the right person.”
He added, “I’m so excited that she’s infused so much energy into the campaign and that young people and so many people that I think felt concerned that they had to pick between two choices they weren’t excited about.”
Buttigieg reflects on progress for American LGBTQ+ families
Buttigieg marveled at the pace of change in the country for LGBTQ+ families, saying it was “impossible” for him to believe 25 years ago that, as a gay man, he could be married with two children.
“This kind of life went from impossible to possible — from possible to real — from real to almost ordinary, in less than half a lifetime,” he told the Democratic National Convention. He said it came about because of “the right kind of politics” and encouraged Americans to “choose a better politics. One of hope, of promise, of freedom, of trust. This is what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz represent.”
Buttigieg: ‘At least Mike Pence was polite!’
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is taking shots at Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, saying, “At least Mike Pence was polite!” Speaking at the Democratic National Convention, Buttigieg, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020, said, “JD Vance is one of those guys who thinks if you don’t live the life he has in mind for you, then you don’t count.”
Buttigieg said Trump’s selection of Vance shows he’s “doubling down on negativity and grievance. A concept of campaigning best summed up in one word: darkness. Darkness is what they are selling.”
Oprah directs part of her remarks at independent and undecided voters
Oprah Winfrey returned to the DNC stage on Wednesday night. Winfrey delivered a famous endorsement to then-Sen. Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.
The legendary talk show host, on Wednesday, encouraged voters to vote for Kamala Harris and said she was “fired up” about the election after listening to speeches on Wednesday by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Without actually saying his name, Oprah Winfrey, at multiple points, made no-so-subtle jabs at Trump while also trying to appeal to independent and undecided voters.
“We are beyond ridiculous tweets and lies and foolery,” she said of Trump, before referencing a recent comment he made to supporters about only having to vote once more — for him — and never again.
“There’s a certain candidate that says if we just go to the polls this one time, we’ll never have to do it again,” Winfrey later said. ” Well, you know what? You’re looking at a registered independent who is proud to vote again and again and again because I’m an American and that’s what Americans do. Voting is the best of America.”
Winfrey said she has “always voted my values,” and specifically called on independent and undecided voters to do the same.
Winfrey, who long hosted her signature talk show from Chicago, also picked up on one of Democrats’ favorite themes of late, scoffing at Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance having once derided “childless cat ladies” as he argued that Americans should be having more children.
Winfrey said that if a burning house belonged to a “childless cat lady,” neighbors would still help and “try to get that cat out too.”
Poet Amanda Gorman recites original work ‘The Sacred Scene’
“A people that cannot stand together cannot stand at all,” poet Amanda Gorman declared from the Democratic convention stage as she recited an original piece of verse penned for the occasion, “This Sacred Scene.”
“While we all love freedom, it is love that frees us all,” Gorman’s poem said. “Empathy emancipates, making us greater than hate or vanity, that is the American promise powerful and pure.”
The 26-year-old earned rare national fame for a modern poet when she read another poem she wrote, “The Hill We Climb,” at the inauguration of President Joe Biden 3 ½ years ago.
Gov. Josh Shapiro takes the stage
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was among Harris’ finalists to be her running mate, is speaking ahead of Walz Wednesday night after the convention rejiggered its schedule. Shapiro says, “We are the party of real freedom,” criticizing Republicans for trying to undermine elections and roll back abortion access.
Democrats veer from their prepared schedule
Democrats appear to be ditching their prepared schedule, passing over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and adding former Harris staffer Lateefah Simon, now an Oakland congressional candidate, and the vice president’s brother-in-law Tony West to talk about Harris’s biography.
It remains to be seen if the convention will cut additional speakers to avoid running well over time like it did on Monday night when President Joe Biden’s address was pushed past 11:30 p.m. Eastern time.
‘Uncommitted’ delegates say officials denied their request for a Palestinian to address the convention
Delegates of the “uncommitted” movement, which was sparked by dissatisfaction with President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, announced to reporters at the DNC late Wednesday that officials denied their request for a Palestinian to speak during the convention.
The group of 36 delegates have outsized influence as they stem from pivotal battleground states like Michigan.
“I have asked for the vice president to call us back and tell us that the suppression of Palestinian Americans does not belong in the Democratic party and a Palestinian speaker will speak on this stage,” Uncommitted National Movement co-founder Abbas Alawieh said. “I’m waiting for the call.”
The development comes shortly after the parents of an American who is being kept hostage in Gaza by Hamas spoke at the DNC, urging the release of the hostages and the need for a cease-fire.
Pelosi recalls Jan. 6
The rest of Pelosi’s time on stage has focused on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, where many rioters were targeting the then-speaker and, when they couldn’t find her, ended up trashing her congressional office.
“The parable of January 6 reminds us that our democracy is only as strong as the courage and commitment of those entrusted with its care,” she said, adding that America must choose leaders who believe in free and fair elections. “The choice couldn’t be clearer. Those leaders are Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.”
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi greeted at the DNC with a standing ovation
Pelosi, who has been seen as the architect behind Biden’s decision to step down as the nominee, spoke about the president’s achievements before quickly pivoting to the woman who stood by him for the last three and a half years.
“Personally, I know her as a person of deep faith, reflected in her community, care and service,” the California Democrat said.
Clinton says Trump is fighting for ‘me, myself and I’
He told the Democratic convention: “The next time you hear him, don’t count the lies — count the I’s.” Adding some corny humor, Clinton said, “He’s like one of those tenors opening up before he walks out on stage trying to get his lungs open by saying: me, me, me, me. When Kamala Harris is president, every day will begin with you, you, you.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and first daughter Chelsea Clinton watched from the arena was the former president spoke.
Former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, who once secured the Democratic nomination for president in a race against Donald Trump, spoke on the convention’s stage on Monday.
Clinton’s a fan of the Golden Arches
Clinton is emphasizing Harris’ time working at McDonald’s to emphasize that she’s working to help people like them.
“When she was a student, she worked at McDonald’s,” Clinton said. “She greeted every person with that thousand-watt smile and said, ‘How can I help you?’ And now, she’s at the pinnacle of power, she’s still asking ‘How can I help you?’”
Clinton added: “I’ll be so happy when she actually enters the White House because, at last, she’ll break my record as the president who has spent the most time at McDonald’s.”
Former President Donald Trump is also a frequent consumer of the golden arches’ food.
Former President Clinton returns to the DNC
Former President Bill Clinton said President Joe Biden has, like George Washington, enhanced his legacy by deciding to leave office. Praising Biden at the start of his Democratic National Convention speech, Clinton said of Biden, “He healed our sick and put the rest of us back to work.”
Clinton, who left office more than 23 years ago, also cracked jokes about former President Donald Trump’s age — and his own.
“I actually turned 78 two days ago,” Clinton said. “The only personal vanity I want to assert is that I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”
He did not mention that Biden, 81, is older than both of them.
Clinton, the nation’s 42nd president and a veteran of his party’s political convention going back decades, drew a contrast between Harris and Trump.
“In 2024, we got a pretty clear choice, it seems to me: Kamala Harris for The People, and the other guy who’s proved even more than the first go around that he’s about me, myself and I,” Clinton said. “I know which one like better for our country.”
Hakeem Jeffries casts Trump as ‘an old boyfriend’ who ‘won’t go away’
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries began his speech Wednesday night with a nod to President Biden, saying he would go down as one of the “most consequential presidents of all time.” But Jeffries, who if Democrats win back the House in November would become the first Black speaker, quickly pivoted to the new nominee, saying Harris is a “courageous leader, a compassionate leader and common-sense leader.”
Jeffries then spoke on Trump, saying the former president is like “an old boyfriend who you broke up with, but he just won’t go away.”
“He has spent the last four years spinning around the block, trying to get back into a relationship with the American people,” the New York Democrat said. “Bro, we broke up with you for a reason.”
Mindy Kaling steps in to host as the DNC enters prime time
Mindy Kaling is the celebrity host of the prime-time hours of night three of the Democratic convention, and she touted her ties to Vice President Kamala Harris as she introduced herself.
“For those of you who don’t know me I am an incredibly famous Gen Z actress who you might recognize from “The Office,” “The Mindy Project” or as the woman who courageously outed Kamala Harris as Indian in an Instagram cooking video,” Kaling said.
The actor, comedian and screenwriter from Massachusetts is the daughter of immigrants from India, and she and Harris made masala dosa together in a video four years ago.
Democrats keep hammering Republicans about Project 2025
Project 2025, the policy document that some conservatives had hoped would serve as a blueprint for a future Trump administration, keeps getting lots of camera time at the Democratic convention.
On Wednesday, it was comedian Kenan Thompson who toted the book on stage.
“Ever seen a document that can kill a small animal and democracy at the same time? Here it is,” said Thompson, a Saturday Night Live star, who got his start on the Nickelodeon kids comedy show “All That.”
Trump and his campaign have repeatedly sought to distance themselves from Project 2025. But the document, which is hundreds of pages long and written by Trump allies and officials in his administration, has continued to dog him.
And Democrats aren’t about to stop.
Among the proposals included in the document are far more stringent abortion restrictions. The authors also want to dramatically downsize the federal government and give the president the authority to replace tens of thousands of workers with loyalists.
“Everything we just talked about is very real. It is in this book,” Thompson said.
“You can stop it from ever happening by electing Kamala Harris,” he concluded.
Kenan Thompson pokes fun at Project 2025
Comedian Kenan Thompson brought back the huge “Project 2025” tome as he introduced a bit talking to various Americans who would be impacted by the book’s policies. “You ever see a document that can kill a small animal and democracy at the same time?” he said.
But as he began, tech issues prevented Thompson from going through with the bit with a Nevada delegate named Matt. After several seconds of trying to fix the problem, Thompson moved on to the next delegate, saying, “Sorry, Matt!” and the bit continued.
Stevie Wonder performs ‘Higher Ground’
Stevie Wonder used his keyboard as a podium on the stage of the Democratic convention, giving a brief speech before breaking into “Higher Ground.”
“We must choose courage over complacency, it is time to get UP! And go vote.”
He asked the audience, “Are y’all ready to reach a higher ground? Because you know we need Kamala Harris.”
The 74-year-old musical luminary then broke into his 1973 classic from the album “Innervisions,” accompanied by a DJ and dancers clad in white.
Wonder also sang at the 2008 convention in Denver that brought the nomination of Barack Obama.
Former Jan. 6 committee chairman says Trump ‘would rather subvert democracy than submit to it’
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., spoke Wednesday night about the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The former chairman of the Jan. 6 committee warned at the convention “about going back to the dark history,” of political violence and racial segregation. “They wanted to stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history,” he said. “Thank God they failed.”
Thompson warned of what would happen if Trump would once again lose and refuse to accept the results of the election. “He would rather subvert democracy than submit to it. Now he’s plotting to do it again,” he added.
Georgia’s former lieutenant governor urges fellow Republicans to ‘dump Trump’
Geoff Duncan, the former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, is eliciting a raucous response from Democrats in the convention hall as he lays into Donald Trump.
“Our party is not civil and conservative. It’s chaotic and crazy,” he said of Republicans before urging others to “dump Trump.”
Addressing his fellow Republicans, Duncan said, “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot.”
Another former Trump White House official backs Harris
A former Trump administration White House official said she made the right decision when she quit her job.
Olivia Troye told the Democratic National Convention that being in Trump’s White House was “terrifying” but what truly keeps her up at night is the possibility of the former president reclaiming the office.
Troye said the traditional values that she says made her a Republican growing up are the same values that have led her to support Harris for president.
Turning to her fellow Republicans, she said a vote for Harris is not a vote for a Democrat but rather a vote for democracy.
‘This is a vision for America that Donald Trump will never understand,’ congressman says on stage
Rep. Pete Aguilar, the highest-ranking Latino in Congress, said that Trump is a threat to the values his immigrant family grew up with in Southern California.
“Only Kamala Harris and Tim Walls will protect the American dream so that every family can earn a living, own a home, and reach their full potential,” Aguilar said. “This is a vision for America that Donald Trump will never understand. All he knows is chaos and division.”
Democrats turn their attention to the border
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, who served as a surrogate to the then-Biden campaign, kicked off what will be a series of speeches Wednesday night focused on immigration and security at the U.S. border with Mexico.
Video below: Hear some of Escobar’s remarks
After a video played showing Republican opposition to a bipartisan border deal earlier this year, Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut took the stage. Murphy was the top Democrat negotiating the proposal with conservative senators.
“I just want to let you know that everything you just saw in that video, that’s exactly what happened,” Murphy said. “It would have had unanimous support if it weren’t for Donald Trump.”
Singer Maren Morris performs ‘Better Than We Found It’
Singer Maren Morris brought her plea for progress “Better Than We Found It” to the convention.
The Grammy winner from Arlington, Texas, has been leaning more toward pop recently but struck a decidedly country tone on the stage at the United Center.
“God save us all from ourselves and the hell that we’ve built for our kids,” she sang. “America, America, We’re better than this.” The song was released in 2020 in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and was viewed as an implicit rejection of former President Trump’s rhetoric.
Morris has been a vocal supporter of liberal causes and has publicly sparred with other country music figures on issues including trans rights.
She’s also set to be among the performers at a 100th birthday celebration for former President Jimmy Carter next month.
Also expected onstage are music icon Stevie Wonder and legendary talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who gave a critical endorsement of then-Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Poet Amanda Gorman was also set to take the stage.
Family of hostage in Gaza calls for a cease-fire and hostage release
Jon Polin thanked Biden and Harris for their work trying to secure a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza. Acknowledging the “agony” of civilians in Gaza as well, he said, “In a competition of pain there are no winners” and called for a swift agreement to free the hostages and stop the fighting in Gaza.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been a staunch critic of Israel as it has responded to the Oct. 7 attack, was seen at the convention clapping as the parents of the Israeli hostage spoke about the need to not only bring back hostages but to end the “civilian suffering” in Gaza.
Halie Soifer, the head of the Jewish Democratic Council of America and former national security advisor to Harris when she was senator, said in a statement Wednesday after the Polins’ speech that “Jewish Americans are proud to stand with Vice President Harris because she stands with us on every issue, including strong support of the US-Israel relationship.”
The parents of an American hostage in Gaza receive a standing ovation
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced his constituents, Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who has been held hostage in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
They were among the family members of six American hostages in attendance in Chicago to raise awareness about their family members’ plight.
Polin and Goldberg-Polin, wearing a notation that it’s been 320 days since their son was taken captive, received a standing ovation from conventiongoers, who chanted “Bring them home.”
While the Polins spoke, the camera cut to the various people in the room who were shedding tears for the parents.
It comes after Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of Omer Neutra, were given a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention last month.
After Hersh’s mother talked about her son’s love of travel, geography, music and music festivals, she described the events of Oct. 7 and the injuries her son sustained before being taken hostage.
As he spoke, Hersh’s father told listeners that while he was speaking at the DNC, he doesn’t think releasing the hostages should be a matter of politics.
“This is a political convention, but needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home, is not a political issue,” he said. “It is a humanitarian issue.”
“In a competition of pain there are no winners,” Polin added.
Both Polin and Goldberg-Polin spoke of the other hostages and hostage families.
In an emotional moment, Goldberg-Polin closed the speech with a message for her son.
“Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong. Survive,” she said.A record number of DNC delegates identify as LGBTQ+
According to the Human Rights Campaign, over 800 DNC delegates identify as LGBTQ+ — a record — and over 50 identify as trans or nonbinary.
During her speech, Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general and an openly gay woman, spoke about LGBTQ+ rights. In addition to other remarks, Nessel declared, “I got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand.”
Voters reminded to pay attention to Congressional races in addition to presidential race
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene told party faithful it’s not enough to win the White House.
“A Democratic Congress is how we turn promises into progress,” she says, which would enable Harris and Walz to enact their policy agenda. Democrats only need to pick up a handful of seats to retake the majority in the House from Republicans.
Wasserman Schultz talks about the repercussions of the Dobbs decision
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was also bumped from the program on Monday, is getting a chance to address the convention Wednesday night.
The former DNC chair is using her remarks to highlight the story of a Florida woman who, because of the state’s restrictions on abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, was forced to carry to term a child with a fatal illness, only to watch the newborn die just hours after birth.
“This is Project 2025 in practice,” she says. “It’s what Donald Trump and JD Vance want for the whole country.”
The big book is back as Democrats again take aim at Project 2025
Prop-politics is back as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is taking a page from an oversized printed copy of the conservative Project 2025, saying he wants to share it with undecided voters. Polis says the plan would jeopardize IVF and only values heterosexual couples where the man holds a job. Project 2025 was developed by Trump supporters but has been formally disavowed by the GOP nominee.
Minnesota connections abound ahead of Walz’s DNC speech
It’s Walz’s night at the DNC, and there are lots of touchstones to the Minnesota governor sprinkled throughout the programming.
Harris-Walz campaign officials note that elementary students from Moreland Arts & Health Sciences Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota, were tasked with leading the Pledge of Allegiance. According to the campaign, those students benefited from the free breakfast and lunch program that Walz signed into law as Minnesota governor.
Also, the campaign says the national anthem was sung by Jess Davis, a mathematics teacher selected as Minnesota’s teacher of the year in 2019.
Congressman compares Democrats’ immigration stances with that of Republicans
New York Rep. Tom Suozzi is implicitly contrasting Democrats’ stance on immigration with Republicans.
The Republican convention last month was dominated by calls to shut down the southern border and ratchet down admissions to the U.S. And though Republicans say they don’t oppose immigration — only those who enter the country illegally — Trump also tightly limited immigration during his presidency.
Souzzi pointed out that the U.S. has long been a nation of immigrants, including his own relatives who came from Italy.
“To be a nation of immigrants is hard,” he said. “You have to work for it.”
Democrats appeal to former Trump voters
There are more videos of former Trump supporters no longer backing the GOP nominee being played at the DNC.
It’s a theme to which convention programming has been returning throughout the week, perhaps aimed at other former Trump backers now looking for a new political home.
Harris’ campaign, and Biden’s before that, has been angling to attract Republican support heading into what’s anticipated to be a tight general election campaign.
Abortion-rights advocates praise Harris
Reproductive justice leaders took the DNC stage to applaud Harris’ long history as an abortion rights advocate.
Mini Timmaraju, president of the national reproductive rights group Reproductive Freedom for All, highlighted states where abortion rights will be on the ballot this year, including Arizona and Montana — the latest states where voters will be able to decide in November whether they want to protect the right to an abortion in their state constitutions.
“The people will get to have their say this November,” she said.
Alexis McGill Johnson, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood, told the stories of a Georgia woman who drove to South Carolina for abortion care but arrived the day the state’s six-week ban went into effect, of Texas doctors who have sent patients “to wait in hospital parking lots rather than provide the emergency care they need,” and of Idaho hospitals airlifting patients to other states.
“We cannot call ourselves a free nation when women are not free,” she said.
Oprah Winfrey will make DNC appearanceannot call ourselves a free nation when women are not free,” she said.
Talk show legend Oprah Winfrey will appear at the DNC on Wednesday night, according to a person familiar with the schedule who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans.
Winfrey delivered a famous endorsement to then-Sen. Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign. It’s not yet clear whether she will endorse Harris, who is vying to become the first Black woman elected president.
Day 3 of the DNC has begun
The third day of the convention has officially been gaveled in by Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey.
Day 3 speakers and performers
- Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All
- Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund
- Cecile Richards, reproductive rights activist
- Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign
- Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs List
- María Teresa Kumar, Founding President and CEO of Voto Latino
- U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York
- Sen. Cory Booker
- Aftab Pureval, mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio
- Cavalier Johnson, mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Rashawn Spivey and Deanna Branch, lead pipe removal advocates
- U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware
- U.S. Rep. Grace Meng of New York
- Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado
- U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida
- Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
- Keith Ellison, Attorney General of Minnesota
- Dana Nessel, Attorney General of Michigan
- Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin
- Maren Morris (performance)
- U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas
- U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut
- Javier Salazar, sheriff of Bexar County, Texas
- Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus
- Carlos Eduardo Espina, content creator
- Olivia Troye, a former Trump administration national security official
- Geoff Duncan, the former Lieutenant Governor of Georgia
- U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi
- Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, retired U.S. Capitol police officer
- U.S. Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey
- Olivia Julianna, content creator
- Stevie Wonder (performance)
- Kenan Thompson and Guests on Project 2025
- Mindy Kaling
- U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries
- Former President Bill Clinton
- Speaker Emerita of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi
- Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro
- Alexander Hudlin
- Jasper Emhoff
- Arden Emhoff
- U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada
- Amanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate (performance)
- Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland
- U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
- John Legend (performance)
- Sheila E. (performance)
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
- Benjamin C. Ingman, a former student of Gov. Walz
- Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota
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Here’s a look at some of the false claims made during Biden and Trump’s first debate
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump traded barbs and a variety of false and misleading information as they faced off in their first debate of the 2024 election.
Trump falsely represented the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a relatively small number of people who were ushered in by police and misstated the strength of the economy during his administration.
The latest on the Biden-Trump debate
- The debate was a critical moment in Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s presidential rematch to make their cases before a national television audience.
- Take a look at the facts around false and misleading claims frequently made by the two candidates.
- Both candidates wasted no time sparring over policy during their 90-minute faceoff. These are the takeaways.
Biden, who tends to lean more on exaggerations and embellishments rather than outright lies, misrepresented the cost of insulin and overstated what Trump said about using disinfectant to address COVID. Here’s a look at the false and misleading claims on Thursday night by the two candidates.
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JAN. 6
TRUMP: “They talk about a relatively small number of people that went to the Capitol and in many cases were ushered in by the police.”
THE FACTS: That’s false. The attack on the U.S. Capitol was the deadliest assault on the seat of American power in over 200 years. As thoroughly documented by video, photographs and people who were there, thousands of people descended on Capitol Hill in what became a brutal scene of hand-to-hand combat with police.
In an internal memo on March 7, 2023, U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said that the allegation that “our officers helped the rioters and acted as ‘tour guides’” is “outrageous and false.” A Capitol Police spokesperson confirmed the memo’s authenticity to The Associated Press. More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot. More than 850 people have pleaded guilty to crimes, and 200 others have been convicted at trial.
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TRUMP, on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s actions on Jan. 6: “Because I offered her 10,000 soldiers or National Guard and she turned them down.”
THE FACTS: Pelosi did not direct the National Guard. Further, as the Capitol came under attack, she and then-Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell called for military assistance, including from the National Guard.
The Capitol Police Board makes the decision on whether to call National Guard troops to the Capitol. It is made up of the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol. The board decided not to call the guard ahead of the insurrection but did eventually request assistance after the rioting had already begun, and the troops arrived several hours later.
The House Sergeant at Arms reported to Pelosi and the Senate Sergeant at Arms reported to McConnell. There is no evidence that either Pelosi or McConnell directed the security officials not to call the guard beforehand. Drew Hammill, a then-spokesperson for Pelosi, said after the insurrection that Pelosi was never informed of such a request.
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TAXES AND REGULATIONS
TRUMP, on Biden: “He wants to raise your taxes by four times.”
THE FACTS: That’s not accurate.
Trump has used that line at rallies, but it has no basis in fact. Biden actually wants to prevent tax increases on anyone making less than $400,000, which is the vast majority of taxpayers.
More importantly, Biden’s budget proposal does not increase taxes as much as Trump claims, though the increases are focused on corporations and the wealthy. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for individuals are set to expire after 2025, because they were not fully funded when they became law.
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TRUMP, referring to Jan. 6, 2021, the day a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s victory: “On January 6th we had the lowest taxes ever. We had the lowest regulations ever on January 6th.”
THE FACTS: The current federal income tax was only instituted in 1913, and tax rates have fluctuated significantly in the decades since. Rates were lower in the 1920s, just prior to the Great Depression. Trump did cut taxes during his time in the White House, but the rates weren’t the lowest in history.
Government regulations have also ebbed and flowed in the country’s history, but there’s been an overall increase in regulations as the country modernized and its population grew. There are now many more regulations covering the environment, employment, financial transactions and other aspects of daily life. While Trump slashed some regulations, he didn’t take the country back to the less regulated days of its past.
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INSULIN
BIDEN: “It’s $15 for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400.”
THE FACTS: No, that’s not exactly right. Out-of-pocket insulin costs for older Americans on Medicare were capped at $35 in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law. The cap took effect last year, when many drugmakers announced they would lower the price of the drug to $35 for most users on private insurance. But Biden regularly overstates that many people used to pay up to $400 monthly. People with diabetes who have Medicare or private insurance paid about $450 yearly prior to the law, a Department of Health and Human Services study released in December 2022 found.
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CLIMATE CHANGE
TRUMP, touting his environmental record, said that “during my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever” and that he supports “immaculate” air and water.
THE FACTS: That’s far from the whole story. During his presidency, Trump rolled back some provisions of the Clean Water Act, eased regulations on coal, oil and gas companies and pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. When wildfires struck California in 2020, Trump dismissed the scientific consensus that climate change had played a role. Trump also dismissed scientists’ warnings about climate change and routinely proposed deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. Those reductions were blocked by Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
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ABORTION
TRUMP: “The problem they have is they’re radical because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth, after birth.”
THE FACTS: Trump inaccurately referred to abortions after birth. Infanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.
Abortion rights advocates say terms like this and “late-term abortions” attempt to stigmatize abortions later in pregnancy. Abortions later in pregnancy are exceedingly rare. In 2020, less than 1% of abortions in the United States were performed at or after 21 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Abortions later in pregnancy also are usually the result of serious complications, such as fetal anomalies, that put the life of the woman or fetus at risk, medical experts say. In most cases, these are also wanted pregnancies, experts say.
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RUSSIA
TRUMP on Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained in Russia: “He should have had him out a long time ago, but Putin’s probably asking for billions and billions of dollars because this guy pays it every time.”
THE FACTS: Trump is wrong to say that Biden pays any sort of fee “every time” to secure the release of hostages and wrongfully detained Americans. There’s also zero evidence that Putin is asking for any money in order to free Gershkovich. Just like in the Trump administration, the deals during the Biden administration that have brought home hostages and detainees involved prisoner swaps — not money transfers.
Trump’s reference to money appeared to be about the 2023 deal in which the U.S. secured the release of five detained Americans in Iran after billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets were transferred from banks in South Korea to Qatar. The U.S. has said that that the money would be held in restricted accounts and will only be able to be used for humanitarian goods, such as medicine and food.
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COVID-19
BIDEN: Trump told Americans to “inject bleach” into their arms to treat COVID-19.
THE FACTS: That’s overstating it. Rather, Trump asked whether it would be possible to inject disinfectant into the lungs.
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute,” he said at an April 2020 press conference. “And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.”
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SUPER PREDATORS
TRUMP: “What he’s done to the Black population is horrible, including the fact that for 10 years he called them ‘super predators.’ … We can’t forget that – super predators … And they’ve taken great offense at it.”
THE FACTS: This oft-repeated claim by Trump dating back to the 2020 campaign is untrue. It was Hillary Clinton, then the first lady, who used the term “super predator” to advocate for the 1994 crime bill that Biden co-authored more than thirty years ago. Biden did warn of “predators” in a floor speech in support of his bill.
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MIGRANTS
TRUMP, referring to Biden: “He’s the one that killed people with a bad border and flooding hundreds of thousands of people dying and also killing our citizens when they come in.”
THE FACTS: A mass influx of migrants coming into the U.S. illegally across the southern border has led to a number of false and misleading claims by Trump. For example, he regularly claims other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions to send to the U.S. There is no evidence to support that.
Trump has also argued the influx of immigrants is causing a crime surge in the U.S., although statistics actually show violent crime is on the way down.
There have been recent high-profile and heinous crimes allegedly committed by people in the country illegally. But FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, nor is there any evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities seeing the greatest influx of migrants, like New York. Studies have found that people living in the country illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes. For more than a century, critics of immigration have sought to link new arrivals to crime. In 1931, the Wickersham Commission did not find any evidence supporting a connection between immigration and increased crime, and many studies since then have reached similar conclusions.
Texas is the only state that tracks crimes by immigration status. A 2020 study published by the National Academy of Sciences found “considerably lower felony arrest rates” among people in the United States illegally than legal immigrants or native-born.
Some crime is expected given the large population of immigrants. There were an estimated 10.5 million people in the country illegally in 2021, according to the latest estimate by Pew Research Center, a figure that has almost certainly risen with large influxes at the border. In 2022, the Census Bureau estimated the foreign-born population at 46.2 million, or nearly 14% of the total, with most states seeing double-digit percentage increases in the last dozen years.
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CHARLOTTESVILLE
BIDEN, referring to Trump after the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017: “The one who said I think they’re fine people on both sides.”
THE FACTS: Trump did use those words to describe attendees of the deadly rally, which was planned by white nationalists. But as Trump supporters have pointed out, he also said that day that he wasn’t talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists in attendance.
“You had some very bad people in that group,” Trump said during a news conference a few days after the rally, “But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”
He then added that he wasn’t talking about “the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.” Instead, he said, the press had been unfair in its treatment of protesters who were there to innocently and legally protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The gathering planned by white nationalists shocked the nation when it exploded into chaos: violent brawling in the streets, racist and antisemitic chants, smoke bombs, and finally, a car speeding into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring dozens more.
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ECONOMY
TRUMP: We had the greatest economy in history.”
THE FACTS: That’s not accurate. First of all, the pandemic triggered a massive recession during his presidency. The government borrowed $3.1 trillion in 2020 to stabilize the economy. Trump had the ignominy of leaving the White House with fewer jobs than when he entered.
But even if you take out issues caused by the pandemic, economic growth averaged 2.67% during Trump’s first three years. That’s pretty solid. But it’s nowhere near the 4% averaged during Bill Clinton’s two terms from 1993 to 2001, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In fact, growth has been stronger so far under Biden than under Trump.
Trump did have the unemployment rate get as low as 3.5% before the pandemic. But again, the labor force participation rate for people 25 to 54 — the core of the U.S. working population — was higher under Clinton. The participation rate has also been higher under Biden than Trump.
Trump also likes to talk about how low inflation was under him. Gasoline fell as low as $1.77 a gallon. But, of course, that price dip happened during pandemic lockdowns when few people were driving. The low prices were due to a global health crisis, not Trump’s policies.
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Similarly, average 30-year mortgage rates dipped to 2.65% during the pandemic. Those low rates were a byproduct of Federal Reserve efforts to prop up a weak economy, rather than the sign of strength that Trump now suggests it was.
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MILITARY DEATHS
BIDEN: “The truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any — this decade — any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did.”
”THE FACTS: At least 16 service members have been killed in hostile action since Biden took office in January 2021. On Aug. 26, 2021, 13 died during a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, as U.S. troops withdrew from the country. An enemy drone killed three U.S. service members at a desert base in Jordan on Jan. 28 of this year.
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PRESIDENTIAL RECORD
BIDEN: “159, or 58, don’t know an exact number, presidential historians, they’ve had meetings and they voted, who is the worst president in American history … They said he was the worst in all American history. That’s a fact. That’s not conjecture.”
THE FACTS: That’s almost right, but not quite. The survey in question, a project from professors at the University of Houston and Coastal Carolina University, included 154 usable responses, from 525 respondents invited to participate.
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GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS
TRUMP, on Minneapolis protests after the killing of George Floyd: “If I didn’t bring in the National Guard, that city would have been destroyed.”
THE FACTS: Trump didn’t call the National Guard into Minneapolis during the unrest following the death of George Floyd. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz deployed the National Guard to the city.
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Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Elliot Spagat, Eric Tucker, Ali Swenson, Christina Cassidy, Amanda Seitz, Stephen Groves, David Klepper, Melissa Goldin and Hope Yen contributed to this report.
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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
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FACT FOCUS: Trump’s misleading claims about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said during his debate with President Joe Biden last week that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol involved a “relatively small” group of people who were “in many cases ushered in by the police.”
But that’s not what happened. Thousands of his supporters were outside the Capitol that day and hundreds broke in, many of them beating and injuring law enforcement officers in brutal hand-to-hand combat as the officers tried to stop them from storming through windows and doors. There is ample video evidence of the violence, and more than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot.
Many of those who broke into the Capitol were echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud, and some menacingly called out the names of lawmakers — particularly then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to try to object to Biden’s legitimate win. The rioters interrupted the certification of Biden’s victory, but lawmakers who had evacuated both chambers returned that night to finish.
Trump, now the presumptive GOP nominee to challenge Biden, has not only continued to mislead voters about what happened that day but has also heaped praise on the rioters, calling them “hostages” and promising to pardon them if he is elected. A look at some of his false claims:
‘PEACEFULLY AND PATRIOTICALLY’
CLAIM: At the debate, Trump was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper what he would say to any voters “who believe that you have violated your constitutional oath through your actions, inaction on January 6, 2021, and worry that you’ll do it again?” Trump simply replied: “Well, I didn’t say that to anybody. I said peacefully and patriotically.”
THE FACTS: In a speech on the White House Ellipse the morning of Jan. 6 to thousands of supporters, Trump did tell the crowd to march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol. But he also used far more incendiary language when speaking off the cuff in other parts of the speech, such as telling the crowd: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Trump did not address Tapper’s question about his inaction as his supporters broke into the building and injured police. More than three hours elapsed between the time his supporters violently breached the Capitol perimeter and Trump’s first effort to get the rioters to disperse. He released a video message at 4:17 p.m. that day in which he asked his supporters to go home but reassured them, “We love you, you’re very special.”
Some rioters facing criminal charges have said in court they believed they had been following Trump’s instructions on Jan. 6. And evidence shown during trials illustrates that far-right extremists were galvanized by a Trump tweet inviting his supporters to a “wild” protest on Jan. 6. “He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!!” wrote one Oath Keepers member who was convicted of seditious conspiracy.
POLICE ‘LET THEM IN’
CLAIM: Trump said at the debate: “They talk about a relatively small number of people that went to the Capitol. And in many cases were ushered in by the police.” The next day, Trump said at a rally: “So many of these people were told to go in, right? The police: ‘Go in, go in, go in.’”
THE FACTS: More than 100 Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police officers were injured, some severely, as they tried to keep the rioters from breaking into the Capitol. In some cases police retreated or stepped aside as they were overwhelmed by the violent, advancing mob, but there is no evidence that any rioter was “ushered” into the building.
In an internal memo last year, U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said that the allegation that “our officers helped the rioters and acted as ‘tour guides’” is “outrageous and false.” Manger said police were completely overwhelmed and outnumbered, and in many cases resorted to de-escalation tactics to try to persuade rioters to leave the building.
The Capitol Police said in a statement this week that “under extreme circumstances, our officers performed their duties to the best of their ability to protect the members of Congress. With the assistance of multiple law enforcement agencies and the National Guard, which more than doubled the number of officers on site, it took several hours to secure the U.S. Capitol. At the end of the day, because of our officers’ dedication, nobody who they were charged with protecting was hurt and the legislative process continued.”
NATIONAL GUARD RESPONSE
CLAIM: Trump said he offered 10,000 National Guard troops to Pelosi and “she now admits that she turned it down.” Referring to a video Pelosi’s daughter took that day, Trump claimed that Pelosi said, “I take full responsibility for January 6.”
THE FACTS: Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that he offered National Guard troops to the Capitol and that his offer was rejected. He has previously said he signed an order for 20,000 troops to go to the Capitol.
While Trump was involved in discussions in the days prior to Jan. 6 about whether the National Guard would be called ahead of the joint session, he issued no such order or formal request before or during the rioting, and the guard’s arrival was delayed for hours as Pentagon officials deliberated over how to proceed.
In a 2022 interview with the Democratic-led House committee that investigated the attack, Christopher Miller, the acting Defense secretary at that time, confirmed that there was no order from the president.
The Capitol Police Board makes the decision on whether to call National Guard troops to the Capitol, and two members of that board — the House Sergeant at Arms and the Senate Sergeant at Arms — decided through informal discussions not to call the guard ahead of the joint session that was eventually interrupted by Trump’s supporters, despite a request from the Capitol Police. The House Sergeant at Arms reports to the Speaker of the House, who was then Pelosi, and the Senate Sergeant at Arms reported to then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. But Pelosi’s office has said she was never informed of the request.
The board eventually requested the guard’s assistance after the rioting was underway, and Pelosi and McConnell called the Pentagon and begged for military assistance. Pence, who was in a secure location inside the building, also called the Pentagon to demand reinforcements.
In a video recently released by House Republicans, Pelosi is seen in the back of a car on Jan. 6 and talking to an aide. In the raw video recorded by her daughter, Pelosi is angrily asking her aide why the National Guard wasn’t at the Capitol when the rioting started. “Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?” she asks.
“We did not have any accountability for what was going on there and we should have, this is ridiculous,” Pelosi says, while her aide responds that security officials thought they had sufficient resources. “They clearly didn’t know and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more,” Pelosi says in the video.
There is no mention of a request from Trump, and Pelosi never said that she took “full responsibility for Jan. 6.”
In a statement, Pelosi spokesman Ian Krager said Trump’s repeated comments about Pelosi are revisionist history.
“Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed again and again that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination on January 6th,” Krager said. “The Speaker of the House is not in charge of the security of the Capitol Complex — on January 6th or any other day of the week.”
‘INNOCENT’ RIOTERS
CLAIM: Trump said to Biden during the debate, “What they’ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, what you have done, how you’ve destroyed the lives of so many people.”
THE FACTS: Echoing Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, rioters at the Capitol engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police and a slew of rioters were carrying weapons, including firearms, knives, brass knuckle gloves, a pitchfork, a hatchet, a sledgehammer and a bow. They also used makeshift weapons, including flagpoles, a table leg, hockey stick and crutch, to attack officers. Police officers were bruised and bloodied, some dragged into the crowd and beaten. One officer was crushed in a doorframe and another suffered a heart attack after a rioter pressed a stun gun against his neck and repeatedly shocked him. One rioter has been charged with climbing scaffolding and firing a gun in the air during the melee.
The rioters broke through windows and doors, ransacking the Capitol and briefly occupying the Senate chamber. Senators had evacuated minutes earlier. They also tried to break into the House chamber, breaking glass windows and beating on the doors. But police held them off with guns drawn.
About 900 of the rioters have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds of them receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years. Hundreds of people who went into the Capitol but did not attack police or damage the building were charged only with misdemeanors.
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Associated Press writers Barbara Whitaker, Alanna Durkin Richer, Melissa Goldin and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
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Biden, Allies Are Furious at Democrats Trying to Push Him Out: “They Are Julius Caesar-ing This Man”
The campaign to replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket appeared to gain major momentum this week, as high-ranking Democrats publicly called on the president to drop out and others made their feelings known through not-so-back channels. Yet according to the campaign, Biden is absolutely staying in the race—and those trying to push him out should take a long, hard look in the mirror.
“Can we all just remember for a minute that these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us all Donald Trump,” a source close to Biden told NBC News. “In 2015, [Barack] Obama, [Nancy] Pelosi, [Chuck] Schumer pushed Biden aside in favor of Hillary [Clinton]; they were wrong then, and they are wrong now.” Noting the polls that showed Clinton up by as much as nine points, the source added: “How did all this work out for everyone in 2016? Perhaps we should learn a few lessons from 2016; one of them is polls are BS—just ask Secretary Clinton. And two, maybe, just maybe, Joe Biden is more in touch with actual Americans than Obama-Pelosi-Schumer?”
Speaking to Politico, a former Biden campaign and administration aide declared: “People who have known this man for 30, 40 years are stabbing this man in the front and the back.… They are Julius Caesar–ing this man.” For his part, Biden is said to feel “angry” and “personally hurt and betrayed by the way so many Democrats…have left him hung out to dry,” according to NBC News. And, despite reports earlier this week that the president has “become more receptive in the last several days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his reelection bid,” he apparently has not changed his mind.
Appearing on MSNBC this morning, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told Morning Joe said Biden is “in this to win this” and believes “he can do this.”
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Unfortunately for Biden, clearly not everyone agrees. On Friday, four more House Democrats publicly called on him to “pass the torch.”
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And according to NBC News, there may be a “bigger push” from the party if Biden doesn’t drop out by Monday. On Friday, Biden, who is in isolation in Delaware after testing positive for COVID, said he will get “back on the campaign trail next week” to defend “my own record and the vision that I have for America.”
Bess Levin
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