PELOSI-YA-LATER

Nancy Pelosi’s retirement marks the end of an era. Her would-be successors are pledging to continue her fight against Donald Trump.

• Capitol Hill won’t be the same without Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). The trailblazing Democratic leader was the first and only woman to ever serve as speaker of the House of Representatives. That position made her, for years, arguably the most formidable adversary against President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. Today she announced that she won’t seek re-election next year, capping a storied career at 20 terms, dating back to 1987.

• “With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Pelosi said in a nearly six-minute long video. She directly addressed her constituents in San Francisco: “We have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way, and now we must continue to do so.”

• If there’s ever a Hall of Fame of Antagonizing Donald Trump, Pelosi would be the presumptive first inductee. Since Trump’s entrance into the political arena, Pelosi has shaped the resistance to the president, with an uncanny ability to get under his skin like no one else. Who can forget her infamous clapping at Trump’s State of the Union address, when she tore up his speech? Or her calls for National Guard deployment during the Capitol insurrection?

• Pelosi didn’t mention Trump in the video. But, naturally, that didn’t stop him from reacting to the news with vile insults, calling her “evil,” “corrupt,” and “only focused on bad things for our country.” He added: “She was rapidly losing control of her party and it was never coming back. I’m very honored she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice.” Way to keep it classy, Mr. President!

After the news broke, I called up California State Senator Scott Wiener, who’s widely seen as a strong contender to replace Pelosi. Our chat has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Matt Berg: What are three things you’d do differently than Pelosi if elected?

Scott Wiener: I don’t want to talk in terms of difference, because Nancy Pelosi moved mountains for San Francisco and the country on so many issues that I care about.

The federal government needs to play a much bigger role in helping solve the housing affordability crisis. We need to just explode our production of clean energy. We and we need to move towards, aggressively, toward universal health care coverage and reducing healthcare costs.

MB: What would you do the same?

SW: First of all, she has a spine of steel, a moral compass, and an ability to be operational and move big policies through Congress. Those three things that you don’t always find in combination.

I have all three, too. Some of the issues I’ve taken on are not always the most popular, like some of our work protecting LGBTQ+ young people or our work on housing, and I get beaten up a lot. But I think these are the right things to do.

MB: Pelosi often comes under fire for serving so long in Congress and making millions in stock trading. What do you think about those issues?

SW: We should ban stock trading by members of Congress. I support that.

I don’t know that term limits really solves the problem, because the average tenure of members of the House representative, last I checked, is eight or nine years. To me, the bigger issue, particularly in the House is how all encompassing the seniority system. When you have a system where the newer and younger members are getting sometimes shut out, that’s where I think you run into problems.

MB: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie quietly defused Trump’s threats against the city. How would you deal with Trump?

SW: We all have different roles, and we all have different approaches. I’m close with Mayor Lurie, and I really strongly support him. I think he’s doing a really terrific job. It is a tragedy that mayors and CEOs have to try to persuade the president not to invade a city.

I support what [Mayor Lurie] did. For me, I have a different approach with this president. He is an aspiring authoritarian. He’s an anti-semite. He’s a horror of a human being, and he surrounded himself with horrors. I’m always gonna fight that, because he’s trying to tear down our country.

MB: How do you explain the Democratic victories on Tuesday?

SW: It turns out that people don’t really love cratering the economy with trade wars, deporting long-term residents of our country and tearing families apart, sending mass secret police into cities and throwing tens of millions of people off of health care. It turns out people think that those are bad, and this bodes well for Democrats in the midterms.

MB: The “affordability” message really stuck out to me during the elections.

SW: We need to be focused like a laser on affordability and allowing creating an environment where people can succeed. This is all about affordability. We need to get strongly back to the foundation of our party, which is supporting working people and helping them survive and thrive.

WHAT ELSE?

The Trump administration is reducing flights at 40 airports across the country due to the government shutdown. Those include many major hubs, including New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and others.

More than 150,000 people were laid off in October, the biggest spike in 22 years, according to a private firm that tracks staff cuts. Layoffs in 2025 have now risen to levels that are typically seen only during recessions, on par with the 2008 and 2009 job cuts.

Trump’s Department of Justice is preparing grand jury subpoenas as part of investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan and the Biden-era probes into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to MSNBC.

The Supreme Court ruled that people must identify their biological sex at birth on their passports, reinstating a Trump administration requirement. The three liberal justices dissented.

Tech freak Elon Musk is slated to receive up to $1 trillion from Tesla if he meets ambitious company targets, including a dramatic rise in the company’s stock price. FML.

The Trump administration told lawmakers that it isn’t planning on launching strikes inside Venezuela, and that it lacks the legal authority to do so, CNN reports. But Trump’s team thinks they have the legal authority to airstrike boats without knowing who’s on board? Make it make sense.

House Democrats requested that former prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor testify before Congress over his connections with deceased child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. At this rate, I think House Speaker Mike Johnson may never call the House back into session.

ICE agents in Chicago arrested a teacher on Wednesday after chasing her into a preschool, while parents and students watched. It’s one of the first times ICE agents have made an arrest inside a school during Trump’s second term, although DHS has said it doesn’t plan to target or raid schools.

Why has Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) been acting… kinda normal lately? She has been privately telling people that she wants to run for president in 2028, according to NOTUS. She believes that she is “real MAGA and that the others have strayed,” one source told the outlet. Will disgraced former Rep. George Santos be her running mate? You can’t rule it out!

The Louvre skimped on security so it could spend more money on art in the years before the recent crown jewels heist, according to France’s state auditor.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL…

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must fully fund federal food assistance benefits (SNAP) in November.

SANDWICH GUY IS FREE!!! Sean Dunn was found not guilty of misdemeanor assault after throwing a footlong sandwich at a federal agent in Washington, D.C. over the summer, a hilarious symbol of protest that immediately cemented Dunn as our national hero (pun intended).

A federal judge in Chicago said she’ll order federal agents to restrict the use of force against protestors and journalists, arguing that agents’ have violated their constitutional rights.

People around the world looked up last night and admired the Beaver Moon, the largest supermoon of 2025. Here’s a bunch of stunning pics in case you missed it.

Spiny-tailed iguanas on Clarion Island in Mexico received some sweet, sweet vindication today: They are not an invasive species. Biologists now say that the reptiles actually landed on the island half a million years ago, before humans could’ve transported them. It must feel soooo good to prove humans wrong.

Special note: Tomorrow is Crooked Con in Washington, D.C. Watch out for content flying from our fingertips across the internet, as dozens of the biggest names in politics discuss Donald Trump, Tuesday’s groundbreaking elections, and the 2026 midterms. We’ll have a special Crooked Con-themed newsletter for you tomorrow. Woohoo!