4 highlights from my exit interview with Cori Bush
The outgoing St. Louis congresswoman spoke candidly on her proudest achievements in office, Biden’s inability to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, her successor in the House and what’s next after Congress.
● ○ ○ ○ ○
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! President Joe Biden announced before sunrise he would commute the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who were placed on home confinement during the pandemic and pardon 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes. The White House said the actions represent the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history and that Biden has issued more commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms. The administration noted that he is the president ever to issue categorical pardons to individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana and to former LGBTQ+ servicemembers convicted of violating a now-repealed ban on consensual gay sex. But Hill Democrats and civil rights groups who have been lobbying Biden to commute the sentences of 40 people on federal death row will likely be disappointed his action doesn’t go further. The White House said the president will take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations. His term ends in 39 days.
○ ★ ○ ○ ○
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) is in the final days of her two terms representing St. Louis in Congress—a period during which she introduced a resolution to expel that saw her introduce a resolution to expel lawmakers who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, propose comprehensive reparations to Black descendants of enslaved Americans, push for health-based approaches in public safety and lead a sleep-in on the steps of the Capitol to advocate for an extension of a national ban on evictions during the pandemic.
But she also voted against an infrastructure bill—one of the centerpieces of President Biden’s legislative legacy—in protest of Democrats failing to pass other elements of his agenda related to the care economy. And she drew attacks and millions of dollars in campaign spending for her outspoken criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza. It’s these two decisions that best explain why she won’t be returning to Congress next month.
I spoke with Bush on the phone last week about her time in Congress in a wide-ranging conversation paid subscribers received yesterday on some of the aforementioned topics and much more. Below are a few highlights from the interview, which is now available to the public.
1) She has no regrets about the infrastructure vote.
Bush told me that since the election demonstrated that voters wanted a government that would deliver on kitchen-table economic issues, Democrats could have received more credit from the electorate if the Senate had approved the House-passed Build Back Better Act in 2021.
“And so I feel validated. I did the right thing. We, as progressives, the Squad, we did the right thing,” she said. “And if we would have gotten that done, if people were able to point back directly to that and to see how that changed what happens in their kitchen, in their front yard, at their kids’ schools, I think there would have been able to be a different campaign and maybe a different result.”
2) She believes FaceTime with Biden could have made a difference in his Israel policy.
Bush was one of the first members of Congress to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza just days after Oct. 7. But Biden is weeks away from leaving office without securing a ceasefire and hostage release.
“I’m disappointed that we’re here, that we are probably somewhere around 200,000 dead at this point—not 45,000,” she said. “And so will I be disappointed if he leaves office and there is no actual ceasefire, there is no end to the occupation and all of the things that we’ve been asking for, there is no end to the starvation happening? Yes, but just as disappointed as I am right now.”
Bush said the president should have reached out to her and others who were a part of the ceasefire now resolution and those within the Uncommitted Movement who have valid concerns and lost family members and loved ones in the war.
3) She’s keeping her future plans close to the vest.
When I asked Bush if she had decided what to do next in the post-Congress chapter of her life, she said she was keeping the door open to many different possibilities but seemed to look forward to continuing her advocacy without the governmental constraints of an institution like the House.
“I’ll be able to go more places, speak even more freely, [and] organize. So that’s what I plan to do. When we think about what's happening in Gaza, I will continue to do that work, and maybe I’ll be able to do it on an even deeper level because I’ll be able to dedicate a lot more time to it,” she said. “But also what's happening in Sudan, in Haiti, in Congo, you know, as well as what's happening in the United States, I can show up more and I can I feel like I can be effective that way because I walked into Congress with a voice. Congress did not give me my voice. And so leaving Congress will not take it away.”
4) There’s no love lost between Bush and her successor.
Bush suffered a primary defeat to Wesley Bell, the AIPAC-backed prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County who will replace her in Congress beginning next month.
The two haven’t spoken since the primary election this summer and Bell’s lack of outreach wasn’t lost on the congresswoman.
“When I won after unseating a 52-year family dynasty, I called the congressman and I reached out to him and said, ‘Can we meet?’ I reached out to him the same month, and I was able to get a meeting with him in his office. My staff reached out. The incoming staff reached out to him and his staff,” she said. “So we worked, we had conversations over the next several months before I ever entered Congress. I came to the Hill for orientation and came to his office, and was able to have some conversations with him in person, and my staff met with his staff in person. That is how that should work.”
Read the full interview for the rest of our conversation.
○ ○ ● ○ ○
The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act by a 281–140 vote, moving the annual defense policy and programs bill one step closer to final passage. Congress has met this milestone each year for more than six decades.
The final NDAA text calls for $883.7 billion in discretionary funding, a price tag that will cost party leaders votes from their respective far-right and -left flanks. It includes a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted servicemembers along with other pay and compensation reforms. Birth control from retail pharmacies and the national mail-order pharmacy is now covered without a copay and provisions to bolster child care and spousal support also made the cut. The NDAA significantly invests in the American industrial base, science and technology, and environment and energy.
But more Democrats voted against the bill than for it, led by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee is voting against the bill because the final text includes a provision that bans medically necessary health care for military families with transgender children. Some Democrats also opposed the NDAA because it didn’t adequately expand access to IVF and other fertility treatments for servicemembers.
“There’s a lot of positive things in the National Defense Authorization Act that were negotiated in a bipartisan way,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told me ahead of the vote. “And there are some troubling provisions in a few areas as well.”
The provision also split senior Democratic leadership with Jeffries, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calf.) and House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu voted for the bill, while House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) opposed it.
Jeffries added that House Democratic leadership did not formally whip the NDAA: “It's a member-to-member, case-by-case analysis in terms of people making decisions as to what is the right thing to do,” he said.
For additional proof of how controversial the provision is, the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the bill because of the health care ban, will score the vote to hold members who supported the legislation accountable for their support.
The ACLU added that if the NDAA passes the Senate and is signed into law, the health care ban would be the first new anti-LGBTQ+ provision enacted by Congress since the 1990s 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and Defense of Marriage Act. Both of these are expected to occur before the end of the year.
○ ○ ○ ● ○
The two thorns in the sides of congressional Democrats for the past four years teamed up on Wednesday to deliver a severe blow to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the worker-rights movement.
Schumer, under enormous pressure from labor unions, held a vote to limit debate on a nominee that would have preserved Democratic control of the National Labor Relations Board through the first two years of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. The Brooklyn Democrat gambled that Republican absences and a change of heart from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), two opponents of Laurie McFerran’s nomination, since they will be retiring at the end of the year.
The vote was pretty dramatic: Republicans had only one absence. Even Vice President-elect and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) flew from Mar-a-Lago to Washington to cast his vote in opposition. Sinema, who had not voted since before the Thanksgiving break prior to Wednesday’s vote, showed up to oppose the nomination. With the vote tied at 49-49 for several minutes and Schumer hoping he could call up Vice President Kamala Harris to break the tie, Manchin showed up to deliver the final death knell.
Manchin told reporters his opposition shouldn’t be a surprise because it’s been consistent: He opposed McFerran due to her support of a rule that would make it easier for workers to claim they are employed by multiple entities.
But that didn’t make Schumer any less pissed about the vote.
“It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualified nominee—with a proven track record of protecting worker rights—did not have the votes,” he said after the disappointing result.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) will replace Sinema in the Senate, and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice will succeed Manchin.
○ ○ ○ ○ ●
While Hakeem Jeffries told me he accepted a jury’s decision on Monday to acquit Daniel Penny—the white 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran who killed Black 30-year-old homeless man Jordan Neely with a chokehold on the New York City Subway train in May 2023—of criminally negligent homicide, the top House Democrat said Neely should be alive today.
Jeffries also criticized Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) for announcing his intention to introduce a resolution awarding Penny the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by the legislative branch.
“It’s irresponsible for any extreme MAGA Republicans to celebrate his death by attempting to elevate what happened,” he told me. “It was a tragedy.”
Jeffries also told reporters that Neely’s death is a call to action to invest additional resources in mental health care. (Neely’s aunt said he developed major depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder after the murder of his mother when he was 14.)
“We’ve got to do a better job of making sure that we have a more compassionate, enlightened response to dealing with the mental health challenges that so many Americans are experiencing, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic.”
Do you have questions about the lame-duck session or the incoming Trump presidency? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch and I’ll report back with answers.
Happenings
The House will meet at 9 a.m. with the final vote of the week expected at 10:15 a.m.
The House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on modernizing the VA.
The Senate will meet at 10 a.m. and vote at 11:30 a.m. to limit debate on the nomination of Matthew Marzano to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Senate Aging Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on empowering people with disabilities to live, work, learn and thrive.
Read All About It
“Mitch McConnell: ‘We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now’” by Alex Rogers: “The Republican Senator on his plans to spend the last two years of his term fighting back against an increasingly isolationist GOP.”
“What Nancy Mace’s disposable slur will cost us” by Christina Cauterucci: “It’s easy to become desensitized to political insults but hate speech is something else entirely.”
“Why do people think Republicans are better for the economy?” by Abdallah Fayyad: “Since World War II, the economy has, on average, fared better when Democrats are in the White House.”
“The slippery appeal of RFK Jr.’s Make American Healthy Again movement” by Keren Landsman, MD: “Everybody loves MAHA—because nobody knows what it really is.
“Prepare for guacamole to be a luxury item” by Rebecca Patterson: “Trump’s immigration and tariff plans will strain American farming and raise the prices you see at the store.”
“The perimenopause gold rush” by Jessica Bennett: “There’s a wave of new companies making big promises to millennial women. Is it all too good to be true?”
“Why does everyone want to smell like candy?” by Asia Milla Ware: “Smelling sweet used to be childish, but this year, it was trendy to smell like a dessert.”
“Designer babies are teenagers now—and some of them need therapy because of it” by Emi Nietfeld: “‘People don’t always realize they are creating a human being and not a piece of furniture.’”
“In this go-cart scene, some kids arrive in helicopters. Some have bodyguards.” by Kevin Sieff, Claudia Gori and Zoeann Murphy: “Parents are spending millions on karting, hoping it will eventually catapult them into F1 racing. It’s a mad, mad world. And we go inside.”