Introducing Once Upon a Hill
Moving on from Supercreator. Plus: A notebook’s worth of news on the Santos expulsion, what youth movements can learn from Rosa Parks and details on previously unreported bipartisan freshmen meetup.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! New newsletter, who dis?
After four years of building Supercreator News into the premier politics newsletter for the creative class, I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve launched Once Upon a Hill—a new independent and in-depth publication on Congress, campaigns, politics and more.
I’ll continue to report from the Capitol and focus on Democratic politics in the MAGA, core domestic issues that millennials, Gen Z and voters of color care about, and the 2024 election.
I’ll also write a twice-weekly newsletter featuring exclusive reporting and original analysis on the people, policies and events shaping the legislative agenda and national conversation.
The free Monday morning edition will preview the week’s legislative agenda and catch you up on the storylines happening in the Washington power centers and beyond. It’s designed to distill the signal from the noise in a disorderly digital news environment and help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and out of touch. Look out for the first issue on Dec. 4.
On top of the free Monday edition, paid subscribers to Once Upon a Hill will receive an additional premium Thursday evening dispatch with fresh scoops, insightful interviews and sharp analysis that wires you into how Washington really works.
If you were a paid subscriber to Supercreator, you’ll automatically receive the Thursday edition. Want to subscribe to help offset the costs of starting up a new business? Thank you kindly. And if you’re unsure, keep reading for a flavor of what to expect on Thursdays.
I’m looking forward to establishing Once Upon a Hill as appointment reading for Capitol insiders, policy professionals, political obsessives and historically marginalized folks from the outset because this fragile moment in American democracy requires thoughtful, accessible and singular coverage of the most powerful branch of the US government.
Now let’s get to the news…
Santos out, finally
It’s official: George Santos was expelled from the House this morning, becoming just the sixth member, the first Republican and the first member in over two decades to be removed from the lower chamber of the House. The 35-year-old survived two previous votes to kick him out.
If you’re curious why it took so long to expel him, I explained the survival and ultimate demise of the ex-Congressman in my new-ish weekly column for Courier.
Neither party whipped the vote—a formal process that includes leadership counting which members support or oppose a measure and issuing a formal voting recommendation—but some Republicans flipped their votes to save Santos after the top four House GOP leaders publicly stated or privately indicated they would oppose the measure.
Their opposition wouldn’t matter, though: More than 100 House Republicans joined over 200 Democrats to oust Santos in the 311-114 vote. Two Democrats (Reps. Al Green (Texas) and Jonathan Jackson (Ill.).
Another two Democrats—Reps. Nikema Williams (Ga.) and Bobby Scott (Va.)—voted against the expulsion resolution. Neither member explained their votes before press time. An aide for Williams did not respond to a text seeking comment on her opposition. FWIW, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) did not vote. Rep. Dean Phillips didn’t either, opting to remain on the campaign trail while he continues a longshot primary challenge against President Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Some members pointed to an email from Rep. Max Miller that described how he and his mom were allegedly defrauded by Santos, which is why the Ohio Republican felt so strongly about expulsion.
Santos said Miller was “accused of being a woman beater” in response to Miller calling Santos a “crook” during one of the wilder moments of debate on Thursday afternoon.
The embattled Santos, who has been charged with 23 federal indictments, including alleged wire fraud and making false statements to the House, walked out of the House chamber while the vote was still ongoing as a throng of reporters chased him down the steps for his parting words.
“As unofficially already no longer a member of Congress, I no longer have to answer a single question,” he said before hopping in a Jaguar SUV. “That is the one thing that I’m going to take forever.” Sure, Jan. 🙄
Ahead of the vote, Rep. Dan Goldman—one of two —held a press conference at the Capitol with Santos constituents from New York’s 3rd district to make the case for why he had to go.
One constituent broke down how she believed Santos carefully fabricated his biography based on the identity of the district’s voters.
“We voted for a carefully crafted illusion that he created to try to hit on different segments of our population,” she said, describing the district’s composition of residents impacted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, inclusive LGBTQ+ community and Jewish folks.
Another constituent added: “Every day that George Santos has been in Congress has been a day that our rights have been disregarded and our needs unmet.”
In one of his final legislative acts, Santos introduced an expulsion resolution against Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) for pulling a fire alarm in a House office building during a rare Saturday session in September. (Bowman accepted a plea deal last month to a misdemeanor charge of willfully or knowingly pulling a fire alarm.)
ICYMI, I scooped Bowman’s response: “No one in Congress, or anywhere in America, takes soon-to-be former Congressman George Santos seriously. This is just another meaningless stunt in his long history of cons, antics, and outright fraud.”
The Bowman expulsion measure died when Santos was removed from office. But it would have failed had it received a floor vote anyway.
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would announce within the next 10 business days a date for what’s expected to be a highly competitive special election.
Cook Political Report rates the election as a toss-up. President Joe Biden carried the district by eight points over Donald Trump in 2020.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Thursday morning that local Democratic Party leaders and New York congressional Democrats would work together to select the best candidate to win back the seat.
It’s sure to be an all-hands-on-deck project for Democrats who have a chance to winnow the already thin Republican majority from four votes to three and begin to right some of the wrongs of the 2022 midterm elections in the Empire State.
“George Santos and the MAGA Republicans who protected him are a national embarrassment,” Mike Smith, president of House Majority PAC, an outside group dedicated to electing House Democrats, said in a statement. “And House Majority PAC looks forward to doing whatever it takes to flip this district blue in the upcoming election.”
Santos will face trial for his alleged crimes next year in New York.
Hamas ends the ceasefire, Israel resumes its military campaign
After a seven-day pause in its war against Hamas following the terrorist group’s attack on Israel, fighting resumed overnight after the Israeli government accused Hamas of breaking the truce by firing a rocket from Gaza and failing to free all the women hostages in its captivity.
Gaza health officials reported at least 35 people had been killed and dozens more wounded not even two hours after the truce expired.
President Biden received some political goodwill from progressives in Congress and online activists demanding a permanent ceasefire for his role in negotiating and extending the initial pause. I’ll be watching this weekend to see if critiques intensify against the commander-in-chief now that the fighting has resumed and the hundreds of trucks of humanitarian aid entering Gaza each day will now shrink to just dozens.
“Let’s be clear about this: It’s because of Hamas that this pause ended that they were just simply unable failed to produce a list of hostages that could help enable that pause from extending,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Friday afternoon. “The onus is on Hamas to be able to produce a list of hostages that can get out so that we can try to get this pause back in place.”
Kirby added they the US is unable to confirm the number of casualties following the resumption of the war. He reaffirmed the Biden administration’s belief that Israel had a right to defend itself against Hamas while avoiding civilian casualties “to the maximum extent possible.”
He also declined to confirm the details of a report in The New York Times that claimed Israeli officials knew Hamas had been planning the attack more than a year before it was executed.
“I'm just not going to speak about intelligence matters here and I'm certainly not able to verify again the reporting from The New York Times,” Kirby said. “That’s a question better put too the Israeli government.”
In related news, the House this week passed separate resolutions that condemned Hamas and demanded the release of the remaining hostages it is holding and that reaffirmed Israel’s right to exist as a democratic Jewish state.
Following the vote, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) mentioned the 20 House progressives who voted yes on the resolutions—or present, in the case of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the first and only Palestinian-American member of Congress—with the words “thank you” in all caps.
I asked Wasserman-Schultz, Florida’s first Jewish member of Congress, why she felt the public expression of gratitude was necessary.
“We have all traveled a pretty long journey together in the last few weeks and there has been a lot of obvious public comments and social media and social media comments, but we've had a lot of private conversations, deeply personal exchanges of how we're all feeling,” she said. “It was just an incredibly important vote that required a lot of work and thought and I appreciated it.”
She told me she thanked the members during the House Democrats’ weekly closed-door caucus meeting as well.
As we spoke, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish person in US history, was delivering a major address against antisemitism across the Capitol in the Senate chamber.
Wasserman Schultz said the speech was incredibly important in this moment of heightened anti-Jewish sentiment in communities and across college campuses.
“We live with hatred all around us, it may not manifest itself and rear its head every single day,” she said. “But we know what is always lurking in the background and we need other people to understand.”
Critical funding hangs in the balance on World AIDS Day
As I remember the elders America and the LGBTQ+ community lost to the AIDS epidemic, I also honor all the incredible people in my life who are living and thriving with HIV.
But the hard-won advancements that have saved millions of lives and enabled millions of babies to be born HIV-free to mothers living with HIV are at risk as House Republicans propose to eliminate the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative.
Democrats and advocacy groups are concerned underfunding the program, which was started in 2019 to reduce new HIV infections in the US dramatically, could impact progress to end the epidemic by 2030.
Congress has also failed to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR—a program announced by former President George W. Bush in 2003 to ensure an AIDS diagnosis is no longer a death sentence.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) led the Congressional Black Caucus in a press conference on Friday morning to call on lawmakers to reauthorize PEPFAR, which has had a significant life-saving impact on the Black community. (Lee led the CBC in a letter to Bush in 2002, calling for broader global investment in HIV/AIDS. The former president called on Congress to create a program during his State of the Union address in 2003. PEPFAR was established later that year.)
“We have an obligation not only to millions of AIDS patients across the globe, but to the activists, advocates, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have worked tirelessly to establish this program and keep it funded,” Lee said in a statement. “On World AIDS Day, I call upon my colleagues in Congress to reignite the bipartisanship that has been linked to PEPFAR for so long and act swiftly to keep this lifesaving program alive.”
CBC members push for a Rosa Parks federal holiday
Today is also the 68th anniversary of Rosa Parks’s decision to stay in her seat after a bus driver told her to give it to a white passenger, which led to her arrest and ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the broader civil rights movement.
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) led CBC members in reintroducing a bill to make Dec. 1st a federal holiday, which would be the first to honor a woman or Black woman.
With her quiet, dignified courage, she took a stand against a city steeped in segregation,” Sewell said. “And in doing so, she sparked the beginning of a movement that changed the very fabric of our nation.”
I asked Sewell what current generations of movement leaders and freedom activists could learn from Parks’ example.
“Our civil rights icons, those known and unknown, who had the temerity, the audacity to make this nation live up to its highest ideals, they were tacticians and strategists,” she said. “We can learn the power of never giving up. We can learn the power of us in numbers, marching, praying, and standing up for just the basic rights of this nation.”
House Dem women leaders mourn Sandra Day O’Connor
Days after former First Lady Rosalynn Carter was laid to rest in Georgia, the nation now mourns the loss of another historic woman.
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, died on Friday at 93.
Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the highest-ranking House Democratic woman, said Justice O’Connor’s life demonstrated no limit to women's greatness.
“Even after leaving the bench, she forged an extraordinary legacy as a citizen activist—from championing civics education to fueling the fight for Alzheimer's research,” Clark added. “Justice O’Connor has left an indelible mark on the fabric of America.”
Nancy Pelosi, the first woman elected as House Speaker, celebrated Justice O’Connor’s mentorship of women in law, including the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Her passing is a tremendous loss for our nation,” Pelosi said.
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) led the House Arizona delegation in a touching tribute to O’Connor after the vote to expel Santos, followed by a moment of silence.
Capitol Hill vet takes the helm at equity-focused energy advocacy group
President Biden traveled to Pueblo, a city in Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Colorado district, to tour the largest wind tower manufacturing in the world and promote Bidenomics as a boon to the clean energy transition.
A new advocacy group hired an experienced former Capitol Hill veteran to make sure Black and brown communities aren’t excluded from the economic opportunities and lifestyle enhancements that renewable energy sources present.
National Alliance for Equity in Energy & Infrastructure—or NAEEI, for short—has been on my radar for a few months now for its unique mission to bridge the gap between energy companies and historically overlooked and underserved groups. The organization this week named Kristal Hartsfield as its first CEO to accelerate its advocacy.
Hartsfield told me in a statement that provisions like the clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act represent a historic leap forward for Black and brown communities, offering them a greater opportunity to benefit from renewable energy investments.
“Additionally, the Act’s funding for energy efficiency and electrification stands to significantly lower utility costs and improve air quality in underserved areas,” Hartsfield added. “While not perfect, these measures represent a stride toward rectifying longstanding inequities in energy access and environmental health.”
House freshman attend bipartisan meetup
On a lighter note, a bipartisan group of first-term House members met up at a bar in DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood on Tuesday night, I’m told by a member who attended.
The shindig was coordinated by Democratic freshman president Robert Garcia of California and Republican freshman president Russell Fry of South Carolina.
The member added that the experience was pleasant, unlike the tinderbox the House has devolved into under the current House GOP majority. A spokesperson for Garcia did not respond to a request when I asked about the exact location of the meetup and how many members showed up.
Speaking of Garcia: He helped lead the months-long effort to expel Santos. In Monday’s newsletter, I’ll have some quotes from an interview with him this week on why he was so persistent in making sure Santos was removed.
Thanks for reading Once Upon a Hill! That’s all for now. See you on Monday.