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Rep. Nancy Pelosi Announces She Won't Run For Re-Election; Trump Downplays Role Of Affordability Concerns In Election Results; Trump Insists Prices Coming Down But Voter Disagree; Democrats Still Celebrating Resounding Election Wins. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired November 06, 2025 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on Inside Politics, gavel drop. The woman who made history as the first female speaker of the House, is retiring at the end of her term. We'll break down Nancy Pelosi's groundbreaking four decades dominating Capitol Hill.

Plus, election aftershocks. Voters sent a decisive message to the president on his handling of an issue that sent him back to the White House. So, why does he seem to be making the same mistake as his predecessor? And antisemitism roiling the hard right online is now out in the open. We have new reporting on who's pushing back within the GOP and who is staying notably silent.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start with the major political news. One of the most powerful figures in Washington over the last four decades is ready to head home to San Francisco. Nancy Pelosi, the nation's first female House whip, minority leader and House speaker, says, she's not going to seek reelection. She put out a highly produced video along with her announcement, serving as a love letter to San Francisco. She announced her decision to retire and said this.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

BASH: I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here, but I want to start first with CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju. Manu, you've been covering the Hill, 20 plus years, covering Nancy Pelosi, maybe not as long as I've been there. And Jon Karl, who we're going to talk to in a second, but long enough to get just a few gray hairs that I see there.

What are you hearing in the halls there? And what do you think as somebody who's covered her this long?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, look, it is not a huge surprise that she were to retire now, given that she's 85 years old. She served in Congress for 39 years, and she has achieved historic feats, not only becoming the first female House speaker, achieving that twice, but in also passing huge pieces of legislation through her time.

It is also just she's been such a formidable presence among the Democratic Party and a speaker that we have really seen unlike any others. I mean, being a leader in this chamber, whether it's the House or even the Senate, is a very difficult task. It's very difficult to keep your herding cats. Of course, keeping people in line, in the -- in the House or Senate is a very challenging task. She was able to do that time and time again, like no other speaker or leader in the Senate that I have covered, making sure that they catered to her demands.

People who were on all different sides of the ideological spectrum in her caucus, who may have at times were to vote no, trying to scuttle those major legislative accomplishments, getting them behind them, getting Obamacare across the finish line back in 2010 for pushing through bills that even people who did not want to get passed, like major climate change legislation and the like, and helping usher through legislation during Joe Biden's term in office.

It was all because of her ability to really rule her caucus with an iron fist of sorts, something that we just have not seen from leaders now or recent, recent memory, which is, shows you, when she steps away, it will leave a huge hole in the Democratic caucus, even though she did step aside. And of course, Hakeem Jeffries is Democratic leader because it was her who decided to anoint him to that position, Dana.

BASH: Iron fist wearing a velvet glove, always in pearls. Thank you so much, Manu. Appreciate that. We'll talk to you later in the program. Before we discuss Nancy Pelosi, we just want to play just a little bit of her sound of her comments throughout the past few years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): For our daughters and our granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling. What this is about is saying to the president, you've had four surges. They claim to be free market advocates when it's really an anything goes mentality. Those days are over. The party is over. 32 million more Americans having access to healthcare, $1.3 trillion saved for the taxpayer and accountability for the insurance companies so they cannot come between patients and their doctors.

[12:05:00]

The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. A shameful assault was made on our democracy. It cannot, however, deter us from our responsibility to validate the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Today, in a bipartisan way, the House demonstrated that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And we're back here. I want to start with you, Molly Ball, and put this up. I mean, it takes a certain person to only need their last name as the title of a book, and people know exactly what they're going to get. This is your book that you wrote, a biography of the former speaker.

MOLLY BALL, AUTHOR, "PELOSI": Absolutely. I mean, I think whether or not you agree with her politics, it's impossible to deny that she is one of, if not the most significant congressional leader of all of our lifetimes. It is hard to think of anyone who has been as skilled as she has been, as Manu was saying, and doing a very, very, very hard job. The House speaker has to lead this 435-member body, you know, has to not only lead their party and keep it together, but also negotiate with the other side, pass legislation to keep the government funded.

I will note that throughout her two terms as speaker, the government did not shutdown, although she came in in the midst of a shutdown in 2019 for her second speakership, and within weeks, Trump had pretty much completely capitulated to her.

So, she was just an incredibly effective leader. And I think that, you know, there were -- for years now, for decades, really, people have been urging her to move on and pass the torch to the next generation. Clearly, at 85, she finally saw the merit of that perspective. But I think the Democrats are going to miss her, because there really is not anyone who has that same level of skill.

BASH: Jon Karl, four decades, seven presidents, many, many titles, tens of millions, I would even say, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars raised for the party. I will get more into this later, but Arlette and I both have something in common, that we were both your producer once upon a time. And I was your producer on Capitol Hill covering Nancy Pelosi during so many important battles. You know, going back to the fight against the Iraq War, the desperate attempt to save the global economy during the 2008 financial crisis, not to mention getting Obamacare through.

JONATHAN KARL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, ABC NEWS: I remember being in the House chamber for State of the Union address by George W. Bush when he first uttered those words in a State of the Union, Madam Speaker. And I remember being there in that same chamber when she ripped up Donald Trump's speech.

Look, she was obviously, I think, without any doubt, the most powerful woman in American history, certainly in American politics, but she was more than that. She was, as Molly said, a singularly powerful figure in this Congress. Her -- I remember being with her right after the election in 2010 when she was swept out of power, everybody thought Pelosi was going to go off and retire. She had been a central issue in that campaign, and Obamacare, which she made possible.

I mean, let's face it, she was the one that made Obamacare possible. And Diane Sawyer had an interview with her that morning, and I was there with Diane. And we all thought she was going to announce she was retiring. This was 15 years ago, staying at it. She came back as speaker and back as a consequential speaker once again.

BASH: And Josh Dawsey, you have covered Donald Trump for a while. You are very well aware of the, I would say, hate, hate relationship that the two of them have. Let's just look at or listen to one example of an exchange between the two of them. You mentioned going back to 2018, 2019. This is December of 2018.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I also know that, you know, Nancy is in a situation where it's not easy for her to talk right now. And I understand that, and I fully understand that. We're going to have a good discussion, and we're going to see what happens, but we have to have border security.

PELOSI: Mr. President, please don't characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats who just won a big victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BASH: And I think you probably remember in a different meeting, Josh, the White House tweeted out a photo of a meeting October of 2019, and everybody sitting down, all men. Nancy Pelosi standing up, pointing at the president. He called her nervous. Nancy said, she was unhinged. She made it the cover photo on Twitter.

JOSH DAWSEY, POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yeah. I mean, there were -- there was obviously division between the two of them and volcanic eruptions. But one of the things that was interesting to me with Trump is it was often a tale. He would say, the Democrats keep their people together. They vote in lockstep. Why aren't the Republicans loyal the way the Democrats were?

And one thing that drove him crazy when he was president was that Nancy Pelosi could get all of her members to vote in the way that she wanted them to vote. And the Republican speakers, the Republican leaders, didn't seem to have that same power. And I think there was a modicum of respect, at least from folks in Trump's White House.

And in the first term, at just how good she was at managing her caucus, they would often try to find leverage over her and would struggle to find leverage over her. She was a formidable opponent for them. So, with all of the, you know, nicknames and sort of ways that he talked about her publicly. I think behind the scenes, there was a little bit more there are.

BASH: And Arlette, you covered President Biden for a very, very long time. She was, I would say, the reason why he finally decided to step down and not run in 2024 and they had been closed for a very long time, and it really hurt the relationship

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it really did. President Biden and Nancy Pelosi shared a very close relationship, both Catholics, both spending decades up on Capitol Hill. She helped him really push through some key pieces of legislation when it came to infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act. But her moves behind the scenes to privately encourage Biden to step aside in the race, really fractured their relationship. We heard First Lady Jill Biden do an interview with the Washington Post where she had said that it was disappointing to see Pelosi actions after they had more five -- more than five decades of friendship.

Now I will note that in the last hour, former President Biden did post on X about the Speaker Pelosi saying that he still believes that she was the best speaker in U.S. history. He had presented her, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and at the very end of that, he says that he and his wife wish her and her husband all the best.

One thing that I've been trying to find out basically since Pelosi made her announcement, is, could this lead to them finally talking because I don't think that they have spoken since last year and everything that went down after he dropped out of the race.

BASH: All right, everybody stand by. When we come back, President Trump insists that prices are going down. Are they? And didn't we hear this from his predecessor, the one he beat on this very issue? Stay with us.

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BASH: Democrats are still celebrating after Tuesday's decisive victories in races up and down the ballot across the country. They say the message from voters is clear. Prices are too high, and they want their leaders to do something about it. President Trump had this to say about voters who are worried, and specifically to a question about one voter who said that they were concerned about costs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I do say this, beef, we have to get down. In terms -- I think of groceries, you know, it's an old-fashioned word, but it's a beautiful word. Beef, we have to get down, but we've got prices way down. And think of this energy. She drives a car, probably, and her energy prices are way down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think prices are coming down from this?

TRUMP: I believe that. Yeah. I think they're coming down, but I think they're down already. I think the biggest problem is Republicans don't talk about it. They don't talk about the word affordability, and the Democrats lie about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And my panel is back. Josh Dawsey, let me just show our viewers what the actual numbers are, what people are actually feeling out there. Clear majorities say that groceries, utilities are getting more expensive from them. They think their healthcare and their housing have either gone up or stayed the same. And they're split on the issue that the president talks about a lot, which is gas prices.

DAWSEY: Right. And that's, you know, the president won the election for the number one reason of the economy. If you looked at how he polled, above Kamala Harris, above Joe Biden, double digit, across the board. They thought voters thought he would be better to handle the economy, and I think it's a real vulnerability for him.

Now, if you talk to people around him, they would say the same thing. They're trying to figure out their economic messaging and what the president has said continuously, things going to get better. It's going to get better. It's already going down. But people don't really believe that, as that poll shows. And if you saw President Biden, remember when they said transitory inflation, it's all going away.

How did that turn out? I don't think it turned out so well for them. So, the White House economic message trying to figure out. What can you say that sort of, you know, what's people know? You hear them, you're feeling them, you understand what they're going through. And also, Trump doesn't like to admit any sort of weaknesses or challenges or vulnerabilities or anything like that.

So exactly, how do you do that? I don't think they've quite figured that out yet. A lot of the messaging that even his advisors have given him in private is, oh, in 2026 the economy is going to be better, the numbers are going to get better. All of our policies are going to go in place. It's a long way from now, and it remains to be seen if that's true or not.

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BASH: And it's not only, I would argue that he doesn't like to be told things aren't working. He believes, and he has a lot of evidence to back up. His belief that, when he says things enough times that he can be successful in changing people's minds or convincing people that what he is saying is actually true.

When you're talking about somebody standing in line at the grocery store and looking in their wallet and not having money to pay for the food for their kids, that's hard to convince somebody that that's not happening today.

DAWSEY: Yeah. You can get people to believe a lie by repeating it over and over again until it affects their lives. They can believe what he says about 2020 election, about January '6, or whatever, because he repeats it over and over again. But when he says prices are going down, empirically, they are not going down. And if you are going to the grocery store, and you are paying more to feed your family. You fully know this.

I mean, he talks about gasoline. Sometimes he talks about it being less than $2 a gallon. I mean, I haven't seen that, but you know this, this is the reality. Look, these races, especially New Jersey and Virginia, were about the cost of living. Obviously, Mamdani was the centerpiece of his campaign as well in New York.

In New Jersey, it was interesting with electricity prices way up, with the grocery prices way up. You know, voters could have blamed Democrats. Democrats are in charge in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy, but clearly the blame was put on Trump and Republican policies.

BASH: And I Arlette, you spend some time talking to voters out in New Jersey, especially before the election on Tuesday. And I just want to read kind of a synopsis from our friends over at Axios, Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen, why it matters. Democrats are more likely to fight harder in Congress donate more generously, protest more loudly, resist Trump's policies more vigorously. They believe for the first time since Trump won, they can stand up to the president and beat him.

SAENZ: And that's something that a lot of voters that I spoke to, Democratic voters, really wanted to see from their leaders. And now it will -- time will tell what exactly that invigoration of the Democratic Party will look like. Will more donors start donating to races across the country? Will it mobilize more Democratic candidates to sign-up to run in competitive races?

But on the issue of affordability, when I talk to voters in New Jersey repeatedly, it was high property taxes, which is always an issue in New Jersey, and then energy costs. And I think that issue of high utility bills is going to resonate going forward, in New Jersey, they saw their energy electricity bills go up by 21 percent since last year. Nationwide, that's up 6 percent. And so, unless Republicans find a way to address that, which in many ways is like the new grocery prices or gas prices, energy was just a refrain, I heard over and over from voters.

BASH: Yeah. It's such a good point, and it's so important for us to watch. One of the sectors of the electorate that we looked at in a big way in 2020 and even more so in 2024, what we call the double haters, people who just can't stand both parties. And which way are they going to go if they have to choose a party?

It was Donald Trump and Republicans the last election, but this time, it was largely the Democrats. I mean, look at these numbers. Mikie Sherrill 82 percent. These are, again, voters who don't like either party. They went for the Democrat in New Jersey, the Democrat in Virginia, obviously the Democrat in in New York, and they voted overwhelmingly for Prop 50 in California.

BALL: Well, and I think that that is a sign that this election was much more of a rejection of Trump and the Republicans than it was a resounding mandate for the Democrats. Now the Democrats have every right to be happy about this result. They far exceeded the margins in pretty much any poll in all of these elections.

But exactly as you said, you know, there are a lot of people out there who still are not big fans of the Democratic Party. And in those exit polls, in fact, the popularity of the Democratic Party was quite low. But people are voting for Democrats anyway to send a message that they don't like what's happening in Washington, that they don't like what Trump is doing, that they don't think the Republicans are solving the problems that they were elected to solve. And, you know, into a lot of Republicans, this is sort of -- this is one big unforced error by Trump, you know, he is up there at the supreme court defending the tariffs that most economists believe are a major part of these price increases and the stubborn inflation that we are having, and that are not something that most other Republican presidents would have supported. But he insists that these are part of reshaping the economy in the long term, and that means short term economic pain and voters don't like it.

DAWSEY: Yeah. I mean, I agree with what Molly just said. You know, the president himself said he wanted to go to those arguments. I mean, you've seen in the last few weeks, every chance he gets, he's talking up tariffs. He's telling Senate Republicans how great tariffs are. He's banked his economic agenda in a large part, the relationships overseas and back home on these tariffs, right?

[12:25:00]

And, you know, the Supreme Court questioning yesterday, a lot of the justices were fairly skeptical of the powers here. I mean, it remains to be seen how the rules -- they could go either way. But if they up end this policy of his, I think a lot of Senate Republicans would, frankly, be happy the fact that he might not be imposing tariffs left and right behind scenes, but it would certainly be a huge marker in his presidency.

BASH: All right, everybody stand by. Coming up. Well, flight cancelations finally bring the government shutdown to an end. We have some new reporting coming up on deal making happening as we speak on Capitol Hill, next.

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