Dec 13, 2018

Pelosi's power play

Axios

Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

A day after schooling President Trump on-camera and then returning to the Hill to joke about his manhood, Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi extinguished a months-long revolt among some younger House Dems by agreeing to term limits for top leaders.

Why it matters: "Within moments of announcing she would restrict her time in the job [to no more than four additional years], seven of her critics distributed a statement promising to back" her in the final vote for speaker — a clinch, AP's Alan Fram reports. "It moves a 78-year-old white woman to the cusp of steering next year's diverse crop of House Democrats, with its large number of female, minority and younger members."

Be smart: At almost every point during her time in leadership, going back to her 2001 run for Democratic whip, people have underestimated Nancy Pelosi at their own peril.

  • Members of the House, senators, presidents and world leaders have learned that no one has a better handle on their caucus, or is better at figuring out how to get things done.
  • Pelosi can play the inside-the-Capitol game to get votes, while going deep on issues.
  • Robert Mueller aside, she is officially the president's biggest problem for the next two years.

Go deeper: Why Nancy Pelosi will be Madam Speaker

Go deeper

Axios

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 3 a.m. ET: 786,291 — Total deaths: 37,820 — Total recoveries: 166,088.
  2. U.S.: Leads the world in confirmed cases. Total confirmed cases as of 3 a.m. ET: 164,620 — Total deaths: 3,170— Total recoveries: 5,943.
  3. Federal government latest: The White House will extend its social distancing guidelines until April 30.
  4. State updates: Rural-state governors say testing is still inadequate, contradicting Trump — Virginia, Maryland and D.C. issue stay-at-home orders to residents, joining 28 other states.
  5. Business latest: Ford and General Electric aim to make 50,000 ventilators in 100 days.
  6. In photos: Navy hospital ship arrives in Manhattan.
  7. What should I do? Answers about the virus from Axios experts — What to know about social distancing — Q&A: Minimizing your coronavirus risk.
  8. Other resources: CDC on how to avoid the virus, what to do if you get it.

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Axios

World coronavirus updates: World Bank warns economic pain unavoidable

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens and confirmed plus presumptive cases from the CDC

The novel coronavirus has caused a "global shock" and significant economic pain "seems unavoidable in all countries," the World Bank said in an economic update for
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The big picture: COVID-19 cases surged past 786,000 and the death toll exceeded 37,800 early Tuesday, per Johns Hopkins data. Italy reported more than 11,500 deaths.

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U.S. coronavirus updates: Death toll tops 3,000

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

The U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus surpassed 3,000 late Monday.

The state of play: There were more than 164,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. early Tuesday — more than any other country in the world, per Johns Hopkins data. The COVID-19 death toll stood at 3,170. The number of recoveries had risen to more than 5,900.

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