Nancy Pelosi taken to hospital after unspecified injury in Luxembourg – US politics live

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Progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing resistance in her quest to become the top Democrat on one of the House’s more prominent committees.

The New York lawmaker has made a bid to become the ranking member on the House oversight committee, which is tasked with carrying out investigations and holding the government to account. The previous ranking member, Jamie Raskin, has opted for a job as the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, and Ocasio-Cortez is vying for the oversight committee slot against Virginia congressman Gerry Connolly.

Today, the leaders of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, which is currently the largest ideological caucus in the House, announced they were supporting Connolly for the job. Here’s what outgoing chair Annie Kuster and incoming chair Brad Schneider had to say:

New Dems are proud to endorse our colleague, friend, and fellow New Dem Rep Gerry Connolly for Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Rep Connolly is a strong and talented communicator and a dedicated workhorse prepared to expertly lead the committee in defending our Democratic priorities and standing up to the Trump administration’s extremist actions. He is the right choice to advance the interests of our full caucus.

Throughout his sixteen years on the Committee, Rep. Connolly has been a courageous and formidable force fighting against extremist GOP conspiracy theories and advancing thoughtful, commonsense legislation. As we prepare for the new Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress, the Oversight Committee Democrats will play a critical role in protecting our democratic institutions and pushing back on bad faith actors. We are fully confident that Rep Connolly will lead the committee with a no-nonsense approach and a steady hand.

Here’s more on Ocasio-Cortez’s bid to lead the oversight committee:

Anita Dunn, a former top adviser to Joe Biden, criticized how the president handled the pardon of his son Hunter Biden.

Biden issued the pardon after months of denying he was considering such an act. It came after his son pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges and was convicted of charges related to lying on a background check to purchase a firearm.

Dunn, who left a White House senior adviser post in August to work for a Super Pac that backed Kamala Harris’s campaign, was asked about Biden’s decision at a New York Times event. She said:

I absolutely agree with the president’s decision here. I do not agree with the way it was done. I don’t agree with the timing and I don’t agree, frankly, with the attack on our judicial system.

She’s far from the only Democrat who was uncomfortable with Biden’s pardon of his son, or his allegations that Hunter was a victim of a “selective prosecution”:

Pelosi hospitalized after unspecified injury in Luxembourg

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former speaker of the House of Representatives, sustained an injury while on an official visit to Luxembourg and was hospitalized, her office announced.

“While traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation,” spokesperson Ian Krager said.

“Speaker Emerita Pelosi is currently receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals. She continues to work and regrets that she is unable to attend the remainder of the CODEL engagements to honor the courage of our servicemembers during one of the greatest acts of American heroism in our nation’s history.”

He added that the 84-year-old, who just won another term representing her district that centers on San Francisco, “looks forward to returning home to the US soon”.

Responding to the New York Times’s reporting that anti-vaccine attorney Aaron Siri has been by Robert F Kennedy Jr’s side as he interviewed candidates for jobs in the department on health and human services, Hillary Clinton quipped:

I think Trump voters may be surprised to learn they voted to make polio great again.

Donald Trump and JD Vance both plan to attend the army-navy football game held Saturday outside Washington, USA Today reports.

In addition to Daniel Penny, they’ve invited other guests expected to serve in their administration, or work closely with them. Here’s more, from USA Today:

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to attend the game, where he will meet with Pete Hegseth, his embattled nominee for Defense secretary. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Navy veteran who Trump has considered as a fallback option to replace Hegseth, will also reportedly join Trump as well.

Vance invites recently acquitted Daniel Penny to football game

JD Vance has invited Daniel Penny, who was this week acquitted of charges in the chokehold death of an unhoused man on a New York City subway, to attend the annual army-navy football game this weekend.

Writing on X, Vance said:

Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone.

I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.

Penny has been a cause celebre for the right, with one Republican lawmaker saying he should be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor.

Trump transition considering downsizing financial institutions created after Great Depression – report

US government institutions intended to stabilize the financial system during emergencies may be on the chopping block once Donald Trump is inaugurated, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Officials on his transition team are looking at ways to eliminate or downsize institutions like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which was created after the Great Depression to prevent the bank runs that wiped out American’ savings at the onset of that long-lasting economic crisis.

People in Cleveland lining up for a handout of potatoes and cabbage during the Great Depression in 1938. Photograph: AP

Any such changes would require action from Congress, which may be difficult to pull off. Here’s more on what Trump is thinking of doing, from the Journal:

In recent interviews with potential nominees to lead bank regulatory agencies, Trump advisers and officials from his newfound Department of Government Efficiency have, for example, asked whether the president-elect could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter said.

Advisers have asked the nominees under consideration for the FDIC, as well as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, if deposit insurance could then be absorbed into the Treasury Department, some of the people said.

Any proposal to eliminate the FDIC or any agency would require congressional action. While past presidents have reorganized and rebranded departments, Washington has never shut down a major cabinet-level agency and rarely closed other agencies like the FDIC that are not.

Bank executives are optimistic that President-elect Donald Trump will ease a host of regulations on capital cushions and consumer protections, as well as scrutiny of consolidation in the industry. But FDIC deposit insurance is considered near sacred. Any move that threatened to undermine even the perception of deposit insurance could quickly ripple through banks and in a crisis might compound customer fears.

After several banks failed last year, customers panicked about whether their deposits were safe at smaller banks. Many fled to the biggest of big banks that are perceived to be so important that the government would never let them fail. Since then, banks have been calling for wider deposit insurance protections to keep smaller banks competitive.

Lawyer advising RFK Jr challenged polio, hepatitis B vaccines

Aaron Siri, the lawyer that the New York Times reports has been sitting in on Robert F Kennedy Jr’s interviews with potential hires to fill the upper ranks for the department of health and human services, has a long history of challenging the certifications of vaccines.

He has filed petitions against the vaccines for polio, hepatitis B and other diseases, and also gone to court to challenge Covid-19 vaccine mandates. However, it remains unclear if Siri himself is looking for a role in health and human services, which Donald Trump nominated Kennedy to lead, or if he’ll remain outside government.

From the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington, here’s more of what we know about Siri’s involvement in the transition to Trump’s second term:

Trump-linked officials reportedly considering targeting bank stabilizer and polio vaccine

Good morning, US politics blog readers. We have fewer than 40 days to go until Donald Trump is inaugurated president of the United States, and more signs are emerging of how he might follow through on his plans to transform the country. The New York Times reports that Aaron Siri, a lawyer who has filed petitions challenging the approvals of vaccines against polio and several other diseases, has been by health and human services secretary nominee Robert F Kennedy Jr’s side as he has interviewed candidates for jobs in the department. It’s yet more evidence that, if he is confirmed, Kennedy could insert his discredited anti-vaccine views into the government.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump’s transition team is exploring ways to downside or combine major banking regulators, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a key stabilizer of the sector that was created in the wake of the Great Depression. While the country has come a long way since that era-defining financial crisis, bank collapses still happen, and expect tons of pushback if the second Trump administration follows through on the plan.

Here’s what else is going on today:

• Joe Biden is starting his day early, with a virtual meeting of G7 countries at 9.30am ET.

• House Republicans announced their committee chairs for the next Congress. Notable, Biden nemeses Jim Jordan and James Comer will remain as chairs of the judiciary and oversight committees, respectively.

• Xi Jinping is not expected to attend Trump’s inauguration, CBS News reports, after the president-elect invited the Chinese president.