through the affordable care act under barack obama. after a party was swept into the minority, becoming speaker again in 2019 where she battled donald trump, making him the only president impeached twice, including after january 6th where pro-trump rioters stormed the capitol and targeted the speaker. can you imagine a caucus not run by nancy pelosi? i hope that we don t have to see that. reporter: wolf, tonight there are still questions about the next house speaker, who is trying-to-work behind the scenes to lock down the votes. he will meet in january to take that top position. two members of the hard right freedom caucus told me tonight that mccarthy does not have the votes as bob goode republican of virginia, says mccarthy is not there yet and saying there should be a consensus candidate
reporter: nancy pelosi announced she will step aside. i will not seek reelection. for me it calls for a new generation to lead the democratic caucus that i so deeply respect and i am greatly so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility. reporter: at 82 the democrat has represented san francisco in the house for 35 years, saying she would continue serving in a congress whose make-up has markedly changed. when i came to the congress in 1987, there were 12 democratic women. now there are over 90 and we want more. reporter: the news prompting an immediate shake-up. pelosi announcing steny hoyer he would not run for leadership. 82-year-old jim clyburn
happening now, nancy pelosi passes the torch, ending two decades at the helm of the house dem democratic party saying it s time for a new leader to lead the caucus. and former president barack obama warns democracy is under assault both here in the united states and indeed all across the globe. more on his very impassioned remarks, coming up this hour. and later, my exclusive interview with the incoming mayor of los angeles, karen bass. she ll be the first woman to serve in the city s top job and just the second african-american. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room.
voting. more than 9 million americans have already cast their ballots. is that good for democrats? is it good for republicans? one thing we can assert is it s good for democracy. it s good for the republic. there is something motivating americans to drop what they re doing, stand in line, and participate in a midterm election. regardless of what experts are predicting right now, whether they re relying on polling or turnout data, inflation, whether they re reading animal entrails, as always, you, the american people, you get the final say. now, we re about to tap into the brain of a former lone wolf in the republican party, an independent mind, congressman justin amash, famously left the republican party over trump and trumpism. he was the first republican lawmaker to back impeachment. and as a hard right freedom caucus member at the time. amash fired the warning shot years ago saying our politics, our partisanship was in a partisan death spiral. what does he make of today s
. the house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection has a new vice chair, on thursday the committee chairman benny thompson announced that republican congresswoman liz cheney would serve as the panel s number two. house republicans have not been happy with cheney or republican congressman adam kinzinger for joining the investigation. so republicans from the hard right freedom caucus have asked house gop leadership to change party rules in order to remove cheney and kinzinger from the republican conference referring to them as, quote, spies for democrats. arizona congressman andy bigs writing in a letter, quote, many of the coming discussions in house republican conference meetings will likely revolve around our defense against the democrats perpetuation of the false narrative that january 6th was an insurrection. the false narrative that january