House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long kept silent as to whether President Joe Biden should cancel student debt — but that changed in late July. “The president can’t do it — so that’s not even a discussion,” she said during a news conference, stunning colleagues. As we detail in this week’s Weekend Reader, The Intercept discovered Pelosi made the announcement after she received a private memo from Democratic megadonors.

Also In Today’s Weekend Reader:

  • D.C. top media strategists helped Cuomo fight off sex-harassment allegations.
  • A sobering look inside an anti-union meeting.
  • The nuclear specter that haunts the Southwest.