Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives warned colleagues Thursday that promoting and campaigning on a far-left social agenda hurt them badly in 2020.
“[If] we are going to run on Medicare for All, defund the police, socialized medicine, we’re not going to win,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina said on a leaked Democrat House caucus phone call.
A Washington Post congressional reporter receiving leaked information from a source with access tweeted part of the more than two-hour phone call on Thursday afternoon.
If we run this race again we will get fucking torn apart again in 2022, Spanberger says
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) November 5, 2020
Democrats underperformed in both Senate and House races on Nov. 3, losing ground in critical areas such as Iowa and Florida to GOP candidates, including a significant number of conservative women, some of whom ran campaign ads targeting their opponents for peddling socialism and wanting to defund the police.
It was this round of losses that began to worry Democrats and propel them redirect their efforts into pushing Georgia Senate races into runoffs between Republican Sen. David Perdue and his Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff as well as GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock in January.
During the call, Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia reaffirmed Clyburn’s concerns, saying that if leftists couldn’t reevaluate the platforms they relied on for the Nov. 3 election, they would lose in a landslide in the 2022 midterms.
“No one should say ‘defund the police’ ever again,” Spanberger said. “Nobody should be talking about socialism.”
Pelosi tried to push back on Spanberger by telling members Democrats gained victory with both the House and the presidency, noting that the party should focus on an “agenda of lowering health care, better paychecks, building infrastructure.”
“This has been a life or death fight for the very fate of our democracy. We did not win every battle but we did win the war,” Pelosi said. “We held the House. Joe Biden is on a clear path to be the next president of the United States.”
We have a mandate! Pelosi says before getting off the call
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) November 5, 2020
Rep. Bill Pascrell jumped in to defend Pelosi, reportedly claiming she had “done an amazing job,” and shifted the blame to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who he claimed is absent from Democrats’ larger conversation.
It just keeps going as Pascrell now calling out Schumer.
Pelosi’s done an amazing job … but where’s Schumer in all of this? Says Pelosi has one hand tied behind her back— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) November 5, 2020
Squad member Rashida Tlaib tried to defend the democrat-socialist agenda against other Democrat member’s attacks, saying that attempting to cater to one group’s preferences is wrong. She also claimed that if it wasn’t the emphasis on Black Lives Matter that lost Democrats some of the toss-up races, another issue would have taken its place and caused the same results.
Tlaib: They called Obama worse, they called him a Muslim, a socialist, you can blame these words but if it wasn’t on BLM would’ve been something else
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) November 5, 2020
The end is in sight for this Dem caucus call that started more than two hours ago. Jeffries said 7-8 mbrs in queue and then will wrap up.
Anyways I have to go help with kids zoom piano lessons so leaving it here— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) November 5, 2020
Members on the call were warned against leaking the information to the press multiple times, with Rep, Hakeem Jeffries explicitly stating that “reporters aren’t your friends.”
https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/1324444578301333506?s=20
