众议院民主党人努力应对2008年的选举结果仍在展开的选举在周四的电话会议上，我在努力理解他们意外的损失尽管前副总统乔·拜登似乎正在入主白宫。
众议院议长南希·佩洛西和她的副手们预测民主党将扩大他们的多数在选举日之前，共和党有望获得净席位。
“整个政治世界都出了问题，”伊利诺伊州众议员切丽·布斯托斯说。她是众议院民主党竞选委员会主席，在总统竞选中差点落败唐纳德·特朗普-支持区。
J.斯科特·阿普尔怀特/泳池/法新社通过盖蒂图像
“在这个周期投票的选民看起来比预计的更像2016年。我想要答案，我知道你想要答案，”她在电话中补充道，美国广播公司新闻可以听到。
Bustos表示，委员会将对结果进行“事后分析”，并与成员分享。
佩洛西在电话中说:“这是一场关乎我们民主命运的生死之战。”。"我们没有赢得每一场战斗，但我们赢得了战争。"
“你抬头挺胸，”佩洛西后来在电话中说。“我们帮助乔·拜登获得了这一授权。”
温和派和进步派在党内信息上发生冲突
弗吉尼亚州民主党众议员阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格(Abigail Spanberger)是一名前中情局官员，她在里士满周围的一个温和的郊区以微弱优势击败了对手，她对同事们的结果直言不讳。
“从国会的角度来看，这是一次失败。这并不成功，”她说。“我们失去了不该失去的成员。”
她说，民主党人应该在决定如何谈论问题之前，先看看共和党的广告和针对成员的攻击。
“我们必须承诺不再说‘解散警察’这样的话，”她说。“我们再也不能使用‘社会主义’或‘社会主义’这两个词了。”
“如果我们将周二归类为成功，并再次以这种方式运行，我们将在2022年被撕裂，”她平淡地说。
佩洛西对斯潘伯格将结果描述为“失败”提出质疑，指出民主党保住了众议院。
盖蒂图像，文件
密歇根州拉希达·特拉伊布众议员“小队”的一员也反驳了斯潘伯格的评论，称该党在解雇试图代表其选区的进步人士之前应该研究结果。
“不要责怪我自己和其他为关系到我们社区的问题而斗争的人，”她说。"我们需要做一次真正的尸检，并彻底研究一下。"
众议院多数党党鞭吉姆·克莱伯恩(Jim Clyburn)警告说，这种言论可能会让他们失去在参议院多数席位上的最后一次机会:佐治亚州的席位很可能都将在1月份进行决选。
“在接下来的几周里，我们必须把重点放在格鲁吉亚，”他在党团会议上说。如果民主党人“要运行全民医疗保险，解散警察，社会化医疗，我们不会赢。”
当被问及对此有何评论时，一名助手证实了克莱伯恩对该电话的评论，并补充道:“我对今天的私人核心会议电话的评论与我多年来表达的、今年早些时候公开重申的观点相同。口号“烧死婴儿”在20世纪60年代劫持了约翰·刘易斯和我共同领导的运动，像“消灭警察”这样的口号也可以在社会和政治上对今天的努力起到同样的作用。”
民主党人应该庆祝白宫竞选的“非凡”结果
弗吉尼亚州民主党众议员格里·康诺利(Gerry Connolly)鼓励民主党人退后一步，对结果持更加乐观的态度。
“我们必须停止在葬礼上谈论...我们已经赶走了入主白宫以来对民主的最大威胁。“太不寻常了。我们举行了众议院。”
“我们需要从这个充满了尿和醋的电话会议中走出来，”他说。“是的，这是一个分裂的国家，是的，我们要把它统一起来。我们会尽力而为。”
“这是一个巨大的胜利，我知道这不是一个全面的胜利。我想要...对唐纳德·特朗普进行巨大的道德批判。我们没有得到，”进步议员普拉米拉贾亚帕尔，华盛顿。，后来说。“首要任务是让唐纳德·特朗普离开白宫，让乔·拜登入主白宫。”
“这要求我们团结一致，包括进步人士，对他们来说，乔·拜登不是我们的首选，”她说。
'It was a failure': House Democrats grapple over surprise 2020 losses
House Democrats grappled with the results ofthe still-unfoldingelectionon a conference call Thursday, struggling with how to understandtheir unexpected losseseven as former Vice President Joe Biden appears to be on the path to the White House.
While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her lieutenantspredicted Democrats would expand their majorityahead of Election Day, Republicans are on track for a net gain of seats.
"Something went wrong here across the entire political world," said Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., the chair of the House Democrats' Campaign Committee who nearly lost her race in a PresidentDonald Trump-supporting district.
"The voters who turned out in this cycle look a lot more like 2016 than was projected. I want answers and I know you want answers," she added on the call, which ABC News was able to listen to.
Bustos said the committee would do a "post-mortem" on the results to share with members.
"This has been a life-or-death fight for the very fate of our democracy," Pelosi said on the call. "We did not win every battle, but we did win the war."
"You hold your head up high," Pelosi said later in the call. "We helped Joe Biden get that mandate."
Moderates, progressives clash over party message
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., a former CIA officer who narrowly defeated her opponent in a moderate suburban district around Richmond, was blunt with her colleagues about the results.
"From a congressional standpoint, it was a failure. It was not a success," she said. "We lost members we shouldn't have lost."
She said Democrats should watch GOP ads and the attacks leveled against members before deciding how to talk about issues.
"We have to commit to not saying the words "defund the police" ever again," she said. "We have to not use the words 'socialist' or 'socialism' ever again."
"If we are classifying Tuesday as a success and we run this way again, we will get f------ torn apart in 2022," she said flatly.
Pelosi disputed Spanberger's characterization of the results as a "failure," noting that Democrats kept the House.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.,a member of the "Squad,"pushed back on Spanberger's comments as well, saying the party should study the results before dismissing progressives who are trying to represent their districts.
"Don't blame myself and others who are fighting for issues that matter to our communities," she said. "We need to do a real autopsy and dig through it."
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., warned the rhetoric could cost them their last remaining shot at the Senate majority: the Georgia seats that will likely both be headed to a January runoff.
"We have to focus on Georgia for the next several weeks," he said on the caucus call. If Democrats "are going to run on Medicare for All, defund the police, socialized medicine, we're not going to win."
Asked for comment, an aide confirmed Clyburn's remarks on the call and added from the longtime South Carolina congressman, "My comments on today’s private Caucus call are the same sentiments I have expressed for years and publicly reiterated earlier this year. Sloganeering, 'Burn baby burn,' highjacked the movement John Lewis and I helped lead in the 1960s, and slogans like 'Defund the police' could do the same to today's efforts, socially and politically."
Democrats should celebrate 'extraordinary' results of White House race
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., encouraged Democrats to step back and take a more optimistic look at the results.
"We've got to stop talking in funereal terms ... we have dislodged the biggest threat to democracy ever to sit in the White House," he said. "It's extraordinary. We held the House."
"We need to come out of this conference call full of piss and vinegar," he said. "Yes it's a divided country, yes we're going to unite it. We're going to do the best we can."
"This is a huge win, I know it's not a win across the board. I wanted ... to have a giant moral repudiation of Donald Trump. We did not get that," progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said later on. "Job number one was to get Donald Trump out of the White House and to get Joe Biden into the White House."
"That required us to unify, including progressives, for whom Joe Biden wasn't our first choice," she said.
