The House Democratic conference had a contentious call Thursday in the wake of unanticipated Democratic losses in the House.
Not a single House Republican lost a seat, while the Democratic majority was significantly reduced.
Nobody was more outspoken during the call than Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who squeezed out a slim victory in her Northern Virginia congressional district. A tape of the call was obtained by the Washington Post. It’s a humdinger.
An angry Spanberger, who did not adhere to the ol’ Virginny rules of decorum, had a remarkable outburst, as reported by CNN:
“If we are classifying Tuesday as a success from a congressional standpoint, we will get [expletive] torn apart in 2022,” Spanberger said bluntly. “That’s the reality.”
She went on to highlight two main reasons for Democrats ” los[ing] members who shouldn’t have lost”:
As Spanberger put it:
“The number one concern in things that people brought to me in my [district] that I barely re-won, was defunding the police. And I’ve heard from colleagues who have said ‘Oh, it’s the language of the streets. We should respect that.’ We’re in Congress. We are professionals. We are supposed to talk about things in the way where we mean what we’re talking about. If we don’t mean we should defund the police, we shouldn’t say that.”
Again, Spanberger:
“We want to talk about funding social services, and ensuring good engagement in community policing, let’s talk about what we are for. And we need to not ever use the words ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again. Because while people think it doesn’t matter, it does matter. And we lost good members because of it.”
What was missing from Abigail Spanberger’s rant?
Well, one thing that was missing was any criticism of socialism, other than Spanberger’s view that it isn’t a vote-getter. She doesn’t want to hear it mentioned again. But does that mean she rejects its prescriptions?
Or that she merely wants it to go underground so that her next election won’t be a squeaker. We’re all ears, Rep. Spanberger.
The Virginia Congresswoman has tried to portray herself in ads as somebody who works across the aisle. Still, as far as I know, she did not criticize socialism before it proved to be a blooper as a vote getter—and then her criticisms, so far, are limited to using its name.
Her comments about defunding the police are likewise baffling. Is she implying that Democrats just went along because they wanted to speak “the language of the streets,” even if it meant denigrating the police? Unclear.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, whose support in South Carolina essentially got the Democratic nomination for Joe Biden, is also talking about the “defund the police movement.” Again, he isn’t critical of the movement to defund the police per se but rather is upset about the electoral fallout.
I would like to know what Rep. Clyburn, one of the most powerful people in Congress, makes of the “defund movement”—and not just its electoral effects.