Clyburn blames slogans like ‘defund the police’ for Dem House losses

Majority House Whip Jim Clyburn is unhappy with his Democratic caucus for allowing slogans to dominate their party narrative, telling “Axios on HBO” that phrases like “defund the police” cost them crucial seats in the House and Senate.

Why is this important: The Democrats might have won the White House, but their party underperformed expectations in the congressional election, and some members publicly and privately blame their more liberal colleagues.

• Democrats were optimistic about expanding their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives ahead of the election, but ended up losing at least seven seats and some of their freshmen who reversed Republican districts just ago two years.
• They still retain control of this chamber, but have failed to win the Senate squarely. (That could change if Democratic candidates win both rounds of Georgia’s Senate in January.)

What they say: “Well, it just happened because we weren’t able to discipline ourselves,” Clyburn told “Axios on HBO”.

• “We keep making this mistake. This madness about ‘You have to be as progressive as progressive’,” he added.
• “This phrase – ‘defund the police’ – cost Jaime Harrison a great deal,” Clyburn said of the Democratic Senate candidate who failed to overthrow Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.

Between the lines: Although Clyburn admitted that was not the only reason for Harrison’s loss, he took aim at the “slogans” around liberal policies and implored his fellow Democrats “to be as practical as I am.”

• “Stop slogans,” he says. “Slogans kill people. Slogans destroy movements. Stop slogans. And let’s move on to representing people and building hopes and aspirations for people.”
• Clyburn is not alone. Last week, an audio leak from a Democratic caucus-wide conference call revealed that several members felt the same way.
• Texas Representative Marc Veasey said the slogans gave Republicans ammunition to use “in ad after ad” against their candidates.
• Representative Abigail Spanberger, who won re-election in Virginia, has targeted her colleagues who have embraced the “defund the police” movement and said Democrats have to be better to fight. the label “socialism”.