A leaked caucus call between congressional Democrats on Thursday has revealed growing tension between the more progressive wing of the party and moderate lawmakers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a strong message to her colleagues that swinging too left will cost the party their chances should the Georgia Senate races advance to runoffs, an opportunity that could give Democrats a tie with Republicans in the Senate if both Democratic candidates won seats in the state. To obtain a Senate majority, Democrats would need to pick up a seat in either Alaska or North Carolina, though should the election result in a 50-50 split, Kamala Harris or Mike Pence would be the deciding vote as vice president.
But messages that some Democrats are "too" progressive, faced pushback from members of Congress who hope to see sweeping changes.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib said on the call that the party needs "to do a real autopsy and dig through it" before attacking each other.
Tlaib, who was re-elected this year, is a member of four progressive congresswomen dubbed 'The Squad.'
During the call, Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger blamed more progressive lawmakers for races the party did lose in the general election.
"Don't blame myself and others who are fighting for issues that matter to our communities," Tlaib said.
Tlaib was elected in the 2018 midterm elections alongside fellow 'Squad' members Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley. All four won re-election on Tuesday.
The group has been known to push for more progressive policies, such as the Green New Deal, and support defunding the police amid the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.
"No one should say 'defund the police' ever again," Spanberger yelled on the leaked call. "Nobody should be talking about socialism."
Spanberger, who won re-election by a narrow margin of 0.2 percentage points, called the election results "a failure" and told other Democrats, "We lost races we shouldn't have lost."
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