House Dem Furious After Caucus Call ‘Live-Leaking’ Reveals Infighting: ‘Stop This Nonsense’

Members of the House Democratic caucus appeared surprised to discover that the contents of their caucus call was getting live-tweeted by Capitol Hill reporters on Thursday afternoon, with one of them taking to Twitter to blast the leakers.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) furiously took to Twitter to blast people on the call for “literally live-leaking” to reporters at various media outlets, who in turn started providing a play-by-play of the caucus call.

“Some of my colleagues are literally live-leaking our internal Dem Caucus call right now to CNN, The Hill, NBC, Politico, etc,” tweeted Huffman. “I’ve gotten texts from 3 different reporters asking me to live-leak juicy details to them.  No.  We (Dems and the media) need to stop this nonsense.”

https://twitter.com/JaredHuffman/status/1324450577552568320

According to Washington Post reporter Erica Warner, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) jumped onto the call to instruct people to stop leaking, and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) later asked Jeffries to find the leakers.

https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/1324448214779600896

The call, which was reportedly over three hours long, placed the infighting within the Democratic caucus at center stage at a time when the Democrats have performed more poorly than they expected in House races. 

One of the most significant moments in the call was Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger ripping into the  “defund the police” and “socialism” sloganeering wing of the Democratic party for costing them congressional seats in the 2020 election. Audio provided to The Washington Post captured Spanberger’s frustrations: 

The number one concern that people brought to me, in my [inaudible] was defunding the police. And I heard from colleagues who 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 a way where we mean what we’re talking about. If we don’t mean we should defund the police, we shouldn’t say that….

And we need to not ever use the word ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again, because while people think it doesn’t matter, it does matter, and we lost good members because of that….

And if we are classifying Tuesday as a success from a congressional standpoint, we will get f****** torn apart in 2022.

Spanberger, too, concluded her rant with a request that other people on the phone call not leak her remarks to the media. 

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1324449936625324037

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) reportedly took issue with such concerns, and at one point pulled the race card: “To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want.” It’s not clear to whom Tlaib’s remarks were directed. 

Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA), on the other hand, reportedly agreed with Spanberger’s remarks about professionalism, prompting backlash from Tlaib on Twitter.

“It’s unrealistic and unprofessional to be okay with people dying because air pollution is causing cancer in their communities. It’s unrealistic and unprofessional to look away while Black folks get gunned down in the streets by police,” tweeted Tlaib.

https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1324543869141327872

During the call, Rep. Debbie Murcasel-Powell (D-FL), who recently lost her re-election bid, reportedly pleaded for Twitter fighting to end and also started crying. 

https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/1324444578301333506

According to Politico, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the House majority whip who played an instrumental role in reviving Joe Biden’s flailing primary campaign, agreed with concerns from the more moderate Democrats in the party about rhetoric.

Running on “Medicare for All, defund the police, socialized medicine,” he warned, would put future elections in jeopardy.