Democrats vent on crime and the border at postmortem session

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sat quietly alongside his two deputies as several of his fellow Democrats spoke up to give their own reason for the party’s tough loss last week, according to two people in the room.

In the Democrats’ first postmortem “listening sessions,” Jeffries heard from multiple lawmakers who said the party failed to address issues like border security and crime.

That included Democrats like Reps. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Susie Lee of Nevada, Henry Cuellar of Texas and Scott Peters of California.

“Washington language doesn’t work,” Cuellar told Democrats, according to a person in the room.

While Democrats did attempt to make a border deal with Republicans earlier this Congress, he said it happened far too late.

Cuellar’s district contains a large swath of the US-Mexico border. One of his most populous counties, which sits along the border, went Republican this election cycle for the first time in 100 years.

Although the results from a handful of races are still outstanding, Republicans retained their majority in the House by winning at least 218 seats in last week’s election.