Anderson Cooper Grills Jayapal on Democrats’ Election Losses: ‘Do You Take Any Blame in This?’

Anderson Cooper interrogated Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on Wednesday night and asked whether she bears some responsibility for Democrats losing Virginia’s governorship.

Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe as a pair of spending bills were slowly making their way through Congress. In August, the Senate passed a bipartisan infrastructure package that is waiting to be taken up by the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had originally said she wouldn’t bring it to the floor until the Senate had also passed a separate reconciliation bill containing Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.

Pelosi then reversed course and said she’d bring the bill to a vote, but Jayapal’s caucus said they would withhold their votes until the had assurances the Senate would pass the reconciliation legislation. That caused some delays, though now Jayapal and her caucus say they trust Biden will work with the Senate to get a deal.

Some pundits have suggested the inability of Democrats to pass these bills before election night this year cost Democrats.

“You saw what happened last night,” Cooper said to Jayapal. “Do you take any blame in this?

Jayapal didn’t answer and instead chose to tout the president’s agenda.

“I think the whole issue that we see from voters last night is people do need help from us,” she said. “And that’s what we’ve been working to do with the president’s Build Back Better agenda. It is really transformational.”

“Right, but you’re saying people last night were saying that they need help,” Cooper noted. “Doesn’t seem like they’re asking you – progressive Democrats – for help. It seems like they’re asking now Republicans for help.”

He added, “Republicans did well last night.”

“They did,” admitted Jayapal. “And I think part of that is, you know, look, we have to pay attention to local politics. And I think that Democrats are the party of parents, not Republicans. We are the ones that are looking to pass child–universal childcare, universal pre-k, cut prescription drug costs. And as soon as we get that done, I think people will see that. And we’ll be able to, you know, really show people that we have their backs. The timing of this is obviously awkward.”

She added, “This doesn’t mean anything for the midterms.”

“You don’t think this means anything for the midterms?”

“Well, I just think we have to take it seriously,” she replied. “But it shouldn’t be projected to be a loss for the midterms. What we have to do is turn the ship by passing these two bills, and I think there’s increased urgency to do just that.”

Watch above via CNN.

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