House Democrats in session after session at their retreat to Baltimore this week tried to project that the sting of losing the 2016 presidential election and hurt feelings from an unpleasant caucus leadership race had all passed.
The real story, however, is a little messier, Politico reported Thursday night.
Below is a list of quotes from House Democratic Caucus members and their aides that show the party is far from over the loss to President Donald Trump in November.
"We need to stop doing the autopsies, stop doing all this metric data stuff and listen to the visionary voices," Rep. Ro Khann (Calif.) told Politico.
"One of the things we have to do is stop listening to the consultants who continue to lose," Rep. Marcia Fudge (Ohio) said. "I think at some point we have to listen to the people who win."
"We need to be really careful about convincing ourselves that the right answer is to have 'the perfect message,'" Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.) said.
"I think this whole economic message thing is real overblown, and I don't think it's accurate. We have been losing blue-collar workers for years–20 plus years," Fudge said.
"[The] problem is that it was such an ass-kicking up and down the ballot that no one knows who is right anymore," an unnamed House Democratic aide said of the 2016 elections.