Not it: Democrats dodge blame for stalled agenda as McAuliffe teeters

The idea that liberals would be to blame if McAuliffe loses to Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin, particularly given the array of other issues that animated his race, didn’t fly with leaders on the left.

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“I’ve watched all the attack ads on Terry McAuliffe and not a single one has talked about the [infrastructure bill] not passing. They’ve all been about other things,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told reporters, echoing a sentiment repeated by most other House progressives on Monday.

House progressives argue that their shift in stance has much less to do with the Virginia election than with the fact that Democratic leaders released long-awaited legislative text — though they did that before the yanked infrastructure vote — and began moving toward consideration of both of Biden’s priorities this week.

But several Democrats from other corners of the caucus privately expressed their fury toward progressives Monday night after POLITICO reported Jayapal helped derail their leadership’s infrastructure vote strategy last week. What many hoped would be an opportunity to change the narrative going into the weekend instead resulted in a cascade of coverage about how Democrats can’t agree.

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