Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats will have a “family conversation” to “figure out what happened on election night”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday that Democrats will in the weeks and months ahead engage in post-election analysis following bruising outcomes for the party last week, as Republicans will take control of the White House, Senate and possibly even the House.  

“We’re going to have a family conversation that needs to be clear-eyed, candid and comprehensive to figure out what happened on election night,” Jeffries said on “CBS Mornings.”

The New York Democrat acknowledged that “the American people have spoken,” saying the party has to to “work with the incoming administration whenever and wherever possible, and strongly disagree when necessary, and that’s going to be the approach that we take.”

The comments come as Republicans appear poised to hold onto their narrow majority in the House, with just a few seats to go. CBS News characterizes the House as leaning toward Republicans. 

Democrats had hoped to flip the House this cycle, going on to elect Jeffries as the first Black speaker in history after he succeeded Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi at the party’s helm in the lower chamber. 

Meanwhile, Republicans flipped the Senate in a key victory for the incoming Trump administration, serving as a partner in passing his agenda and confirming his nominations. 

Jeffries said Congress needs to focus on tackling the issues that matter to Americans, including lowering costs and improving peoples’ quality of life, saying “there are times to campaign and engage in the political process,” but “that time has come to an end.” Now, he said, the focus should be on solving problems for Americans. 

“America’s a resilient nation, and so we’re going to get through this political moment and continue to be the greatest country, in my view, in the history of the world,” he said. “But we have problems that we have to solve.”

While Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton said following the Democratic losses that the party spends “way too much time trying not to offend anyone” and called for a new approach from the party on the transgender issues, Jeffries said Tuesday that he “didn’t want to get ahead of the conversations we’re going to have collectively.” 

“There are 435 members of the House of Representatives, which means at the end of the day, that means there are 435 independent contractors who, at the end of the day, are most accountable — and should be —to the communities they represent,” Jeffries said. “We’ll have a responsibility as House Democrats to have that conversation about how to move forward.”