Democratic leaders struggle to define the party, way forward after Harris loss: 'No coherent message'

"The policies that we support and the message that we have is not wrong," Martin told the NYT. "It is a messaging problem and a brand problem. Those voters are not connecting our policies with their lives."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the messaging should focus on the economy.

"There are people in the middle - and trust me, there's a lot of them - that wanted costs to go down," Klobuchar said. "Instead, what they see is chaos going up, corruption going up with the firing of the inspector generals, and guess what else is going up? Egg prices."

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., said Democrats needed to focus their message on lowering costs.

"Within the party, we need to make sure we have a very clear direction to go," he said. "We need to have our own ideas. We'll never win again if we are just playing defense."

The New York Times reported that former President Obama compared this to when the Democratic Party had lost Congress and the presidency in 2005.

Others suggested not honing in on everything the president said.

"We cannot get caught up in every egregious thing he says, every insult he hurls, every ally he attacks and every executive order," Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, told the NYT. "There's just too much."

"Right now, we're going to keep focus on the need to look out for everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans who are under assault by an extreme MAGA Republican agenda that is trying to cut taxes for billionaires, donors, and wealthy corporations and then stick New Yorkers and working class Americans across the country with the bill," Jeffries said.

"That's not acceptable. We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We're going to fight it in the streets."