CNN’s Manu Raju was asking around the Capitol to see how Republicans were feeling after a rough night for them in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia, finding few of them particularly confident or happy with the results ahead of next November’s apocalyptic battle between MAGA and democracy.

“We have to have a compelling message that appeals to suburban voters, no question about that. I think that’s economy, jobs, cost of living, public safety, the border. I think those are the issues that are going to resonate,” Republican Senate Whip John Thune told Raju, as if Glenn Youngkin and Daniel Cameron weren’t trying to make those very issues “resonate” in their respective states.

“I think it’s about execution, it’s about messaging, and we’ve got to do a better job. Yesterday, to me, it was a complete failure. These were races that Democrats didn’t win – Republicans lost, we didn’t show up, same way we didn’t show up in Georgia in 2020,” said North Carolinian Thom Tillis.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson followed up on his non-comment to Raju on the massive Ohio abortion referendum defeat from Tuesday night by not commenting about it on Wednesday either.

“There’s a big difference in running on state issues, and these were all state elections, and running on federal policies, defending Joe Biden,” said NRSC chief Steve Daines, trying to downplay it like he wouldn’t be all “SCREAM AT THE SKY LIBS! LMAO!” if it was a good night for the GOP.