Others were blunter.

“I was certainly glad to see Bernie crash and burn,” said Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), who supported Mike Bloomberg before the former New York mayor dropped out of the race on Wednesday morning. “Bernie was much weaker everywhere than what people said.”

Most members of House leadership have declared themselves neutral in the primary contest and tried to maintain that veneer leaving a private caucus meeting Wednesday. But it was clear they too were feeling a sense of relief after Biden’s strong showing on Tuesday.

“We’ll see. We have some more races to go,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said when asked whether Biden’s turnaround will stick. “Before we were saying whoever the nominee is, we will madly embrace. Since the coronavirus, I’m saying whoever the nominee is we will enthusiastically elbow bump.”

In recent weeks, Pelosi has heard concerns from her most vulnerable members about the possibility that a Sanders nomination would threaten their seats, many in Republican-leaning districts.

Both publicly and privately, Pelosi has tried to put some distance between House Democrats and Sanders’ most controversial proposals like “Medicare for All” — declaring that her caucus will have its own election agenda, no matter who wins the nomination.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who said last week he was “aggressively neutral” in the contest, called Biden’s Super Tuesday romp “an old-fashioned beat down to the hard left.”

Sanders’ supporters, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), pointed out that their candidate ended the night with a resounding victory in California, which carries the largest delegate haul.

“Of course we would have wished for a better result last night, but let’s not forget that Bernie Sanders still won the largest prize of the night,” said Jayapal, who is one of nine congressional Democrats to have endorsed Sanders. “This is going to be a hot race until the end.”

“Look, three weeks ago, people were counting out Joe Biden, and here we are,” Jayapal added.

Still, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), another Sanders supporter, said, "Anyone who's diminishing Joe's last 72 hours is making a mistake."

Several other Democrats who either don’t back Sanders or haven’t endorsed a candidate were also preaching caution about declaring Biden the nominee now. Both he and Sanders are still nearly tied for delegates won and there are several more pivotal contests to go.

“Just as it was premature to write off Joe Biden in the aftermath of Iowa and New Hampshire, it would be premature to write off Bernie Sanders in the aftermath of Super Tuesday,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries and other Democrats credited House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn — who gave a forceful endorsement of Biden ahead of the South Carolina primary and warned of “down-ballot carnage” if Sanders were tapped to take on President Donald Trump — as the turning point to Biden’s miraculous comeback.

It was that moment, Biden’s victory in South Carolina, that marked the beginning of the broad coalescing of Democratic moderates behind the former vice president.

For weeks, centrist Democrats in Congress were split over their preferred nominee, even as they vocally warned against Sanders atop the ticket.

But within 48 hours of the results in South Carolina, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) had dropped out and endorsed Biden. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who dropped out of the contest months ago, followed soon after, as did former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democratic heavyweights.

“I think people were pretty stunned by the depth and speed of it,” Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) said of the Democratic establishment unifying behind Biden.

Kuster — who had campaigned for Buttigieg in Massachusetts and Maine over the past week before he dropped out — was planning to formally endorse Biden later Tuesday. The New Hampshire Democrat added that Biden’s strong performance in both states was due, in part, to Buttigeig’s strong performance in the region.

“One thing about Pete’s supporters, they were very disciplined. When he said, ‘I’m Team Pete for Joe,’ we all went Team Pete for Joe. That was the plan,” Kuster said.

Democrats who have endorsed other candidates — including Bloomberg, who pitched himself as a centrist alternative to Biden — are expected to formally rally behind Biden within days, if not hours. Biden now counts more than 60 endorsements from House and Senate Democrats, according to a tally by POLITICO.

Democrats say their quick pivot to Biden is the opposite of the GOP’s scenario in 2016, when a crowded primary field failed to halt Trump’s rise.

Biden’s performance Tuesday prompted “a collective sigh of relief” in the Democratic Caucus, said Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.), a former Buttigieg backer.

“The new members of Congress who made the majority are overwhelmingly moderate Democrats,” Brown added. “Many of them have endorsed Biden. Most of them recognize that Sanders puts their reelection at greater risk.”

