House Democrats are furious that an incoming freshman’s expletive-riddled statement about impeaching Donald Trump has suddenly upended their carefully crafted rhetoric on their plans to take on the president.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats have long argued that impeachment is a last resort that would come at the end of exhaustive oversight and investigations. But on the second day of the new Congress, the news was jammed with talk of Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who told a crowd of progressive activists Thursday night that “we’re gonna impeach the motherf—er.”

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Rank-and-file Democrats, immediately fearful of the damage the comment could cause, unloaded on their new colleague Friday morning. Republicans, they argued, would hold it up as proof that Democrats were playing politics rather than pursuing genuine oversight of the president — even if the GOP never showed interest in investigating Trump scandals while they were in power.

“Mueller hasn’t even produced his report yet!” said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. “People should cool their jets a little bit, let the prosecutors do their job and finish the investigation.”

“Inappropriate,” added Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.). “As elected officials I think we should be expected to set a high bar… It’s not helpful.”

Even California Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, who introduced an impeachment resolution earlier this week, was shocked. His eyes bulged in disbelief when a reporter read him Tlaib’s comments and he was speechless for several seconds.

After he regained his composure, Sherman said that kind of language was detrimental to the cause: “That’s not language I would use…I think the office of the presidency should be treated with respect.”

Party elders also sought to calm talk of impeachment without criticizing Tlaib directly. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the new chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, called Talib’s comments “inappropriate” and said, “We need to be patient.”

“You can’t accomplish very much of anything unless you have civility and show respect for your colleagues,” Cummings said. “Those kind of comments do not take us in the right direction.”

Pelosi said while she didn’t agree with the language, she also didn’t think anyone “should make a big deal” about the expletive, noting the president is also known for having a foul mouth sometimes.

“I’m not in the censorship business. I don’t like that language, I wouldn’t use that language, but I wouldn’t establish language standards for my colleagues,” Pelosi said during an MSNBC town hall Friday morning.

She added that impeachment is “very divisive“ and shouldn’t be taken “without the facts.”

Meanwhile, Republicans were already seizing on the comment to accuse Democrats of showing their true goal — removing Trump from office.

Fox News, Trump’s TV network of choice, played the video of Tlaib’s comments over and over Friday morning. And Republicans were positively salivating at the notion of using the clip to repel accusations from House Democrats in any future impeachment fight.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) launched into an attack on both Pelosi and Tlaib for the episode, calling on the new speaker to get Tlaib in line.

“[Pelosi] is the speaker of the House. She is also the head of the Democratic Party. She has a new freshman who uses that type of language, who has a determination what she’s gonna do with no facts or no basis,” McCarthy told reporters at an impromptu press conference just off the House floor. “How do you work with anybody if this is what they really have planned?”

McCarthy shrugged off questions about Trump’s own long history of incendiary language, saying “That action should not stand.”

Tlaib would not answer reporters’ shouted questions Friday morning as she exited a closed-door caucus meeting. But her office didn’t back down on her remarks in a tweeted statement Friday.

“Congresswoman Tlaib was elected to shake up Washington, not continue the status quo,” the statement said. “Donald Trump is completely unfit to serve as president. The congresswoman absolutely believes he needs to be impeached.”

The matter did not come up in House Democrats’ caucus meeting, sources in the room said. But multiple House Democrats said they hoped Pelosi or one of her top deputies would have a “chat” with Tlaib.

Debbie Dingell, a fellow Michigander who is close with Tlaib, also tied to downplay the issue Friday.

“She’s one member. We’re a large caucus,” she said.

Others just expressed shock. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a pastor, cried out “Jeez, no!” he said when told of her comments. “Oh lord.”

Costa argued that impeachment is not and should never be House Democrats’ “first and foremost priority.”

“The Mueller probe has to take its course, and when that’s complete, the House committees will do the appropriate oversight and we’ll determine whether or not there are justifications to move forward,” he said.

That’s the line Pelosi has been giving all year, dismissing the notion of impeaching Trump and focusing instead on Democratic policies like health care and infrastructure — a strategy that helped lead to a 40-seat midterm romp.

Democrats are acutely aware that Republicans will try to spin anything they do as “presidential harassment,” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump have already dubbed it. They also know Republicans paid a political price when they impeached former President Bill Clinton on a partisan basis — and they want to avoid the same fate, especially as they look toward 2020.

Kind, echoing many Democrats, told POLITICO that impeachment has to be bipartisan, though many other House Democrats disagree.

In the meantime, House Democrats largely do agree on one thing: comment’s like Tlaib’s aren’t helpful.

Congressional leaders are returning to the White House Friday to try to jump-start negotiations to reopen the government, but there’s little movement toward a solution.

President Donald Trump will sit down with top leaders in both parties just two days after their last unproductive session in the Situation Room, but with a big shift in the power dynamic — a newly emboldened Speaker Nancy Pelosi who now officially controls the House.

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In their first votes as a new majority, Democrats passed a bill to reopen nine shuttered agencies Thursday night and will only pay for fencing at its current level of $1.3 billion, but GOP leaders are expected to formally reject it without offering a way out of the 14-day impasse.

With more than 800,000 federal workers feeling the effects of the shutdown and at least two Republican senators breaking with their party over the shutdown, some lawmakers have signaled a new sense of urgency to end the shutdown. Yet a deal remains out of reach, however, as neither party has signaled that they’re willing to seriously resume dealmaking, which has been stalled since before Christmas over additional funding for Trump’s border wall.

“Funding for border security is a better outcome than persisting in this partial government shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday morning. “I would hope that this time around, my friends across the aisle will come prepared to engage much more seriously on the issue at hand.”

“We’re not doing the wall. Does anybody have any doubt? We’re not doing the wall,” Pelosi declared to reporters Thursday evening.

She also blasted Trump for continually moving his targets: “Now they’re saying $5.6 billion … Understand this — you can’t have an agreement that people are going to walk away from.”

Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday also told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that the administration is considering a deal that may involve Dreamers, the children of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States.

“There’s a lot of people talking about a lot of different ideas,” he said. “Frankly, the better part of a year ago, the president expressed a willingness to deal with the issue of Dreamers in a compassionate way so people who were brought here as children, through no fault of their own — he’s discussed that. It’s being talked about.”

But Freedom Caucus member Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told reporters Friday that no “amnesty” deal with Dreamers is being seriously considered.

Top Democrats have also so far resisted such proposals. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, No. 4 in House Democratic leadership, dismissed the idea of a DACA-border wall trade off.

“The President needs to understand that DACA and Dreamers are not part of the wall,” Lujan said in an interview. “I don’t support one more penny for this president’s wall. I don’t believe that the two need to be tied to one another.”

Republicans continue to pin the blame on Democrats for refusing to negotiate on the wall funding, even as Trump himself moves in the other direction.

“There are a lot of ideas that we could ultimately work through to get this government back open, but it’s got to start with securing the border. At some point we’re going to have to have an honest negotiation,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in a brief interview Thursday night.

When asked if more fencing needed to be part of that deal, Scalise replied: “Fencing is part of any honest plan to secure the border.”

GOP lawmakers privately say that Democrats — who have proudly been the anti-shutdown party for years — will be forced to cave if there is no deal for several more weeks. They also say Pelosi’s ascension to the speaker’s chair on Thursday will make her more amenable to a deal, that would have otherwise drawn flak from her party’s progressive flank.

But House Democrats insist that they aren’t budging, and say it’s up to Republicans leaders in the White House and in the Capitol to soften their demands.

“What’s going to have to happen is that some Republicans in the Senate provide a reality check to the president. We’ve tried to make it easy, but I have no idea when they’ll do it — or if they’ll do it,” said long-time Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), who oversees a funding bill that has been held up in the stalemate.

Senate GOP leaders have said they will not take up the Democrats’ funding plan, which the White House has formally threatened to veto. McConnell has attempted to remove himself from the fray altogether, saying it is up to Trump and congressional Democrats to end their stalemate.

Democratic leaders have not publicly announced their next steps after Thursday night’s funding votes. Some lawmakers have suggested the House could decide to keep sending funding bills to the Senate throughout the entirety of the shutdown — just as Republicans did in 2013 during an Obamacare funding face-off.

With no clear plan, both chambers intend to adjourn for the weekend, just days into the new Congress and two weeks into a shutdown.

Price said Democrats will “keep trying to reopen the government,” though he doesn’t know if Democrats will want to waste time with multitudes of bills that the Senate won’t take up.

“It may be what we end up doing. That depends on the Senate not on us. We’re not looking to just constantly send bills, we don’t enjoy exercises in futility. But what are we supposed to do?” Price said.

Burgess Everett and Heather Caygle contributed to this story.