{"id":38778,"date":"2026-05-22T04:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/?p=38778"},"modified":"2026-05-22T04:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:48:10","slug":"pressure-on-dnc-chair-ken-martin-builds-amid-questions-over-how-he-handled-the-2024-autopsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/?p=38778","title":{"rendered":"Pressure on DNC Chair Ken Martin builds amid questions over how he handled the 2024 autopsy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-fe2d1d\" class=\"body-graf\">The Democratic National Committee plunged into a fresh round of chaos Thursday after Chair Ken Martin was forced to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/dnc-releases-2024-autopsy-chair-apologizing-creating-even-bigger-distr-rcna345963\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">release an autopsy report<\/a> he commissioned about the failed 2024 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<p><button class=\"styles_subscriptionCTA__LOUeY\" id=\"subscriptionCTA\" type=\"button\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"styles_textWrapper__vxvko\">\n<p class=\"styles_text__daaVB styles_textLarge__qlzwu\">Subscribe to read this story ad-free    <\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__daaVB\">Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/rockcms\/2026-01\/arrow-f55fa5.svg\" alt=\"arrow\" class=\"styles_arrow__tnruW\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/button><\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-7b6be7\" class=\"body-graf\">Instead of quelling speculation about the findings and outrage over Martin\u2019s initial insistence on keeping it secret, the release aggravated an extended public relations and management nightmare. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-daef27\" class=\"body-graf\">After months refusing to make the autopsy public but saying the DNC was learning important lessons from it, Martin on Thursday gave a different story: Actually, he said, the report wasn\u2019t complete, and he didn\u2019t stand behind it. The document that was released was filled with DNC annotations rebutting various assertions. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d8fe2d\" class=\"body-graf\">Now, jittery donors are second-guessing whether they can trust the DNC with their money, according to two sources with knowledge of internal discussions. Martin spent part of the day on the phone talking through his decision-making. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-3707ce\" class=\"body-graf\">Progressive groups are apoplectic that the report released Thursday does not even mention Gaza, even though DNC officials interviewed pro-Palestinian groups.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ef47e5\" class=\"body-graf\">And some of Martin\u2019s chief critics are calling on him to step down. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ee4be8\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThis is an unmitigated s&#8212;show,\u201d Steve Schale, a veteran Democratic strategist, said of the events as they unfolded. \u201cThere\u2019s just no confidence in the competence in the DNC.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-1e6c22\" class=\"body-graf\">The question now, Schale said, is whether DNC members will do anything about it. There is no mechanism for party members to remove a DNC chair. But they can take part in a no-confidence vote. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-11ca0d\" class=\"body-graf\">In a staff call Thursday, Martin indirectly addressed pressure to step aside. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-04e313\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThis was a major mistake,\u201d he said in a staff-only call, according to a person familiar with the call. \u201cI own it, and now it\u2019s time for us to move forward at the DNC, and I hope that you\u2019ll move forward with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-1e74dc\" class=\"body-graf\">But Martin only ushered in a fresh round of invective with his reasoning for keeping it under wraps. He had tapped a longtime friend, Paul Rivera, whom he knew for more than two decades, to produce the report. Rivera, who could not be reached for comment, had not been paid to do the work. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8a3841\" class=\"body-graf\">Martin said the DNC didn\u2019t receive source material from Rivera\u2019s review. A person<strong> <\/strong>with knowledge of what happened said that the DNC had demanded but never received a list of people who were interviewed and that the committee never received transcripts or notes of interviews, either, despite multiple requests.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"anchor-3b4275\" class=\"body-heading\">Before the release <\/h2>\n<p id=\"anchor-25cbac\" class=\"body-graf\">But amid Martin\u2019s shifting public story about the autopsy, his behind-the-scenes interactions with Rivera belied some of those explanations. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-59b31f\" class=\"body-graf\">Rivera had recently sat in on senior-level meetings at the committee, and he had been inside the DNC building talking to Martin in the months after Martin decided in December to keep the autopsy secret, according to two sources.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-5793c4\" class=\"body-graf\">The DNC didn\u2019t immediately provide comment about Rivera\u2019s continued involvement, nor did it say when it cut ties with Rivera. In a call with DNC members Thursday, Martin said Rivera was no longer with \u201cor advises the DNC in any capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-369d6c\" class=\"body-graf\">At a meeting of the DNC\u2019s national finance committee in Middleburg, Virginia, last fall, Martin introduced Rivera and sang his praises. Rivera presented slides about the report\u2019s findings. Those with knowledge of the event said there was no indication that the report wouldn\u2019t eventually be released.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0e5fa4\" class=\"body-graf\">A source with knowledge of the situation said Martin didn\u2019t see major sections of the report until shortly before Christmas. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-341296\" class=\"body-graf\">The shifting stances on the autopsy only brought more intense skepticism from those looking for answers about how the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 stance on Israel\u2019s war with Hamas in Gaza played in her election loss.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-04d8bc\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThe party has a leadership crisis. I think the base is way ahead of the party leaders,\u201d said Norm Solomon, a co-founder of RootsAction, which pushed for the report\u2019s release. \u201cPart of the challenge is it\u2019s easier to change one leader than it is to change the culture of a party.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ccde62\" class=\"body-graf\">Solomon said the situation is a \u201creplica of how we got so screwed up with the Biden 2024 campaign. People who knew better privately wouldn\u2019t say out loud what they knew. They deferred to people at the top. Since then, in this process of the autopsy, people deferred to Ken Martin and allowed him to string us along.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-116adc\" class=\"body-graf\">The Institute for Middle East Understanding called for additional transparency, saying the author of the autopsy report previously told members about research on the role Gaza played in the 2024 election.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-db83d0\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cKen Martin should release the information that the author of the autopsy told us clearly and unambiguously, which is that DNC officials\u2019 review of their own data found Biden\u2019s support for Israel to be a net-negative for Democrats in 2024,\u201d Executive Director Margaret DeReus said in a statement. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0bd96b\" class=\"body-graf\">Not everyone was upset with Martin, and Martin allies say the issue isn\u2019t one that average Americans care about, even as Beltway types and the media are consumed. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6b602b\" class=\"body-graf\">Former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison on Thursday lamented the amount of energy and distraction the report had stirred within the party and criticized people for not directing that energy toward protesting the Supreme Court\u2019s recent decision weakening the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-b6ea4a\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cYou go into Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina right now and you ask: \u2018What is on your top 10 priority list?\u2019 And I can tell you that the DNC report is not on it,\u201d Harrison said in an interview Thursday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8364a7\" class=\"body-graf\">One donor who spoke with Martin on Thursday credited him for his work and said she had faith in his leadership. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-33dc64\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cWhat\u2019s really important from my perspective is certainly that, yes, we lost in 2024 by a narrow margin. But the side of the story that\u2019s not out there as much is that we\u2019re overperforming,\u201d said Ursula Terrasi, a donor from Kansas City, Missouri. \u201cIn some unlikely districts, we have had stunning wins. So we\u2019re coordinating, he\u2019s coordinating, he\u2019s helping the states. We have to win legislative elections in the states, and he\u2019s doing the right things, and most people are agreeing with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-9b2bc9\" class=\"body-graf\">Vinod Thomas, a DNC member from North Carolina, pointed to some of the takeaways in the autopsy.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-124adf\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThe ironic part about the report is that the contents of the report validates what Ken has been saying we need to do: Rather than investing in year-round organizing and voter contact<strong>,<\/strong> they spent too much money on last-minute media blitzes,\u201d Thomas said. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"anchor-827d74\" class=\"body-heading\">Constant pressure<\/h2>\n<p id=\"anchor-f08140\" class=\"body-graf\">The current episode is the latest flash point for a DNC that has been under pressure constantly since Martin took the helm almost 16 months ago. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-105a58\" class=\"body-graf\">Democrats made gains around the country in important 2025 races and have overperformed in key special elections as President Donald Trump\u2019s approval rating and voter frustration with the economy play into their hands. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-067360\" class=\"body-graf\">But Martin\u2019s tenure has been plagued by a spate of bad headlines, including his intraparty spat with Gen Z activist David Hogg and repeated questions about the Republican National Committee\u2019s massive cash advantage over the Democrats \u2014 $124 million to $14 million in the bank at the end of last month, per the latest campaign finance filings. Meanwhile, the DNC\u2019s debt is bigger than its cash reserves.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6f2e42\" class=\"body-graf\">The debate over the autopsy report has been a durable thorn in Martin\u2019s side, too. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-4116ee\" class=\"body-graf\">Mere hours after he was elected to lead the DNC in February 2025, Martin spoke about how important it was to conduct<strong> <\/strong>a full-scale audit of what went wrong in 2024<strong>,<\/strong> and<strong> <\/strong>he pledged to release the report to the public, chiding past party leaders for not having done so after the party\u2019s 2016 presidential loss. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e13ac5\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThere was a postelection review done many years ago, right after the \u201916 election, right? And that was never released. The DNC spent a lot of time and money on it, and it wasn\u2019t even released to the DNC members. So what happened with that, right? Was there any utility in doing that?\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-7c3970\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cOf course it will be released, right? It will be released to our members, and we all have to learn from that,\u201d Martin continued. \u201cThere has to be some lessons that we bring on so that we can operationalize it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-25d75f\" class=\"body-graf\">Then came the about-face in December.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2b9e26\" class=\"body-graf\">While the party \u201ccompleted a comprehensive review of what happened in 2024 and are already putting our learnings into motion,\u201d Martin said in a statement then, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/elections\/dnc-will-not-release-report-went-wrong-democrats-2024-rcna249925\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the DNC wouldn\u2019t release it<\/a> to avoid distracting Democrats from looking forward.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-4b90c7\" class=\"body-graf\">At the time, a DNC official told NBC News the review included hundreds of interviews, specific lessons and details about how the party needed to be more responsive to voters\u2019 concerns. Neither Martin nor the official raised any public concerns about the quality of the report in their possession. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2ab905\" class=\"body-graf\">Nor did Martin give any indication he lacked faith in the report in an interview on \u201cPod Save America,\u201d the liberal podcast hosted by Obama campaign veterans, late last month.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e8ae58\" class=\"body-graf\">Martin took a different tone <a href=\"https:\/\/blueprint.democrats.org\/p\/a-message-from-dnc-chair-ken-martin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thursday on Substack<\/a>, where he wrote that \u201cwhen I received the report late last year, it wasn\u2019t ready for primetime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-1ef3cd\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cI am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won\u2019t meet your standards. I don\u2019t endorse what\u2019s in this report, or what\u2019s left out of it. I could not in good faith put the DNC\u2019s stamp of approval on it,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut transparency is paramount. So, today I am releasing the report as I received it \u2014 in its entirety, unedited and unabridged \u2014 with annotations for claims that couldn\u2019t be verified.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-679c28\" class=\"body-graf\">Devin Remiker, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, told NBC News that while he gets Martin\u2019s criticism of a report that\u2019s \u201cincomplete and riddled with mistakes,\u201d the entire situation was \u201cdisappointing on several fronts.\u201d Democrats, he said, missed their opportunity to do the full review of 2024 that so many wanted. And it\u2019s hard to know what may be salvageable from the report for Democrats hoping that work could lead to meaningful improvement in future campaigns.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-59de87\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cOne of the reasons the Democratic Party\u2019s brand is in the absolute toilet right now is that even Democrats don\u2019t believe in the Democratic Party writ large,\u201d Remiker said, adding that the autopsy episode wouldn\u2019t help. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2a9b3c\" class=\"body-graf\">Asked multiple times whether he had confidence in Martin to remain as chair to repair that trust, Remiker didn\u2019t say either way \u2014 but he did<strong> <\/strong>call for the party to stay unified in an important election year.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d497a8\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">\u201cI don\u2019t spend my days thinking about whether or not Ken Martin should stay on or resign,\u201d Remiker said. \u201cI\u2019m pleased that he released the autopsy, finally. And I hope this is a reflection point for him to be able to find ways to improve. Because as far as I know, he\u2019s going to be chair through this midterm election and I want all of us to be successful \u2014 him in the DNC, states around the country, candidates for office up and down the ballot. But we can only do that if we trust each other, if we are united.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/pressure-dnc-chair-ken-martin-builds-questions-handled-2024-autopsy-rcna346413\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic National Committee plunged into a fresh round of chaos Thursday after Chair Ken Martin was forced to release an autopsy report he commissioned about the failed 2024 presidential campaign. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Instead of quelling speculation about the findings and outrage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-conditions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38780,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38778\/revisions\/38780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}