The Autopsy!

Starting to read through this... for the life of me I don’t understand why all of this wasn’t released last year when it would have caused a brief stir and then disappeared…

The release was an extraordinary turn of events after the party’s chairman, Ken Martin, had disparaged the document as incomplete and inaccurate. Its publication refocused attention on old wounds and lingering divisions within the party at a moment President Trump faces sinking poll numbers and Democrats hope to win control of Congress in the midterm elections.

The draft report, which is disorganized and leaves empty entire sections, blames both the Biden and Harris campaigns for failing to successfully drive a negative view of Mr. Trump. But it otherwise offers only vague or limited conclusions about the party’s failings.

Mr. Martin had tapped a longtime ally, Paul Rivera, to oversee the creation of the autopsy. But Mr. Rivera’s final product was “wasn’t ready for prime time. Not even close,” Mr. Martin wrote on Thursday. Atop each of the document’s 192 pages is a bright red disclaimer that the D.N.C. “was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein.” (Mr. Rivera declined to comment.)

There is not a single mention of Mr. Biden’s age, a regular concern of voters and Democratic officials throughout his presidency, nor of Israel and Gaza, an issue that dogged Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris in 2024 and has since fractured the party.

Still, it does include a number of revelations, including the conclusions of pollsters who found that a Trump ad attacking Ms. Harris for expressing support for taxpayer-funded surgery for transgender inmates had been highly effective.

I, for one, absolutely lack confidence in Ken Martin:

Mr. Martin has proved to be a laggard fund-raiser and spent the last six months engaged in a public-relations nightmare over his initial refusal to release the party’s report on why it lost the 2024 presidential election.

And yet the Minnesotan retains loyal defenders among the D.N.C. members who elected him last year. His allies credit him for sending monthly stipends to every state Democratic Party — including those in far-flung territories like Guam and American Samoa — in the name of building a broader infrastructure, even if it places less focus on the next presidential election.

“I have great confidence in Ken Martin,” said Ray Buckley, the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. “Not being part of the D.C. establishment is a blessing and a curse. While it provides real-world, on-the-ground experience, it causes the D.C. elite to feel threatened by someone challenging their control over all aspects of the party.”

Many of Mr. Martin’s supporters on Thursday argued that the anger toward the chairman was rooted in a donor class that opposed his campaign to lead the party. When Mr. Martin ran, he was openly critical of many of the largest donors in Democratic politics — many of whom have since refused to donate to the D.N.C. under his leadership.

“He’s a chair of the people, not the millionaire and billionaire class that are still mad that Ken won,” said Ronald Kaminski, the vice chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

Ok but this is just ugly:

The draft report’s release comes on the heels of another brutal fund-raising report for the Democratic National Committee. The party entered May with $17.5 million in debts and just $14.4 million cash on hand. In contrast, the Republican National Committee reported $123.9 million on hand — and no debts.

For all the handwringing about the 2024 report, many Democrats are most worried about the party’s financial condition now and into 2028.