Ro Khanna cites 50,000-word DNC autopsy after Thursday release

ro khanna and other Democrats now have the party’s 2024 election autopsy after the Democratic National Committee released it on Thursday. Ken Martin, the DNC chair, said, "I don’t endorse what’s in this report." The document had been withheld for months while the party said it did not want a distraction.

Ken Martin and the DNC

Martin said that when he received the report late last year, it was not ready for primetime. He said that without source material, fixing it would have meant starting over, from the beginning. That explanation came as the DNC made the report public after months of keeping it back.

Every page carries a red disclaimer saying "this document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC" and that the DNC "cannot independently verify the claims presented." The autopsy runs close to 50,000 words, yet it does not address Gaza or the Biden-to-Harris transition.

and

described the autopsy as disorganized and said it leaves empty entire sections. It also said the report veers into political clichés and hard-to-follow explanations. A analysis said the autopsy contains lots of errors and curious inclusions.

The report focuses much of its attention on ad buys and fundraising instead of addressing why so many voters in 2024 were uninspired by the Democratic ticket. It also does not substantively address why so many disaffected voters, particularly young voters, turned away and refused to turn out. The word Gaza does not appear in the autopsy, and the words Palestinians and Israel were absent from the excerpt described in the article.

Jon Favreau’s critique

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau summed up the process in eight stages: "Promise to release autopsy; put incompetent friend in charge; incompetent friend produces incoherent product; announce you’re not releasing the autopsy; lie about why; gaslight people who ask, saying they’re the problem; face internal revolt; release autopsy."

The release leaves Democrats with the report in hand and the same unresolved questions about why the party’s 2024 message failed with voters. For now, the document is public, but the criticism around what it leaves out is now part of the fight over how Democrats explain the defeat.