Facing intense internal pressure, DNC releases postelection autopsy that criticizes Kamala Harris

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/democratic-national-committee-autopsy-2024-ken-martin-a4f67256b4c56ba076aece23c22728ad

Facing intense internal pressure, DNC releases postelection autopsy that criticizes Kamala Harris
By STEVE PEOPLES
Updated 12:46 PM CDT, May 21, 2026

NEW YORK (AP) — Kamala Harris “wrote off rural America” during the 2024 presidential campaign and failed to attack Donald Trump with sufficient “negative firepower,” according to a long-awaited post-election autopsy released on Thursday by the Democratic National Committee.

The committee’s chair, Ken Martin, shared the 192-page report only after facing intense internal pressure from frustrated Democratic operatives concerned with his leadership. Martin had originally promised to release the autopsy, only to keep it under wraps for months because he was concerned it would be a distraction ahead of the midterms as Democrats mobilize to take back control of Congress.

On Tuesday, Martin apologized for his handling of the situation and conceded that the report was withheld because it “was not ready for primetime.”

Although the autopsy criticizes Democrats’ focus on “identity politics,” it sidesteps some of the most controversial elements of the 2024 campaign. The report does not address former President Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection, the rushed selection of Harris to replace him after he dropped out or the party’s acrimonious divide over the war in Gaza.

...


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rural whites were not going to elect a black woman. Kamala made the right call here.

[hlthe2b]

1. Yes.. agree. But Barack Obama did get 43% of rural, although less than R opponent each time.

Of course BO was not (gasp), FEMALE as well as black.

[sop]

2. A must read article at link, it will set off another angry round of pointless recriminations within the party.

“ 'I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards,' Martin wrote in an essay on Substack on Thursday. 'I don’t endorse what’s in this report, or what’s left out of it. I could not in good faith put the DNC’s stamp of approval on it. But transparency is paramount.' "

Democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory again...

[PufPuf23]

16. POTUS Biden was knee-capped from behind.

POTUS Biden performed admirably well with wisdom as a POTUS for the People.

POTUS Biden was less infirm than Trump but received less than full backing from our side.

The DNC avoided that topic too.

[MustLoveBeagles]

3. We weren't the one harping about

Identity politics the Republicans were. Your right Kamala wouldn't have gotten their votes no matter how much she went to their state and sucked up to them.

[Redleg]

26. Indeed. I don't recall Kamala spending a lot of time on the culture war issues

that Republicans and Bill Maher like to fixate on. Kamala mainly addressed economic issues and the dangers of another Trump presidency.

[exboyfil]

4. The party and Biden should receive the majority of the criticism

Biden was elected as a one term fixer. It should have been open from day one that his successor would be found from an open process. Events proved that point exactly. The moment I heard he was trying for a second term, I knew there were going to be problems.

[sop]

7. Much as I respect Biden, I can't disagree.

[Jose Garcia]

8. He flushed his legacy down the toilet

[dalton99a]

10. Biden got very bad advice and should have made the Prevention of Trump's Return a top priority.

Much time and energy was spent on the various home improvement projects while the arsonist was lurking around the corner ready to burn it down

[Polybius]

24. Are we sure it was advice?

It may have been ego. He may have wanted to run (can't really blame him too much for that).

[thought crime]

30. Considering how long it took after the debate disaster, yes it was blind ego.

Remember that we all endured the spectacle of Diane Feinstein's last days in the Senate in 2022/2023. Biden thought a little too highly of himself.

[EdmondDantes_]

11. While not the biggest Biden fan compared to many here, I can't agree with that

He had a long history of public service prior to being president. His years in the Senate and as vice president were all good overall and as president he got substantial legislation passed and helped make the vaccine rollout go as smoothly as possible in states that weren't obstinate. Did some of his policies/legislation contribute to the inflation that brought his approval down? Absolutely, he wasn't perfect, but who is?

I think it's really hard to walk away from a dream as big as being president. Yes, ideally he would have with how he appeared at the debate, but we could say the same about Trump and how he's all but drooling on himself falling asleep in cabinet meetings. It was a job he tried for as far back as 1988. And while I think he had diminished physical capacity (as we all do as we age), it's really really hard to accept that. My grandfather didn't want to accept he couldn't drive any longer until it was found he was parking by bumping other cars. Being seen as "weaker" or "incapable" is hard. Look at how many athletes can't walk away before falling apart.

And no one person is responsible alone for Trump, even including Trump. If there wasn't an appetite for his approach, he'd have had as much success running for office as George Lincoln Rockwell did.

[thought crime]

29. You are explaining WHY he didn't step down.

But the fact that he didn't step down was disastrous and it was foreseeable long before the debate. David Axelrod warned about it six months earlier. The error was obvious to many when he announced he would go ahead an run in 2024. From that point it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

[karynnj]

14. Clan you find a Biden quote ever saying he was going to leave after one term?

I seriously don't think so. The closest, but not the same, was he would be a transition.

There was an interesting article end of year 2024, that made the speculation that the overall success of the mid terms vs historical precedent might have led to calculations be Biden and others that he should run again. Remember the context then was that especially given the small margins, he was very successful in passing things like the infrastructure bills.

Now imagine, we lost more in the midterms. I would bet he would have been pushed to announce he was going to continue fighting for American fairness as President and not seek a second term.

[Sewa]

15. Here you go

Biden Suggests He Would Only Serve One Term if Elected President

Advisers close to the candidate say he won’t run for reelection in 2024 if elected in 2020.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has reportedly indicated that he would only serve for one term if elected to the presidency.

https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2019-12-11/joe-biden-suggests-he-would-only-serve-one-term-if-elected-president

[karynnj]

18. That is others saying he won't run a second time

Note qualifiers of "reportedly"

[Sewa]

25. The bottomline is that Biden

Intentionally led voters to believe he wouldn’t run for a second term.

[Mad_Machine76]

20. "Suggests" is not definitive

Besides, if lots of people felt that Biden shouldn't run again, they should have spoken out/stepped up during the primary. I know that there were a couple non-serious primary candidates, but they obviously did not get any traction.

[FascismIsDeath]

5. I could write a better "autopsy" in a few sentences.

I dearly love Joe Biden but he should've realized age was having its way, fair or unfair, and announced he wasn't seeking re-election at the end of 2023 and let a primary process play out. Harris was thrust into an impossible situation and was the only natural answer when in need of a candidate, given the short amount of time left to put together a campaign that got anywhere.

The biggest problem during Biden's tenure was inflation, which started with COVID and the way it ripped through the supply chain. We did not do a good job at educating the public on the root cause there and weren't honest enough about the fact that it was going to take awhile to heal.

Thats pretty much it, everything else is just noise.

[dalton99a]

6. +1. And the migrant surge shouldn't have been allowed. That was a huge gift to Trump.

[fujiyamasan]

17. That's one I don't see many addressing

In my opinion, this is the order of what caused the losses. Now the DNC can pay me whatever the hell they pay the useless consultants they’re been paying:

Biden’s age
The border
Inflation
Gaza

Then there’s a few specific to Harris:
She never won a primary (not once ever)

She couldn’t admit any faults of the administration or say what she would have done different

Odd VP choice that didn’t quite work (good man, but I personally never quite figured out the Walz pick)

Harris clips from 2020 about taxpayer funded transgender prisoner surgeries (it almost sounded like a parody). This probably had a bigger impact than people realize. The clip was replayed in ads repeatedly. It was gold.

Finally a few general issues with the administration, Other policy issues — not aligning with what the electorate found important compared to what democrats found important (case in point spending on EV infrastructure and heavy emphasis on climate change when the real concern was inflation and economic issues). I don’t think the administration did a good job on explaining or getting the point across on either gender affirmation care for minors or transgender women in sports. Both were classic wedge culture war issues that shouldn’t have become as big of an issue as they did.

[leftstreet]

9. But Schumer swore this would work!

"For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia. And you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin."
-Chuck Schumer 2016

[Passages]

12. Sidestepping critical issues is not an autopsy. Incredible.

[B.See]

19. Riiight. Let's all engage in more

brow beating, finger pointing, and self-recrimination while MAGAS rush out to vote for more Trump scams, shams, grifts, and wars.

[betsuni]

21. Republicans write off rural America, give them nothing but culture wars and sit back taking their vote for granted.

"This divergence [white rural voters shifting Republican] made rural America less politically competitive, giving both parties little incentive to devote substantial resources to winning votes there. Yet it's only Democrats who are endlessly lectured about 'ignoring' rural America, and they do largely ignore it -- if all you're talking about is politics and not policy. ... What isn't widely understood is that Republicans ignore many rural areas, too, for essentially the same reason as Democrats: They know the races there won't be competitive, so they don't need to bother.

"'For the most part, Republicans rack up big margins in red areas by default,' says Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler. ... 'Candidate after candidate would tell me they were working their socks off and never seeing any evidence of a real campaign on the Republican side,' Wikler told us. 'And some of those candidates right before the election told me they were really confident they'd win, because their opponent had essentially done nothing, had barely filed any fundraising, had no field presence to speak of. And yet the Republicans would still win by these massive margins.'"

Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman, "White Rural Rage"

[bigtree]

22. this shit is why we lost

...navelgazing instead of focusing our political energy and opposition on the republicans.

Replacing Biden was as good as a republican op. Probably originated as one.

The number of Democrats who have come to believe that dragging their own party is some sort of political genius that gains the party votes at election time is staggering.

I've been told by those on high that this is good and normal, but does it attract votes? Does dragging our own party get us the majority?

If constant critics can't answer that question, they don't deserve to be dominating the political discussions and debates.

There's NOTHING this report is good for except dragging Democrats and providing aid and comfort to the opposition.

[hamsterjill]

27. I agree.

There's NOTHING this report is good for except dragging Democrats and providing aid and comfort to the opposition.

It's like we give the Repukes our strategy!

[Polybius]

23. Glad it was released, but why not address this part:

The report does not address former President Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection, the rushed selection of Harris to replace him after he dropped out or the party’s acrimonious divide over the war in Gaza.

Any reason why?

[thought crime]

31. Instead, it points to our failure with rural voters. Thanks.

Was this report written by Fox News?