Liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg sharply criticized the Democratic National Committeeâs long-delayed 2024 election postmortem on Friday, describing the report as âmysterious,â âanticlimactic,â and âridiculousâ following months of internal Democratic infighting surrounding its release.
âThe document, itâs now clear, was kept under wraps not because it was impolitic, but because itâs a disaster,â Goldberg wrote.
She also blasted DNC Chairman Ken Martin for changing his tune
Regarding the report.
âWhatâs most striking is its utter lack of substance,â she noted further, adding that the words âIsraelâ and âGazaâ donât appear anywhere in the 192-page autopsy.
âIt offers little insight into why the Democratic Party lost large numbers of Black and Latino men, or its failure to speak to disconnected, irregular voters⌠I wondered if it was written by A. I. , though A. I. probably wouldâve done a better job,â she added.
When he was running for DNC chair, Martin said he would release
The autopsy report but later changed his mind, declaring it would not be released publicly at all.
That decision made the report âan object of suspicion and fascination,â Goldberg wrote.
âSome thought he was protecting Kamala Harris ahead of 2028. Many progressives were convinced that the D. N. C. quashed the autopsy because it would show Harris was done in by Gaza,â she wrote.
âRob Flaherty, whoâd been deputy director of both the Harris
And Joe Biden campaigns, speculated that it didnât even exist,â she said.
Conservative Washington Post columnist Ramesh Ponnuru also focused on what the report did not include.
âThereâs nothing about President Joe Bidenâs age and votersâ worries about it. Nothing about the border crisis the Democrats first caused through their policies and then denied in their rhetoric,â he said.
âNothing about the partyâs declining appeal to religiously
Observant voters,â he continued.
âNothing about the boutique left-wing views â such as support for taxpayer-funded sex changes for illegal immigrants and prisoners,â he added.
In addition, the report failed to fault Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran an ineffective campaign despite burning through $1. 5 billion.
It also did not fault the manner in which she was simply
Anointed as the partyâs candidate after President Joe Biden dropped out.
The report, which was released Thursday and first detailed by CNN, argued that the Democratic National Committee weakened its own political infrastructure through declining voter registration efforts, reduced financial support for state parties, and a broader failure to engage with key voter blocs.
It also said that Democrats have to renew their focus on voters in Middle America and the heavily Republican South.
For his part, Martin distanced himself from the report
âI am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it wonât meet your standards,â he said, per Fox News.
He added that he could not âin good faith put the DNCâs stamp of approval on it.â
The report, written by Democratic strategist Paul Rivera, was
Released with a disclaimer stating it âreflects the views of the author, not the DNC.â
The committee went even further.
It said it âwas not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.â
Martin also said the report was released for the sake of
Transparency âas I received it â in its entirety, unedited and unabridged â with annotations for claims that couldnât be verified.â
Rivera, a longtime Democratic consultant, had reportedly not worked on a presidential campaign in more than two decades.
