Facing intense internal pressure, DNC releases postelection autopsy that criticizes Kamala Harris (apnews.com)

submitted 2 months ago by cm0002@infosec.pub to c/usa@midwest.social

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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.

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[-] EpeeGnome@feddit.online 12 points 2 months ago

Who could have imagined that refusing to release information you publicly promised to release would also be a distraction?

[+] etherphon@piefed.world 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

1000003952

[+] CaptMurica@beehaw.org 8 points 2 months ago

[deleted]

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 3 points 2 months ago

The blame doesn't fall wholly on the one side or the other, here. Between the voters, nominees, campaign runners, and the party itself every had something they needed to do to win. Failures were made among all groups and it's valid to point all of them out.

[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 months ago

The voters are basically the same every election. Yeah they evolve over time but not quickly. You can't blame populace for being exactly who they are.

They weren't enthusiastic about Kamala, and if you ask me it has everything to do with the economy and approximately fuck all to do with anything else. But you can't fault the people any more than you can fault the tide when there is a flood.

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

I can absolutely fault every single person who didn't vote in either the primary or the general for giving up their voice. Voting is the only speech that matters in respect to who is sworn into office. If you don't speak up when it counts then I will absolutely call you out for complaining about the result.

[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

You either meet people where they are, you find a strategy to move the people, or you lose. None of that is on the people. Your blame changes nothing. It's wishful thinking — you go into the election with the voters you have, not the voters you wish you had.

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

And voters go into the election with the nominees they have, not the nominees they wish they had. And to be clear, people who skip an election because the equate that to voting for "none of the above" are non-voters in that election. The reality we have is that [for over 99% of the state and federal legislative offices and for the presidency] either the Democratic or the Republican nominee will win that election regardless of how many people don't vote or why they chose not to. Not voting lowers the number of votes needed for the other side of the political spectrum to win. It's the last chance for the voting-eligible public to effect the outcome of that election, and to skip it and silence themselves and then complain about the outcome deserves being confronted over. And again, pointing this out does not excuse the failure of Kamala/Walz and their campaign runners and the DNC of their faults. All of them have blame here.

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I can absolutely fault every single person who didn’t vote in either the primary or the general for giving up their voice.

Oh no, baronvonj on lemmy "blames" me for Kamala and the DNC shitting the bed and running a candidate who wouldnt deviate from a platform with underwater approval rates and wildly illegal genocide support.

eyeroll

On a more serious note, Ken Martin is an idiot and needs to be thrown bodily from the party.

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

Oh no, baronvonj on lemmy “blames” me for Kamala and the DNC shitting the bed and running a candidate

No, that's a strawman, I never blamed non-voters for Kamala's campaign or the DNC. I blame them for not voting because that made it easier for Trump to win, by lowering the number of votes he needed to do so. I do blame Kamala for her policies and her campaign managers for their campaign. But I accept that this is real life with real consequences and come election day it was either going to be Trump or Kamala announced as the winner regardless of those things, so I voted against Trump.

[-] AceOnTrack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago

There were two possible choices in the American election

vote for Kamala
be an absolute idiot

Which one are you?

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It would have been nice if everyone showed up to vote too

Democrats dismantled one of the most effective GOTV operations in the Midwest because of an obvious psyop by a college drop out.

That was the beginning of a long and miserable series of defeats at every level of government for the next 18 years.

Gotta wonder what you are supposed to think about a party that won't fight for the VRA, won't fight for the courts, won't fight for DC statehood, and won't fight for the wildly popular anti-war and pro-health care policies that they campaigned on.

At the very fucking least, Biden could have delivered on a prosecution of the Trump administration, rather than telling his voters that Trump had done nothing illegal.

[+] CaptMurica@beehaw.org 7 points 2 months ago

[deleted]

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 points 2 months ago

Your memory is bad, or, more likely, propagandized.

Biden won the 2024 primaries. He should have admitted to himself he wasn't capable anymore, but he didn't.

By the time he stepped down the Dems had a little problem: they couldn't legally put anyone else on the ballot in a fair number of states. Or at least it would been argued in court they couldn't. Harris was literally the only choice available, unless they just didn't run a candidate in half the country, by virtue of being on the ticket already.

Yes, the Democrats are running a geriocracy and have been openly puppeting a fair number of senile senators for a decade so they probably figured they could get away with it again.

Yes, Biden and the people surrounding him fucked it up by refusing to acknowledge reality.

Yes, Harris obviously wasn't a good enough candidate.

You should probably put a little more effort into knowing what actually happened before complaining though.

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

All but two states had candidates for president on their Democratic primary ballots (fuck those two that didn't). My state had like 7 candidates to pick from. And then again for the convention, after Biden dropped out, they opened up the field for candidates to declare again and the pledged delegates all voted on the nominee. What you really should be mad at is that there weren't any serious challengers running, but that's the fault of those individuals for not doing so (even it was under private pressure from the DNC it was their own choice to capitulate). You're also forgetting that a measly 4% of primary voters showed up to vote for "Uncommitted," which turned out to be hugely successful in drawing media attention to the discontent of active voters and contributed to Biden's eventual stepping down.

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

yeah I have plenty of gripes with the DNC but having the vice president run in the presidents place when he stepped down is not one of them. Honestly the whole super delegate thing bothers me way more than that one thing.

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

they changed the convention rules for superdelegate in 2017, now they don't even get to vote for the nominee unless the pledged delegates can't elect a nominee in the first round of voting at the convention. Not that the superdelegates even mattered in 2016, as Hillary won the popular primary vote and had enough pledged delegates.

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

yeah. regardless its a stupid system that will always be a stain on how they work. We are a democracy and if they want to be the party of democracy they need to set the example.

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

I agree.

[-] anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago

This is bad, but for completely unexpected reasons

I thought they withheld it because it identified issues with the democratic platform that would put them at odds with donors, but instead it's a half-assed opinion piece scratched out on toilet paper and riddled with errors and no evidence to speak of

Third-Way and other neo-liberal rags are claiming victory over this pile of shit - I'm happy to let them roll around in it by themselves

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Ah yes. It was all Kamala’s fault. 🙄

“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.”

[-] Thunderbird4@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

There we go. If only she went after more Republican voters and abandoned trans people. Then she would have cinched it.

I’m thinking the reason he dragged his heels releasing it is that it proves that the current DNC leadership still hasn’t learned anything and has no plans to improve.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

It was all Kamala’s fault. 🙄

She makes an excellent fall girl. But that's always been her job within the party. Gotta wonder how a candidate this unqualified made it to California AG, nevermind Presidential nominee.

At some point, she's responsible for her own ambition.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Trump’s attack on Harris’ transgender policies were cited as a key contrast.

Specifically, the report suggested the Democratic nominee was “boxed” in by the Trump campaign’s “very effective” ad that highlighted Harris’ previous statement of support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgeries for prison inmates.

Democratic pollsters believed that “if the Vice President would not change her position – and she did not – then there was nothing which would have worked as a response,” the report said.

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this post was submitted on 21 May 2026

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