The Democratic National Committee finally released its long-promised autopsy of President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory over Kamala Harris, but the report’s chaotic rollout and glaring omissions are creating a fresh political embarrassment for Democrats.
DNC Chairman Ken Martin had made the post-election review a major promise when he took over party leadership in early 2025, pitching it as a transparent examination of how Democrats lost the White House.
Instead, what emerged Thursday was a 192-page document so incomplete that even the DNC’s own legal team distanced itself from the findings.
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The report, written by Democratic strategist Paul Rivera, was released with a disclaimer stating it “reflects the views of the author, not the DNC.”
The committee went even further.
It said it “was 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.”
Martin himself openly criticized the document.
“It does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards, but I am doing this because people need to be able to trust the Democratic Party and trust our word,” Martin said.
The report itself is missing major components typically found in serious political postmortems, including a conclusion, executive summary, and even a section labeled “Notes for the reader.”
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Rivera, a longtime Democratic consultant, had reportedly not worked on a presidential campaign in more than two decades.
According to NBC News, Rivera handled the project part-time and did not begin contacting top campaign officials until fall 2025, nearly a full year after Trump’s victory.
He ultimately failed to interview some of the biggest names involved in the defeat.
Neither Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, nor Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were interviewed.
Many senior campaign aides were also never contacted.
The DNC reportedly repeatedly requested a list of interview subjects and never received one.
Martin initially decided to bury the report altogether.
That move triggered internal backlash after months of public promises about transparency.
He later admitted shelving the report created a larger political headache.
“When I was elected DNC chair, I commissioned an after action review of the 2024 election that I wanted to be honest and transparent, and with actionable and specific takeaways for the future of the Democratic Party,” Martin said.
“In December, I announced we would shelve this report, and I meant what I said at the time — that I didn’t think dwelling on 2024 or looking backwards so late in the game helped us to win elections,” he continued.
“In short, I didn’t want to create a distraction. Ironically, in doing so, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction.”
Among the findings that did survive into the final report were admissions that Democratic messaging created friction with key voters, that outreach came too late, and that coordination between Harris and the party’s super PAC infrastructure was badly flawed.
The report also reportedly concluded Democrats leaned too heavily into identity politics and failed to attack Trump effectively.
But some of the most politically explosive issues were completely absent.
There is reportedly no discussion of Biden’s mental decline.
There is no examination of the war in Gaza.
There is no mention of Democratic divisions over Israel, an omission that drew immediate criticism.
Jeff Cohen, co-founder of activist group Roots Action, blasted the report.
“This alleged autopsy is almost worthless. There’s no mention of the Biden/Harris administration’s Israel policy that abetted the Gaza massacre. That cost votes, and helped Trump win,” Cohen said.
The omission is particularly notable because Rivera reportedly acknowledged privately in 2025 that Gaza hurt Democrats politically, NBC News reported.
Yet the final report contains no references to either “Israel” or “Gaza.”
One Democrat familiar with the situation inside the DNC told Axios the fallout belongs squarely to Martin.
“This is still Ken’s problem and the people who are to blame the most are the DNC members still enabling him.”
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
