Ken Martin, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, gave mixed signals Wednesday when asked if he would release some version of the 2024 autopsy, the unreleased report on what went wrong for Democrats in the last presidential election.
That document, a 200-page analysis conducted from over 300 interviews after the 2024 election, never saw the light of day after Martin ordered its creation, much to the frustration of onlookers like Jon Favreau, host of the “Pod Save America” podcast.
In a recent interview, Favreau pressed Martin on whether he would still consider releasing a summary of the findings.
“We’ve been releasing that, Jon. The reality is we’re not hiding the ball on this. We have been sharing those things out. There’s no smoking gun here,” Martin said.
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The moment between Favreau and Martin underscores concerns Democrats have grappled with for the better part of two years that the party is struggling to be transparent about what it needs to change to find success in the future.
Democrats received a blow in November 2024 as Republicans stormed to power in a governing trifecta with control over the House of Representatives, Senate and White House. The loss has left Democrats struggling to find a national platform to rally around, and they are at odds over what mistakes the party should avoid repeating.
Shortly after becoming DNC chair in February 2025, Martin ordered an autopsy on the loss but pulled the plug on releasing it, arguing that it would distract from the party’s overarching goals.
“We completed a comprehensive review of what happened in 2024 and are already putting our learnings into motion. And we’re winning again — even in places that haven’t gone blue in decades. In our conversations with stakeholders from across the Democratic ecosystem, we are aligned on what’s important, and that’s learning from the past and winning the future.
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“Here’s our North Star: does this help us win? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission.”
But, months after that decision, Democrats like Favreau continue to express an appetite to review Martin’s findings.
Favreau pressed Martin on rumors that Martin had made pledges to release some version of the autopsy.
“NBC News said that before Easter about a month ago, you told DNC officers on a call to expect an executive summary in short order,” Favreau said. “I feel like an autopsy on what went wrong when we lost the popular vote in all those states in 2024 and figuring out what went wrong based on a big report is pretty important for everyone to know.”
“Jon, we’ve already been sharing that with a number of folks, including the DNC and other people,” Martin said.
Martin’s answer sparked skepticism online.
“This interview will make your blood boil, and it’s a case study in how *not* to handle a self-inflicted crisis,” Michael LaRosa, a former spokesperson for Jill Biden, said in a post to X.
“The DNC Chair was right to show up. But the answers were tone-deaf, overly clever and ultimately unpersuasive. To donors and voters alike, it risks sounding disingenuous.”
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“Democrats are allergic to accountability,” Briahna Joy Gray, a former national press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ failed 2020 presidential campaign, posted on X.
“See, the mistake the DNC made is they could’ve released the report earlier in the spring, whatever’s in it, you get two weeks of bad publicity, then Trump does something stupid and everyone forgets,” Rotimi Adeoye, a former Democratic operative who is serving as a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, wrote on X.
“Now it feels like something’s being hidden, which makes it way more salacious.”
