The Democratic National Committee on Thursday released a 192-page postmortem on Kamala Harris's 2024 loss to
Donald Trump, more than a year after the election and after intra-party pressure forced DNC chair Ken Martin to reverse a decision to bury the document. Martin issued an apology and conceded the report "won't meet your standards," PBS NewsHour reported. The autopsy faults Harris for writing off rural voters and failing to attack
Trump with sufficient "negative firepower," especially over his felony convictions, the Guardian reported.
What does the report say? "Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban/suburban margins would compensate. The math doesn't work," the document concludes, citing North Carolina governor Josh Stein's success in a state Harris lost as a model the campaign ignored. The report criticizes a Democratic decision "not to engage in negative advertising at the scale required" against
Trump and calls for a "renewed focus on the voters of Middle America and the South," PBS reported.
What is missing? The autopsy does not address
Joe Biden's decision to seek re-election at age 81 or his late handover to Harris, and makes no mention of US support for Israel's war in Gaza, the Guardian reported. Each page carries a red-text disclaimer reading "This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC," and sections are interspersed with qualifiers about sourcing and data accuracy. One qualifier disputes author Paul Rivera's characterization of January 6, with an interposed remark reading the "claim contradicts public reporting."
How is the party reacting? Martin wrote in a Substack post that "I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won't meet your standards," PBS reported. Democratic strategist Steve Schale asked on social media, "Why not say this in 2024, or bring in more people to finish it, instead of turning this into the dumbest media cycle for 7-8 months?" The pro-Palestinian IMEU Policy Project called for the DNC to release internal data the autopsy author told the group showed
Biden's support for Israel was a net-negative for Harris, the Guardian reported.
Figures referenced: Joe Biden, Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.