Democrats' midterm push clouded by infighting over party keeping 2024 autopsy under wraps

Democrats keep winning at the ballot box as the party works to win back congressional majorities in this year's midterm elections.

To make matters worse, the DNC is facing continued calls to release its internal autopsy of the party's sweeping setbacks in the 2024 election, when Democrats lost the presidency and Senate majority and fell short in winning back control of the House.

A source with knowledge said that Harris had not discussed the autopsy with DNC Chair Ken Martin, and that the former vice president did not know in advance about Martin's decision in December to keep the 2024 election postmortem under wraps.

Martin ordered the report soon after he was elected DNC chair early last year.

Democratic Party officials interviewed over 300 Democrats from all 50 states for the report, which Martin promised would examine the party's mistakes in 2024 and offer a roadmap to victory going forward.

Throughout the process, Martin repeatedly pushed back on calling the report an "autopsy," since he noted that the Democratic Party wasn't dead. He instead labeled the report an "after-action review."

Martin, in a statement at the time, said releasing the report would be "a distraction" from the party's "core mission" to win back congressional majorities in the midterms.

In explaining his decision, Martin wrote, "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."

"Here's our North Star: does this help us win? If the answer is no, it's a distraction from the core mission," he emphasized.

But the DNC chair's decision was criticized not only by Republicans but also by fellow Democrats.

Hogg, a gun-control crusader who was elected a DNC vice chair as Martin won election as chair, stepped down from his position last summer after upsetting party leaders for his efforts backing primary challenges against what he called "asleep at the wheel" older, longtime incumbents in safe, blue districts.

"This is a very bad decision that reeks of the caution and complacency that brought us to this moment," Pfeiffer wrote.

His podcast co-host and fellow Obama alum Jon Favreau called the DNC flip-flop "unreal" and "baffling."

"The DNC's actual position is that if the public knew more about what Democrats got wrong in the last election, it would hurt the party's chances in the next election," Favreau wrote on X. "How does this rebuild trust between the party insiders and grassroots activists and organizers?"

Martin last month made an appearance on "Pod Save America" to push back against the criticism.

"We've been releasing that," Martin said when asked if the DNC would release a summary of the report. "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 noted that "we've been providing briefings," as he pointed to data from the report the DNC shared with Democratic stakeholders.

Harris isn't the only potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender calling on the DNC to make the full report public.

But Booker, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination won by Biden and who is mulling another run in 2028, said it's imperative his party doesn't dwell on the past.

Rotimi Adeoye, a former Democratic operative who is serving as a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, argued in a social media post that "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."

"Now it feels like something's being hidden, which makes it way more salacious," he claimed.

A person familiar with the DNC's strategy told Fox News Digital because of all the attention on the autopsy, "they are going to be forced to release something."

The person, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, said the ongoing storyline is a distraction for the DNC with the clock ticking towards the midterms, adding "it's just not helping to be talking about this."

The DNC pointed to Martin's previous comments when contacted by Fox News Digital.