Democrats want more transparency from their party leaders after the Democratic National Committee refused to release its 2024 autopsy report, a decision that has fanned growing discontent following a spate of bruising election losses.
“They should release it, I’m all for transparency,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a possible contender for president in 2028, told the Washington Examiner.
At the end of last year, DNC Chairman Ken Martin declined to make the report public, claiming it would serve as a “distraction” for the party, which lost control of the Senate and White House in 2024.
Since those losses, several Democrats with presidential aspirations have aired their critiques of how President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris ran their campaigns. But the party apparatus itself prefers to keep that debate private, insisting that it can learn lessons from 2024 without stoking divisions.
That rationale is confusing to some of the rank-and-file Democrats who represent battleground states. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who bucked national trends and won in Michigan, told the Washington Examiner that she supports its release.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who won battleground Pennsylvania in 2022, said he “absolutely” believes it should be made public.
“Well, we all know why we lost. So why not just release it?” Fetterman told the Washington Examiner. “I think we should be a party of transparency.”
Other Democrats see the DNC’s refusal as a face-saving measure on the part of party leadership, with Corbin Trent, former communications director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), framing the decision as a matter of “cowardice.”
“The cowardice of the Democratic Party is the greatest threat to mankind,” Trent, now the publisher of the America’s Undoing Substack, told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “I think that they’ve probably withheld their autopsy, because the autopsy shows that the Democratic Party as it exists is indeed dead, and that it needs to change, and that’s not a thing that they want to do.”
Trent took particular aim at top congressional leaders, arguing they represent an establishment that is not fighting hard enough against the White House or their Republican colleagues. Democrats now appear to be riding a surge in enthusiasm from the party base with Trump in office, winning a series of off-year elections in 2025. But their losses the year before were blamed, in part, on Biden’s inability to energize progressives or overcome decades-high inflation that hobbled his presidency.
“I wouldn’t release that s*** either if I was them because that means basically you’re releasing a report that says, ‘We should not have jobs,’” Trent said.
While many members would be eager to see the autopsy, others who spoke with the Washington Examiner were less plugged in to the issue or completely unaware it had been withheld.
“I’d have to talk when people want to ask why,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said, giving the DNC the benefit of the doubt. “I mean, sometimes you will make a decision and there’s considerations that no one knows about.”
“I don’t really care,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told the Washington Examiner with a laugh. “I’m just not certain how useful that analysis would be. I just haven’t given it much thought.” Murphy, a possible 2028 hopeful himself, is among the loudest voices on Capitol Hill urging Democrats to be more aggressive with Trump.
Martin has publicly defended his decision to withhold the report, insisting that Democrats were already incorporating its lessons and choosing to focus on future races rather than relitigate the past. Retaking the Senate will be an uphill climb in 2026 midterm races, given the seats up for election, but Democrats hope to retake the House, currently controlled by a wafer-thin GOP majority.
Historically, the lower chamber flips to the party opposite the White House during midterm elections, as it has for the last five presidencies.
“We completed a comprehensive review of what happened in 2024 and are already putting our learnings into motion,” Martin said in a statement. “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,” Martin said. “Here’s our North Star: Does this help us win? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission.”
The day Martin won the DNC chairmanship, he listed a post-election review process as a priority and committed to releasing its findings to the public. In the months that followed, according to a DNC official, the committee conducted hundreds of interviews for the autopsy.
While it is yet to be known if the autopsy will ever see the light of day, one lawmaker made the point that “everything” comes to light in Washington.
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“Doesn’t everything leak in Washington anyway?” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) asked the Washington Examiner.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the DNC for comment.
Rachel Schilke contributed to this article.
