{"id":47984,"date":"2026-05-01T11:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47984"},"modified":"2026-05-01T11:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:41:16","slug":"is-the-dnc-keeping-2024-autopsy-secret-to-boost-kamala-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/is-the-dnc-keeping-2024-autopsy-secret-to-boost-kamala-harris\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the DNC Keeping 2024 Autopsy Secret to Boost Kamala Harris?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Vice<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris departs the stage with Second gentleman Doug Emhoff after conceding the election, at Howard University on November 06, 2024 in Washington, DC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by Kent Nishimura\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are party leaders protecting most by not releasing an autopsy of the former vice president\u2019s 2024 loss to Donald Trump?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Norman Solomon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apr 30, 2026 Common Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than four months after Democratic National Committee<\/a> chair Ken Martin announced that he was breaking his promise<\/a> to release<\/a> its autopsy report on the 2024 election<\/a>, the decision remains highly controversial. Arguments swirl around whether it\u2019s wise to proceed without public scrutiny of what went wrong during the last presidential campaign. But scant attention has focused on how hiding the autopsy provides an assist to Kamala Harris<\/a>, who currently leads in polling<\/a> of Democrats for the party\u2019s 2028 nomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Harris eyes another run, she has a major stake in the DNC<\/a> continuing to keep the autopsy under wraps\u2014and has a lot to lose if it reaches the light of day. She must feel gratified when Martin defends keeping the autopsy secret, saying<\/a> that the party should not \u201crelitigate\u201d the 2024 election and claiming<\/a> that release of the 200-page document would result in \u201cnavel-gazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2024<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Truth Is Better Than Continuing to Lose\u2019: Petition Demands DNC Release Autopsy of 2024 Defeat<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"'Why<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Why Wouldn\u2019t You Just Release It?\u2019: DNC Chair Confronted Over Buried 2024 Election Autopsy<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Release of the entire autopsy would likely be a blow to Harris\u2019s chances of becoming president in January 2029. Partly based on interviews with more than 300 prominent Democrats and others in all 50 states, it reportedly concludes<\/a> that Harris\u2019s unwavering support for US weapons shipments to Israel was a significant factor in her loss to Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she pursued an unsuccessful<\/a> strategy of wooing scarce \u201cmoderate\u201d Republican voters, many in the Democratic base were repelled by the full backing that Harris gave to President Biden\u2019s massive arming of Israel as civilian deaths mounted in Gaza<\/a>. She adhered to Biden\u2019s admonition<\/a> that there be \u201cno daylight\u201d between the two of them as she campaigned for president after he withdrew from the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DNC\u2019s scrapping of the autopsy is a political gift that keeps on giving to Harris as she appears to be gearing up for the 2028 campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, polls<\/a> showed that Harris was harming her election prospects by refusing to distance herself from Biden\u2019s policy toward Israel. She evades that reality in her post-election book 107 Days<\/em><\/a>, which dismisses antiwar protesters at her rallies as mere \u201checklers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris\u2019s protracted book tour has been beset by disruptions as well as her inability to provide cogent responses. At one appearance last fall, protesters yelled<\/a> \u201cYour legacy is genocide<\/a>! Your legacy will always be genocide!\u201d Her rejoinder was, \u201cYou know what, I am not president of the United States<\/a>. You want to go to the White House<\/a> and talk to him, then go on and do that.\u201d Weeks later, speaking in Chicago, when a protester accused her of complicity in the Gaza<\/a> horrors, she fired back: \u201cAre you the same person that was telling people not to vote?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renewed attention to the Harris 2024 finances would also be unwelcome. Thirteen months after the election, the New York Times<\/a> reported<\/a>, \u201csome Democratic donors have demanded a more thorough accounting of how exactly the party and Ms. Harris spent $1.5 billion in 15 weeks en route to losing every battleground state in 2024.\u201d In mid-April, NBC News noted<\/a> that \u201cto date, a full accounting has not been made of who was paid what from the $1.5 billion, though the DNC later disclosed it carried more than $20 million in debt from Harris\u2019s loss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago, Harris told<\/a> an audience of influential black leaders that she\u2019s \u201cthinking about\u201d running for president again and said that \u201cI know what the job is and I know what it requires.\u201d Politico described<\/a> those comments as \u201cthe most explicit sign yet she\u2019ll run for president in 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Release of the entire autopsy would likely be a blow to Harris\u2019s chances of becoming president in January 2029.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just about the last thing Harris would need is enormous publicity about an authoritative audit from the DNC\u2014the governing body of the Democratic party\u2014about what was wrong with her 2024 campaign. Such an autopsy would stoke fires of negativity and apprehension about making her the party\u2019s standard-bearer again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DNC\u2019s scrapping of the autopsy is a political gift that keeps on giving to Harris as she appears to be gearing up for the 2028 campaign. A straw in the wind: The DNC national coalitions director, Gabriel Uy<\/a>, recently emailed colleagues that he will leave that job in early May to \u201cbe working for VP Harris again, so let\u2019s keep in touch.\u201d Uy was the Nevada political director for Harris\u2019s presidential campaign in 2019 and then deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs for Harris when she was vice president. Other high-level DNC employees will probably also be migrating to the Harris staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under ongoing pressure<\/a> from a variety of Democrats, Martin has begun to indicate that he will supply \u201ctop lines\u201d summarizing the autopsy. Such a move would do little to placate critics, raising pointed questions about what was omitted and why the DNC was only willing to engage in cherry-picking instead of fully informing the party faithful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During an MS NOW television interview<\/a> in late April, while he used head-spinning illogic to defend concealing the autopsy, Martin went out of his way to say \u201cI\u2019m not here to protect anyone.\u201d The interviewer had not asked if he was protecting anyone. It seemed to be an instance of \u201cthe chairman doth protest<\/a> too much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin has properly emphasized<\/a> that the Democratic National Committee should maintain strict neutrality in relation to presidential primaries, unlike what happened in 2016<\/a> when the DNC secretly assisted<\/a> Hillary Clinton<\/a> against Bernie Sanders<\/a>. A year ago, in a well-publicized dustup with David Hogg, then in a brief stint as DNC vice chair, Martin insisted that Hogg could not run a funding operation for candidates in party primaries and remain a DNC officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am determined to make sure we don\u2019t repeat the same errors of the past,\u201d Martin wrote<\/a> in Time<\/em> magazine. He explained that \u201cI\u2019ve spent the past decade making sure our party cannot ever again be perceived as having a thumb on the scale for one candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, in effect, Martin\u2019s concealment of the autopsy report puts a thumb on the scale for one candidate:\u00a0Kamala Harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman Solomon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, includes an afterword about the Gaza war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris departs the stage with Second gentleman Doug Emhoff after conceding the election, at Howard University on November 06, 2024 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Kent Nishimura\/Getty Images) Who are party leaders protecting most by not releasing an autopsy of the former vice… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47985,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47984\/revisions\/47985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}