Special Investigations

Press Freedom Defense Fund

DNC Autopsy of 2024 Loss Doesn’t Mention Gaza or Israel at all

Commissioned from an outside consultant, the 192-page report on why Democrats lost doesn't address a key source of disillusionment with the party.

An in-depth analysis of the 2024 presidential campaign commissioned by the Democratic National Committee fails to mention the party’s position on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, prompting harsh criticism from Arab American members of the party.

The 192-page report, authored by a Democratic strategist and first published by CNN on Thursday morning, goes in-depth on several factors found to be detrimental to Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign in its ultimate loss to Donald Trump. Despite the contention within the party over then-President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, however, the war doesn’t get a single mention.

“Nothing about this surprises me.”

“Nothing about this surprises me.”

Also missing from the document are the words “Israel,” “Palestine,” “Arab American,” and “Muslim.”

“Nothing about this surprises me,” said Linda Sarsour, an organizer from Brooklyn who was active in organizing a campaign to pressure Harris to take a stance against the war. “If they don’t change course quickly to center Palestine, foreign policy and recognize the influence of Arab/Palestinian/Muslim/young/progressive American voters, they will likely have to write another autopsy report post 2028 presidential elections.”

A spokesperson for the DNC declined to comment on the omission of anything having to do with Gaza, instead pointing The Intercept to a Substack written by party chair Ken Martin in which he acknowledged what the committee found to be several shortcomings by the report’s author, Democratic strategist Paul Rivera.

In recent weeks, pressure mounted to release the report in full — a move Martin said he was reluctant to take due to major flaws in the report, which he dubbed “not ready for primetime.”

“I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards,” Martin wrote Thursday in a post on the DNC’s Substack. “I don’t endorse what’s in this report, or what’s left out of it. I could........

© The Intercept