Election Expert EXPOSES Huge DNC Scandal in BRUTAL Warning

0:00 The Democratic Party is facing a deep problem.

0:02 After losing in 2024, the DNC conducted an internal autopsy on what went wrong,

0:08 and they decided to keep it hidden.

0:11 That decision has sparked backlash across

0:13 the party with critics arguing the Democrats

0:15 can't fix their problems if they won't even admit what they are.

0:19 So, the questions are pretty clear.

0:22 Why is the DNC hiding its own postmortem?

0:24 What does that say about accountability inside the Democratic party?

0:28 And if Democrats are still seen as out of touch,

0:31 how do they rebuild trust with the voters they're losing?

0:33 To answer those questions, I'm joined by Amanda Litman.

0:36 She's the co-founder of Run for Something and one

0:39 of the leading voices pushing Democrats to rebuild from the ground up,

0:44 recruiting a new generation of candidates

0:46 and rethinking how the party connects with voters.

0:52 Amanda, thank you so much for joining and uh

0:56 I know that you are currently on Pacific time,

1:01 so thank you for doing it so early.

1:04 Um, but I do think this is like an important conversation to have

1:09 because I feel like I'm really close to I feel like

1:14 base Democratic voters and I know they are pissed off there.

1:19 There's gonna be someone watching this right now being like, "Yes,

1:22 I am pissed off." And they're not pissed off at just Republicans.

1:26 They're pissed off at the Democratic party

1:30 because we have an establishment party that I truly believe thinks everything's

1:35 going to be fine and that they're going to win big in November.

1:38 And so, not a lot has to change.

1:40 But I think we have to have conversations like the ones we're going to have

1:44 now because I don't think that is going to be a recipe for success long term.

1:51 Um, and I feel like do you agree or disagree?

1:53 Totally agree.

1:54 I think one of the challenges is

1:56 that our winning gives us an opportunity to like

1:59 pretend that the broader structural problems don't

2:01 exist cuz like look the elections are good.

2:03 It's like no this is not a sustainable path.

2:06 If we're actually going to ensure we can win, not just now,

2:09 not just in moments where like the the headwinds are in our favor,

2:13 but when it's really hard, which it will be again,

2:16 we have to actually fix things from the inside out,

2:18 which is why conversations like this are so important.

2:22 Now, what are those structural challenges that we

2:25 have as a party, would you say?

2:28 You know, I think the biggest one is the lack

2:30 of trust in the institution that is the Democratic Party.

2:33 And some of that is the brand of the party.

2:35 Some of that is the actual like entities that make up the party.

2:38 Some of that is party leadership like Schumer and Jeffre

2:42 and as we're going to talk about Ken Martin.

2:44 But some of it is also just the people who have defined the Democratic

2:48 party for the last I don't know 20 years you know Joe Biden,

2:52 the Clintons who I worked for and was very grateful to work for.

2:56 Um even Obama to a certain extent like they

2:58 are not in touch with where people are today.

3:02 and it has been the same cast of characters over and over and over again.

3:06 Like, it's no wonder people feel like

3:07 this is a party that doesn't represent them.

3:09 These are mostly folks who have not been normal people in decades.

3:14 Like, they're just they're not where people are.

3:16 They still think the Republican party can be saved.

3:20 Yes.

3:20 Yeah, that is true.

3:22 And um I think I personally think like the the the the big

3:28 red flag about all this was the 2024 election

3:31 where it just felt like so much of the base and was

3:36 saying like we know where we want the party to go.

3:40 We know what we want you to fight for.

3:43 Um, and then we had someone like Joe Biden who

3:46 I think has done amazing work and should be revered,

3:50 but really I think held on for too long.

3:52 And then we and then the party that's

3:55 the party that believes in democracy didn't have a primary

3:59 and we just anointed someone which I think

4:02 was a big kind of messaging issue as well.

4:07 Um, there were reasons in real time why it happened that way.

4:09 Like logistically, how could you have held a primary?

4:11 Like I understand why at every point people were like, "Well,

4:14 this is how it has to go." But the actual

4:16 problem was that 3 years earlier nobody said, "Hey, Mr.

4:19 President, maybe you shouldn't run for office.

4:21 Maybe you shouldn't run for reelection." Right?

4:24 And of course, there was the issue with Gaza

4:27 and Israel that the base could not have been louder about

4:32 and it was completely ignored.

4:33 Um, and so that's why like when I heard, hey, we're going to do an autopsy.

4:39 We're going to look at what we did, right?

4:40 We're going to look at what we did wrong.

4:42 We're going to be really honest about it.

4:44 I think the DNC spent a lot of money on this autopsy.

4:48 And uh what we've come to learn is that it's just never going to be released.

4:56 Mhm.

4:56 So before we get into this any further,

4:58 I kind of want to like this is really what kicked it all off is I want to show

5:03 this clip went super viral on Pod Safe and then we can talk about it afterwards.

5:08 And if you get frustrated during the during the watch, I understand.

5:13 But here it is.

5:14 Colin afteraction review.

5:16 When you won the chairmanship in February of 25,

5:19 you criticized the DNC's refusal to release

5:21 their 2016 autopsy is exactly what not to do.

5:25 You said, quote, "Was there any utility in doing

5:28 that?" And then promised your 2024 autopsy would be different.

5:31 Your exact quote was, "Of course,

5:33 it will be released." Why did you change your mind on that?

5:36 Well, look, I mean, what I said all along, even when I ran for this position,

5:40 is that we were going to focus on the things

5:42 that will help us win the upcoming election, right?

5:45 Making sure that we learned the right

5:47 lessons that could help inform our victories.

5:50 And that's what we've done.

5:52 We said this when we uh sent out the press release

5:55 back in November saying we weren't going to release the report.

5:58 We were going to actually keep our focus on those lessons.

6:01 And we released those lessons.

6:02 We continue to do that.

6:03 So, it's not completely accurate to say that we didn't release that.

6:07 Where we're keeping our focus is on the lessons that can actually help us win.

6:11 On this show in August, you told me this about releasing the review.

6:14 Quote, "We have to do it to give people who invested so much time, energy,

6:19 and money a sense of what happened and why we lost,

6:23 especially why we lost." So, what changed between August and December?

6:26 I understand there are lessons, but those are not the full report.

6:30 Why not release the full report?

6:32 What's in the report that you wouldn't want to publicize?

6:35 Yeah, there's no smoking gun in the report.

6:37 And I know that's that's what everyone's so eager to learn the smoking gun.

6:41 Guess what, John?

6:42 But if there's no smoking gun, why wouldn't you just release it then?

6:44 Because we want to keep the focus on the lessons because what

6:48 ends up happening here is that uh people of course want to weaponize

6:51 the report in a way to look backwards to point fingers place blame

6:55 in a way that actually doesn't keep us focused on the upcoming election.

6:59 But instead the naval gazing of focus

7:01 focusing backwards um actually takes us backwards.

7:04 We're 189 days from this election.

7:07 John, what we don't need to be focused on is actually relitigating 2024.

7:11 What we need to do is learn the lessons of 24

7:15 in the years preceding that can help us win this upcoming election.

7:19 I get why people are obsessed with it because there's various groups

7:22 and organizations and people who think there's

7:24 some sort of smoking gun in there.

7:25 Guess what, John?

7:26 In the third closest presidential election in the last 100 years,

7:30 everything mattered.

7:31 There's nothing that didn't impact that election.

7:33 Why did you spend the money going to 50 states, doing all these interviews,

7:38 doing all this stuff if and and doing this report in the first

7:41 place if you weren't going to res release the full results of it?

7:45 Like, why?

7:46 I don't get why just you and some of the senior DNC people get to see it,

7:51 but not most of the DNC members who are, you know, state party chairs.

7:56 I mean, you know, more than a dozen DNC members

7:58 told NBC just the other week they want it released,

8:00 including Congresswoman Dileia Ramirez and North

8:02 Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton.

8:05 And Anderson said, quote, "Genuinely,

8:07 what did you all find that we did not?" It is infuriating to watch that.

8:13 Um, I will say, uh, if he says lessons one more time, I'm gonna scream.

8:20 It's like almost uncomfortable to watch because

8:22 of how committed he is to gaslighting.

8:25 Yes.

8:26 And uh and and he makes it seem as though like it's

8:31 basically like very like groups and like what it seems like to me

8:36 like like moneyed interest groups who are trying to like somehow take down

8:42 the DNC or take down Democratic party because they're so interested in it.

8:46 The reason why we're interested in this is

8:47 because he promised to do it and release it.

8:51 He made a promise and they put in the work.

8:53 Now, I do think there's a couple options here.

8:55 One is they never actually finished it, which would be so embarrassing.

8:58 Like, so embarrassing.

9:00 Or two, it doesn't actually save anything of value,

9:03 which again, so embarrassing.

9:05 You he hired like a consultant who was a friend of his.

9:08 He says he didn't even pay the person,

9:09 which like why didn't you pay the person to do

9:11 a thing that ostensibly is really important to figure out why lost.

9:15 The third thing is that it probably throws a bunch of people under the bus.

9:17 I hope it does.

9:18 there's a bunch of people who[ __] up and did something

9:20 wrong and they should they should be thrown under the bus.

9:24 I think the actual answer is that probably some combination of the three.

9:29 And I think, you know,

9:30 this is my frustration with all of this and actually with Ken

9:33 Martin's behavior in this moment and in this interview and real large,

9:36 we need people to trust the DNC.

9:38 What the DNC does in the 2026 elections is like pretty minimal.

9:42 They control the data file.

9:43 They fund state parties and that's important.

9:46 They raise money to help support like broader infrastructure,

9:48 which he's not doing a good job of in this moment.

9:50 He's actually really[ __] up on fundraising.

9:52 But the bigger thing that they have to do

9:54 is prepare to run the 2028 presidential primary.

9:57 The DNC sets the rules.

9:59 They just determine the calendar.

10:00 They shape who can be like part of those debates.

10:03 If you remember this from 2020,

10:04 there were all those rules about how many grassroots donations

10:07 and which polls and how far you had to be coming ahead.

10:09 Like it was a mess and it was very contested.

10:12 People need to trust that the organization,

10:15 the governing body that is setting the rules

10:17 for how we're going to pick our nominee,

10:19 something that made people feel incredibly disempowered and angry in 2024.

10:25 They need to trust that those folks are like fair,

10:28 competent, and doing so in a way that is neutral.

10:32 Ken Martin does nothing to make people trust in the institution.

10:36 That is fundamentally dangerous as we go into the 2028 primary process.

10:41 Like the definition of trust is built on credibility and he has no credibility.

10:45 This makes me so angry.

10:47 It makes me really angry too.

10:48 I mean it's just it's my my whole thing is like and I

10:51 know it's not the same but this is the party who's been has

10:55 has kind of like gotten their gotten a little bit of their groove

10:58 back going after the Epstein files and saying hey this has to be released.

11:02 I know it's not the same, but to me spiritually it's very similar where like

11:08 there is this thing that is supposed to come out

11:11 that uh the elites in the group are privy to are

11:16 keeping from the public and then are trying to gaslight

11:20 us to say well actually no that it there's

11:23 no point in naval gazing because we have to look

11:26 forward not it's like it's it's just to me

11:30 a a sign of like this is why people hate politics.

11:34 And this is why people think both parties are the same.

11:38 Because

11:39 you and I can both agree that the Democratic

11:42 Party is definitely better than the Republican party

11:45 because uh we're not trying to be a fascist

11:48 uh we're not trying to create a fascist country.

11:51 Mhm.

11:52 But it's when things like this happen that it makes it really hard

11:56 to say to the average person

11:59 that these parties are different because there because

12:03 keeping information from people in order

12:06 to protect an elite organization is the opposite

12:10 of what a truly workingass uh coalition building party would try to do.

12:16 So uh I don't understand it.

12:18 Also, it's like you're not going to learn from it.

12:21 Like the whole point of this thing, like I've been in so much therapy

12:25 and I can't imagine telling my therapist, "Let's stop naval gazing and you know,

12:30 we really shouldn't be looking back anymore.

12:32 We should be looking forward." Like, no.

12:34 Like, how you learn, it's messy.

12:37 It can be painful.

12:38 Um, it's not easy.

12:40 But you look at what happened and you say, "All right,

12:44 what are the things we could have done differently?"

12:46 and let's try to do those things differently moving forward.

12:50 Now, it's not easy and there's probably going to be

12:53 people there be big personalities with feelings that get hurt.

12:56 But if you really actually want to change and grow,

13:00 then you have to look at what you've done

13:01 before and you have to try to learn from it.

13:04 And I think keeping the party and the people who are interested

13:09 in it getting better from having those learnings uh just doesn't help.

13:16 And I think there's so many people that are like willing to be like, "All right,

13:20 we can like we can do things differently,

13:22 but they're just get they're really just keeping

13:24 us from having the opportunity." It's so frustrating.

13:28 It's so frustrating.

13:29 And it's just self-defeating.

13:32 Self-defeating.

13:32 And like the reason the Democratic Party's brand,

13:34 like Republicans are probably never going to like the Democratic Party brand,

13:38 but the reason that the Democrats have a crappy approval rating

13:40 right now is because Democrats don't like the Democratic Party brand.

13:43 We don't like the party.

13:45 That's actually a thing that in this process Ken could fix.

13:49 Ken could have owned up and said, "You know what, John?

13:52 You're right.

13:52 I was wrong.

13:53 I should keep my promise.

13:55 The autopsy report is on the website right now.

13:57 I encourage everyone to go look at it.

13:59 We'll be having open conversations about it.

14:01 You can join these calls.

14:02 You can join these Zooms.

14:03 We want to have your feedback.

14:04 Like, where else should we be digging in?" That would actually build

14:07 a process that people feel like they could be a part of.

14:10 They could have like, "Oh, I I actually do like know where this is going.

14:14 I trust in party leadership.

14:15 Just[ __] gaslighting people makes them both

14:18 angrier and hate the party brand more.

14:21 This is not about swing voters.

14:22 This is not about independents.

14:23 This is about people like you and I saying, you know what,

14:26 yeah, I'm going to vote for Democrats, but[ __] the Democratic party, right?

14:30 And this actually has caused a firestorm within the DNC

14:35 and the bull work actually has reported on this yesterday saying the following

14:39 that DNC members and party strategists um after that appearance we just

14:44 saw said they believe his defensive con comments have tarnish the party brand.

14:49 I mean it's not just that but didn't help.

14:52 And it says here that um folks are saying that quote I think it would be

14:58 really a very hard to job to have

15:00 no matter who but that he potentially should resign.

15:05 Um I guess my question to you is do

15:07 you think Ken Martin should resign or be removed?

15:11 I think it's really hard to find someone who'd want to do that job right now.

15:15 So like one of the challenges and this is

15:16 very you know reminiscent of 2024 if we're

15:19 being honest is like there's person at top

15:21 who's clearly not well suited to do the job

15:24 there is no clear mechanism to replace them without

15:27 to like force removal without a replacement and who

15:31 would do that right now like it sucks being DNC chair sucks it is one of the

15:37 I don't know why anyone would want that job bad job

15:41 someone who's willing to take the heat and really argue for like

15:44 a forceful party that has strong values that like can work everywhere,

15:48 that can build power,

15:49 that can think long term, that can look beyond the next two years,

15:52 and also can fight like hell and actually communicate in this moment.

15:56 Like there could be so much good.

15:58 It would be really, really hard, but there could be so much good.

16:00 And Ken Martin is so clearly not up to that task right now.

16:04 So clearly.

16:05 Well, you actually I want to I want to give you an opportunity to respond

16:08 to this because uh you wrote about how

16:12 Democratic party leadership is going to be very old

16:16 if and when we control the house.

16:19 And Jamie Harrison, who was our former DNC chair,

16:22 who um I like I've worked with.

16:25 to think he's a nice guy,

16:26 but he said and he's been on I don't know what's been going on with him,

16:29 but he has been very uh antagonistic, but he said in all due respect,

16:34 if black districts get wiped out across the South,

16:37 you don't have to worry about the age

16:38 of committee chairs because there won't be any committee chairs.

16:41 Wrong moment, wrong fight, wrong priorities.

16:43 That's something he's been saying repeatedly

16:45 to other tweets about people critiquing the party.

16:48 What is your message to former DNC chair Jamie Harrison?

16:53 I think that there's like we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

16:57 Like part of the reason that we are

16:58 at the point where the voting rights amendment,

17:00 voting rights act can get gutted in the Supreme

17:02 Court is because party leadership was so calcified and the CBC which is part

17:07 of the party infrastructure really protected itself in this moment.

17:11 These folks did incredibly hard fights to get into positions of power

17:14 and I am so grateful for that hard work and that respect and they

17:19 protect they're part of the institution

17:20 now and they've protected the institution and the institution has failed us

17:24 and has failed black voters and black Americans.

17:27 They deserve better than leadership that is not willing to stand

17:30 up in this moment and say we can do more.

17:33 I am so frustrated by this idea that we have to pick

17:37 like that we cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.

17:40 It is a problem.

17:41 If we actually win the House and our leadership

17:44 continues to be so unable to meet the moment,

17:47 then people will have further distrust of the Democratic

17:50 party because we won't be able to keep our promises.

17:52 Some of those folks in that list of the people

17:54 who are likely to be committee chairs might be great.

17:57 But you can't tell me that there isn't

17:58 someone in every single one of those committees

18:00 who's an upand cominging star who couldn't maybe

18:02 do it just as well or not better.

18:06 I Yeah, I don't understand.

18:08 Yeah, I don't understand this knee-jerk reaction to when you criticize the party

18:12 to make it about something that we're not even talking about, you know?

18:16 Like I do think that I didn't race at all.

18:19 I know.

18:20 I know it that I mean, hey, I understand that.

18:23 So, like just to be super clear because people come for me every

18:28 time I talk about how we should have older leaders to retire.

18:30 I mean all of them.

18:31 I mean Bernie Sanders, I mean Elizabeth Warren,

18:33 I mean the ones I like and the ones I don't.

18:35 I have said this explicitly since I wrote an op-ed in February 2025.

18:40 Every Democrat over the age of 70 should have made this their last term.

18:44 Every single one.

18:45 There is such an incredible bench of talent

18:48 across the country that is ready to rise.

18:50 Folks of all kinds of backgrounds, races, classes,

18:53 genders, ethnicities who have such incredible local government experience.

18:57 Run for something that's helped elect them.

18:58 We are we they are there.

19:00 They are ready.

19:02 If we do not create this space for them,

19:03 they're going to fight to make this space for themselves.

19:05 And we are seeing that in action.

19:08 The in Georgia where Representative David Scott,

19:10 who just passed away very sadly, he was being primared by two incredible young

19:15 black leaders in the community among many others.

19:17 It is not like there is not a powerful group of folks ready to move on.

19:22 It just like we we we cannot privilege people's feelings

19:28 or egos at a moment when democracy is at stake.

19:31 And my thing too is like, you know,

19:34 thank you for your service, but please retire.

19:36 Is that it is the people in power right now who gave us Donald Trump twice.

19:43 Mhm.

19:43 It is the people in power right now

19:44 who have created this country we currently live in.

19:49 And I think some of it's good, a lot of it's bad.

19:54 Yep.

19:53 And so I just don't trust the people who got us here to get us out of it.

19:57 That's kind of how I feel.

19:59 And it's not about age.

20:00 It's not like I'm like it's not about age.

20:02 It's not about anything like that.

20:04 It's just about like hey like I'm sure

20:07 like you've you've you've done what you could.

20:10 Um I don't think where we are is really great.

20:12 I do think that you know there could be some creativity in the ways

20:17 in which we fight Donald Trump and the Republican

20:19 party and their attacks on our democracy.

20:22 And I just personally believe that sternly written

20:25 letters are not the way to do things now.

20:28 Now, I don't know what the qu what

20:31 the correct way is to fight what's happening today.

20:35 I'm doing my part.

20:36 I don't know what it looks like as an elected official,

20:39 but I do think that in order to do something different,

20:43 you got to elect different people.

20:45 And so, I just feel like there has to be a better way to do this.

20:50 That's just how I feel.

20:51 Like, there has to be a better way to do this.

20:53 And we're never gonna find that out if we keep

20:57 people in power who have gotten us to this place.

21:01 Totally.

21:01 You know, so uh so yeah, and then I guess you know I I'm

21:07 really grateful that you could come on and we could have this conversation.

21:11 Not easy to have, but and I just want to say shout out to Pod Save America.

21:16 I don't know that was like an incredible interview.

21:20 I only talk to people on friendly circumstances.

21:22 I'm not a confrontational person face to face, but I can be a[ __] over Twitter.

21:29 Um, but um, I think they really did a great um,

21:32 service to the party and the country by just kind

21:35 of exposing the the hypocrisy about what's happening behind the scenes.

21:41 And I just got to say for you too, Amanda,

21:44 I know that like you're like me where I

21:47 I just feel like you just say what's right.

21:49 You don't say what you think is going to make

21:54 people feel good and you don't you don't it seems

21:57 as though you don't censor yourself if you feel like

22:01 you're going to get backlash and I just think we need

22:04 more people in our party who look like you because

22:08 it like it really is a moment where like we need

22:11 people in this party who are willing to say the things

22:14 that people don't want to hear but must be said.

22:17 M I appreciate that, you know,

22:19 uh getting yelled at online not that fun, but also like doesn't kill me.

22:26 Yeah.

22:26 Well, please doing it.

22:28 We need it.

22:29 And if Ken Martin's not going to release the autopsy,

22:32 then at least what we can do is at least

22:35 call out the things that we think can change.

22:38 Um so, uh how can folks help?

22:41 because I know you're you're you're big on getting my my thing

22:45 is like it does not like I I started with no political experience.

22:49 I think political experience literally is

22:52 what you've been doing in your community.

22:53 That's all you need.

22:54 Like there's no such thing as political experience.

22:57 So, uh but you you run an organization called Run for Something

23:00 which really is really about that that truly anyone can run,

23:04 anyone can get involved.

23:07 Uh, so if folks are thinking about running for office,

23:09 it is mostly too late for 2026.

23:11 In a couple places that's not true,

23:13 but absolutely not too early to get started for 2027 or 2028.

23:18 Um, you can go to runforomethingthing.net or runfor what.net.

23:22 We also are likely to have more than 400 candidates on the ballot this year.

23:26 Um, amazing young leaders running for state and local office.

23:28 The kinds of offices we need to win in order to say

23:31 draw better maps uh once now that the voting rights act is gutted.

23:35 uh in order to make sure that we're protecting schools and protecting

23:38 like voting rights and protecting um reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights.

23:42 All of those things are happening at the state and local level,

23:44 which is where our candidates are running and winning,

23:47 especially in really long shot places.

23:49 So, if you're thinking about doing that or getting involved,

23:51 you can find our candidates again, runforomething.net.

23:54 It's never been more important to try and win locally because federally,

23:57 we're not going to get[ __] done in the next couple years.

23:59 Um especially if this calcified leadership stays in place.

24:02 So, let's bring new folks in charge.

24:05 Also, it might be too late to run,

24:07 but it's not too early to get involved with a campaign.

24:11 And I I would definitely suggest volunteering or even try

24:14 to get some sort of staffing position if you can

24:17 because if you if you can't run, one of the best things you can do is get

24:21 involved with the campaign and see if you like it,

24:23 you know, see if see if it works for you and then start from there.

24:27 But Amanda, thank you.

24:28 Thank you for taking the time and uh I'll see you soon.

24:32 Cool.

24:32 Thanks, Keith.