Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have strongly criticized the Democratic National Committee's recently released autopsy report on the 2024 election, pointing out that it fails to mention the conflict in Gaza. Khanna told reporters outside the Capitol on Thursday, “Did you notice that it doesn’t mention the word Gaza? I mean, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know Gaza was one of the big issues in the 2024 election. So first, I skimmed it, the 192 pages; I didn’t see Gaza. Then I put it into ChatGPT, I said, ‘Did I miss something? Is Gaza mentioned?’ No Gaza.”
Khanna continued, “You know this party needs to start telling hard truths. One of those truths is that Israel committed a genocide, that Israel is an apartheid state, that we should not have given a single dollar to Israel to commit that genocide.” He added that Gaza will likely remain a concern in the upcoming midterms and the 2028 presidential election.
Ocasio-Cortez expressed similar sentiments, stating that regardless of anyone’s stance, the omission is a “major oversight.” She said, “I think it’s pretty unbelievable that Gaza would not be mentioned once in the autopsy report. I think it was very clearly a major dynamic and a major thread that was happening in 2024. Regardless of how one feels about that issue. The fact that it’s not even addressed, I think, is a major oversight.”
The report, which was intended to examine the Democratic Party’s failings in the 2024 election and provide a path forward, faced mounting pressure for release. DNC Chair Ken Martin wrote on Substack after the report was released on Thursday, “I didn’t want to create a distraction. Ironically, in doing so, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. And for that, I sincerely apologize.”
The war in Gaza became a wedge issue within the Democratic Party during the 2024 election, as many left-leaning voters refused to support then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for president due to her continued support for Israel. Harris said when accepting the Democratic presidential nomination that she will “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.” A recent poll from The New York Times/Siena found that 60% of Democratic voters were more sympathetic to the Palestinians than to Israel.
