By
Benjamin Hart,
staff editor at Intelligencer who joined New York in 2017
At this point, the 2024 Democratic autopsy has taken on something of a mystical air. The still-unreleased report was meant to provide a comprehensive diagnosis of how and why Kamala Harris lost the presidential election two years ago. Ken Martin, the embattled chair of the Democratic National Committee, ordered it soon after he was elected to the position last February. But in November, Martin announced that he would not release it after all, arguing — rather unconvincingly — that it would not be productive to dwell on the past.
Last week, Rob Flaherty, the deputy campaign manager for Harris’s campaign who co-hosts the podcast Nobody Knows Anything, offered his unique perspective on the matter. In a widely shared article he wrote for The Bulwark, Flaherty disclosed that he had been interviewed for the infamous autopsy — which he described as haphazardly produced — and explained what he had told the team behind it. Flaherty gave his unvarnished thoughts on Harris’s loss, arguing that endlessly dissected campaign moments — Donald Trump’s anti-trans ad, Harris’s failure to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast — and contentious issues like Gaza were less important factors than the Democratic Party’s shattered “brand” amid widespread discontent around inflation and Joe Biden. He also opined on how a hidebound party can appeal to today’s anti-institution electorate. I spoke with Flaherty about the reaction to his article, why Democrats should stake out an aggressive position on AI, and who in the party he thinks is particularly intriguing right now.
