Rivera Told the He Hand-delivered a Binder Containing the Chapter, Titled What Happened in 2024, to DNC Chair Ken Martin in January

Rivera told The New York Times he hand-delivered a binder containing the chapter, titled What Happened in 2024, to DNC Chair Ken Martin in January. The chapter questions Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection, examines the party’s loss of support among voters of color, and criticizes political consultants who got generationally wealthy off politics. In every other aspect of professional life, when you fail, you look back to understand what went wrong — not in politics and certainly not in this party, Rivera said.

The inability to accept responsibility gets in the way of change, reform, growth and progress, and that’s a huge missed opportunity for the party. Martin responded: As we said at the time, in May we released all of the draft report as we’d received it from the author. If we had this in May, we would have released it with the rest of the report.

He added, To the best of our knowledge, this alleged report section was never shared with nor reviewed by the DNC — and we did not locate it in an extensive search of our files. The dispute is the latest in a public fight over the party’s direction. Martin initially withheld the report in December, calling it a distraction, but released an annotated draft in May under pressure, disavowing its contents.

Critics noted the released version omitted questions about the Gaza stance’s impact on the campaign and concerns over Biden’s mental fitness. The DNC faces scrutiny with $2 million in debt and a pause from major donors. Martin is also accused of throwing a phone onto a staffer’s desk, which the DNC declined to comment on. Democrats are forecast to retake the House and potentially the Senate in the 2026 midterms, but remain divided over issues like Israel support and democratic socialist candidates.