DNC chair, almost crying, claims David Hogg is making it impossible to lead party: ‘No one knows who the hell I am'
DNC Chair Ken Martin vented about party Vice Chairman and Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg to the point of near tears in a recent call with top Dem brass, saying, 'No one knows who the hell I am.
'I'll be very honest with you: For the first time in my 100 days on this job, the other night I said to myself for the first time, 'I don't know if I wanna do this anymore,' ' Martin bluntly admitted in leaked audio of the May 15 Zoom meeting, which was obtained by Politico,
Martin, who was elected boss of the Democratic National Committee in February, bemoaned the shadow that Hogg cast over him by igniting a firestorm within the party over his plans to fund primary challenges against incumbent Dems.
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'No one knows who the hell I am, right?' Martin said during the call, in which he singled out Hogg, who was in the meeting.
'I'm trying to get my sea legs underneath of me and actually develop any amount of credibility so I can go out there and raise the money and do the job I need to put ourselves in a position to win,' the chairman said.
'I don't think you intended this, but you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to,' he said, directly addressing Hogg. 'So it's really frustrating.'
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3 Ken Martin didn't mince words about his frustrations with DNC Vice Chair David Hogg in leaked audio.
AP
3 Hogg has been working to fund Democratic primaries against safe DEM incumbents despite his role as a party's vice chair.
Getty Images for Fast Company
Toward the end of the leaked audio, Martin's voice grew softer, and he paused at least twice, appearing to be on the verge of choking up.
The DNC boss told Hogg, 'I deeply respect you' and 'was looking forward to working with you' while griping about the dilemma that the 25-year-old school mass-shooting survivor created.
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Martin, referring to the state of the DNC, said, 'It has plenty of warts, and we're all trying to change those, for sure, but the longer we continue this fight, the harder it is for us to actually do what we all want to do, which is make a difference in this country again.'
About 10 people were reportedly on the call.
The Post reached out to the DNC and Hogg for comment. Hogg later posted text messages with the Politico reporter who broke the story as evidence that he didn't leak the audio.
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Martin was meanwhile adamant that 'I'm not going anywhere' after the leaked audio surfaced.
'I took this job to fight Republicans, not Democrats,' he said in a statement obtained by Politico. 'As I said when I was elected, our fight is not within the Democratic Party, our fight is and has to be solely focused on Donald Trump and the disastrous Republican agenda.
'That's the work that I will continue to do every day.'
Hogg announced in April that his 'Leaders We Deserve' group would shell out about $20 million to meddle in Democratic primaries located in safe districts to edge out what it considers complacent incumbents in favor of ones who are more feisty.
3 Hogg has argued that the party needs to become more combative.
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Last month, Hogg's group made its first endorsement, backing Illinois state Sen. Robert Peters (D) for the seat held by US Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District. Kelly is running to replace retiring Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in 2026.
Many Democrats are incensed that Hogg is attempting to retain his role as a vice chair at the DNC and intervene in primaries at the same time. Hogg is one of three vice chairs.
As with the Republican National Committee, the DNC provides candidates with resources and strategic assistance and is generally expected to be neutral in party primaries.
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'Our job is to be neutral arbiters,' Martin previously said in another leaked April call. 'We can't be both the referee and also the player at the same time.'
Martin had pressured Hogg to either sign a neutrality pledge or step down from his highly coveted perch.
Last month, around the time of the leaked Martin Zoom call, the DNC Credentials Committee heard complaints that Hogg and fellow Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta were improperly elected to their positions in February.
The complaint was furnished by Oklahoma DNC member Kalyn Free, who pointed to committee rules calling for the party to have as close to gender parity as possible. She argued that the election of Hogg and Kenyatta flouted those rules.
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The DNC subpanel recommended that the party hold new elections for the vice chair positions to rectify that issue.
All of that controversy has clouded the DNC's efforts to go on the offensive against Republicans and President Trump amid deep soul-searching within the party over what went awry during the 2024 presidential election.
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Politico
9 minutes ago
- Politico
The GOP's latest megabill casualties
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In the coming weeks, expect Senate Republicans to start getting their first 'Byrd bath' rulings from the parliamentarian on additional GOP proposals under challenge from Democrats. To help avoid a tough whip effort today, House GOP leaders are embedding the fixes in the procedural measure they're using to set up debate on the $9.4 billion rescissions package — legislation that even the most conservative Republicans support. That won't be the case when the bill comes back from the Senate in a few weeks, as leaders hope. GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING. We hope to see you all at the Congressional Baseball Game tonight! 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TODAY'S QUESTION, from Paul: William Henry Harrison had the shortest tenure as president. Who had the second shortest tenure? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@ CORRECTION: Yesterday's newsletter misstated the time of a House Democratic leaders press conference and misspelled Sang Yi's name — our apologies.
Politico
14 minutes ago
- Politico
Kweisi Mfume is pitching an old-school approach to one of House Democrats' highest-profile jobs
Frustrated by Democrats' seniority system, Kweisi Mfume fled the House three decades ago, saying he could do more to advance civil rights from the outside. Now he's back and trying to reap the benefits of seniority at a moment when many in his party are starting to openly question it. The Baltimore native last month surprised many House colleagues by entering the wide-open race to lead Democrats on the high-profile Oversight Committee, seeking to fill the spot vacated by the sudden death of Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly. Into the void jumped a pair of young, ambitious members — Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Robert Garcia of California — as well as a close Connolly ally, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. And then there's Mfume, who at 76 is making no bones about this being the capstone of a long career that included stints leading the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP — jobs he took back in the 1990s. 'I started a long time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth,' Mfume joked in an interview, before describing his old-school approach to legislative relations: 'The first thing you learn is how to count votes, which has never failed me yet,' he said, adding that he would be careful not to alienate colleagues 'by doing something that causes problems for them in their district.' Rather than detail a point-by-point agenda for taking on President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, Mfume said if elected he'd convene the committee's Democrats to decide a course of action. The party, he said, can only move forward with a 'consensus.' That style stands in sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive leadership and a more visible fight with Trump — something the other candidates are clearly heeding: Garcia has tangled with the Justice Department over his criticism of Elon Musk; Crockett has broached the prospect of a Trump impeachment inquiry; and Lynch, as the panel's interim top Democrat, attempted last week to subpoena Musk during a panel hearing. The race also threatens to become a proxy fight for broader questions about age and seniority inside the Democratic Party. House Democrats ousted several aging committee leaders at the end of last Congress as they girded for a fight with the Trump administration — and many in the base were disappointed when Connolly triumphed over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The winner is poised to lead efforts to investigate and thwart the Trump administration if Democrats can retake the House majority next year — and ride herd on a chaotic panel that in recent months has featured intense personal attacks between lawmakers and the display of nude photos. 'It's a street fight every day,' said Rep. Lateefah Simon of California when asked about the panel and what it takes to lead it. 'It's every single day being able to expose the hypocrisy of this administration and to tell the truth.' There was a time when Mfume would have been a natural choice for such a moment. First elected to Baltimore's City Council at the age of 30, he quickly butted heads with legendary Mayor William Donald Schaefer. After longtime Rep. Parren Mitchell retired, Mfume easily won the seat in 1986 and within a few years become a national figure due to his chairmanship of the CBC. Ascending to that role just as Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency, he became an important power broker, forcing key concessions in Clinton's 1993 budget and pushing the White House to restore ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. He also clashed with Clinton at times, including over his decision to pull the nomination of prominent Black legal scholar Lani Guinier to a top Justice Department post. But after Democrats lost their House majority in 1994 — and Mfume lost a quixotic bid to enter the party leadership — he decided two years later to forgo a long climb up the seniority ladder. He instead took the helm at the Baltimore-based NAACP, a job thought to better harness his skills at organizing and oratory. Former Maryland state Sen. Jill Carter said Mfume has long had the 'it factor' and 'charisma' that matters in politics. When Carter ran against Mfume in his 2020 House comeback bid, she got a reminder of how well her rival was known in the district and beyond: 'When some of my people did exit polling, they got the response, 'Oh, we love Jill but, come on, this is Kweisi.'' What's less clear is whether Mfume's reputation in Baltimore, burnished over 45 years in the public eye, makes him the man for the moment as far as his contemporary House colleagues are concerned. He's not known as a partisan brawler, and he said in the interview he doesn't intend to become one. 'There are always going to be fights and disagreements,' he said. 'It's kind of escalated in the last few years to a level that we haven't seen before. I think the main thing is to moderate and to manage the disagreements, because you're not going to cause any of them to go away. How you manage them and how they are perceived by the overall public is what makes a difference.' Mfume is leaning heavily, in fact, on the style and reputation of the man who filled the 7th District seat for the 24 years in between his House stints — the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who served as top Democrat and then chair of Oversight during Trump's first term and is still spoken of in reverent terms inside the caucus. Mfume concedes that Cummings might have been the better communicator — he 'had a little more preacher in him than I do' — but said they share a similar lofty approach to politics. Like Cummings, he suggested prescription drug prices might be a committee priority. What Mfume is unlikely to have is the official support of the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful force in intracaucus politics. With two members in the race — Crockett also belongs — Mfume said he does not expect a formal CBC endorsement after an interview process Wednesday. But he still expected to draw support from the bloc — especially its more senior members. Other factors complicate Mfume's candidacy. One is age: He is a year older than Connolly was when he was elected to lead Oversight Democrats last year. For those who prize seniority, Lynch has actually spent more time on the panel. And his 2004 departure from the NAACP was marred by controversy: The Baltimore Sun reported the executive committee of the group voted not to extend his contract under threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit; the NAACP later paid the woman who complained a $100,000 settlement. Mfume strenuously denied any wrongdoing, but while the episode has not emerged as a major issue in the Oversight race, some Democrats have privately expressed reservations about elevating a leader with personal baggage to potentially lead investigations of Trump. 'There's never been one person to corroborate that one allegation — not one,' Mfume said. About the payment, he said, 'I found out about it, quite frankly, after it happened.' Much of the Democratic Caucus remains undecided ahead of the June 24 secret-ballot vote. Candidates will first go before Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full caucus. 'I think that you have a situation where Mfume and Steve Lynch are getting support from folks who put seniority at top, and maybe the other two candidates would probably lean toward members who are newer, and then you got a whole host of folks that's in the middle. And I think that's where the battle is to see where they fall,' said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.). One younger member said he was swayed by Mfume's experience. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is 48 and had weighed his own bid, said that while other candidates were compelling, the Baltimorean had a 'leg up.' 'Kweisi shows me pictures of him with Nelson Mandela,' he said. 'I was like, I'm not going to run against Nelson Mandela's best friend.'
New York Times
14 minutes ago
- New York Times
Texas Governor Will Deploy National Guard to Immigration Protests
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said late Tuesday that he would deploy National Guard troops across the state, making him the first governor to do so as protests against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown spread across the United States. Mr. Abbott, a Republican and a vocal supporter of President Trump's immigration agenda, said on social media that he would not tolerate violence as protests are planned in San Antonio on Wednesday. The protests that began in Los Angeles last Friday against federal immigration raids have spread to more than a dozen U.S. cities, including Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio. While many of the protests have been peaceful, police have clashed with demonstrators at some of them. Mr. Trump has threatened to override governors who don't want to send National Guard troops to stop protests, like the president did in California, where he sent nearly 5,000 National Guard troops and Marines over the strong objections of state leaders. That has made California ground zero for Mr. Trump's immigration agenda, which includes ramping up deportations of undocumented immigrants with the help of local law enforcement agencies and, in a rare action, active-duty military forces. Mr. Abbott's announcement said that the Texas National Guard will 'use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order.' 'Peaceful protest is legal,' he added. 'Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest.' The announcement did not specify where and when the troops will be deployed. Mr. Abbott's office, the San Antonio Police Department, the Texas National Guard and U.S. Northern Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Monday night, more than a dozen protesters were arrested in Austin during a demonstration at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Mr. Abbott had said. Law enforcement officials used tear gas and pepper ball projectiles, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
