The Democratic party's 2024 election autopsy report, released after backlash, omits any mention of Gaza, drawing criticism from progressive Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna. They argue that the Gaza situation was a significant factor in the election outcome.
Key points
Democratic party released a 192-page postmortem of its 2024 election defeat
The report was initially withheld, prompting backlash from party members
Progressive Democrats criticized the report for not mentioning Gaza
Key demographics lost included Latinos, men, and rural voters
The report suggests focusing less on abstract issues and identity politics
Mentioned in this story
Alexandria Ocasio-CortezRo KhannaDemocratic National CommitteeGaza
Good morning.
On Thursday, the Democratic party published a postmortem – spanning 192 pages – of its 2024 election defeat, after an initial decision to withhold the document prompted an angry backlash.
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, released the report alongside an apology to party members angered by his initial decision to keep the analysis secret. Martin said the report “does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards”.
Progressive Democrats criticized the report’s content. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman from New York, told reporters on Thursday that it was “pretty unbelievable that Gaza would not be mentioned once in the autopsy report”, saying it was “very clearly a major dynamic and a major thread that was happening in 2024”. Ro Khanna, the congressman from California, said that “one of the reasons we lost is our blank check to Israel and Netanyahu while they committed genocide in Gaza”.
What’s in the postmortem? It focuses on key demographics that Kamala Harris lost, including Latinos, men and rural voters in many states. “Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban/suburban margins would compensate,” the report says. “The math doesn’t work.” The autopsy says that Democrats must focus less on “abstract issues and identity politics”.
House Republicans cancel vote on war powers resolution to end US war in Iran
Head and shoulders of the speaker of the US House, Mike Johnson
Q&A
Why did progressive Democrats criticize the 2024 election autopsy report?
Progressive Democrats criticized the report for failing to mention Gaza, which they believe was a significant factor in the election outcome.
What key demographics did the Democratic autopsy report focus on?
The report highlighted key demographics lost by Kamala Harris, including Latinos, men, and rural voters.
What did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say about the autopsy report?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed disbelief that Gaza was not mentioned in the report, calling it a major thread in the 2024 election.
What reasons did Ro Khanna give for the Democratic loss in 2024?
Ro Khanna attributed the loss partly to the party's support for Israel and Netanyahu during the Gaza conflict.
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The speaker of the US House, Mike Johnson, in Washington DC on 20 May. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
House Republicans canceled a scheduled vote on Thursday over a war powers resolution aimed at ending the US war with Iran, a measure that likely would have advanced had the vote been held.
The three top House Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, called Republican leadership “cowardly” for cancelling the vote.
What does the move tell us? The cancellation, which avoided political embarrassment for Donald Trump, is the latest signal that congressional support for the US president’s war is diminishing.
What happens next? The vote has been postponed until lawmakers return from a recess in June, when it appears likely that the resolution could pass.
Video shows ICE violently arresting Oregon farm****workers and using facial recognition
A still from bodycam footage shows a federal agent using a facial recognition app while a person, whose face has been blurred, sits on ground
A still from bodycam footage shows a federal agent using a facial recognition app on a detained person. Photograph: Innovation Law Lab
Newly released body-camera footage shows US immigration officers stopping a van of farmworkers in Oregon, smashing their windows and using facial recognition software to try to identify one of them.
Videos from a 30 October 2025 operation were disclosed in court as part of a continuing class-action lawsuit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) arrest tactics and racial profiling. Lawyers for one of the detained farmworkers shared the footage with the Guardian.
The officers did not have warrants to detain the workers, and a federal judge later said the arrests appeared to be unlawful and unjustified.
What does the footage show? It shows an agent using his phone to capture the face of one of the detained workers – and agents later admitted in court they used a facial recognition app during the operation. The case provides a window into ICE’s expanding use of this surveillance technology across the US, which has raised significant privacy and civil liberties concerns, particularly since the app can yield inaccurate results.
In other news …
Two men on stretchers being wheeled through airport
Activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla are wheeled on stretchers through Istanbul airport yesterday. Photograph: Emrah Gürel/AP
Israel said it has deported all the foreign activists it seized from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla after a global outcry over their treatment in custody. It comes after Itamar Ben-Gvir, the country’s national security minister, posted footage of Israeli security forces abusing international activists, which was widely condemned by world leaders.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said reparations for France’s role in hundreds of years of enslavement of African peopleshould be addressed, but he stopped short of making clear proposals.
The Trump administration announced charges against 15 people accused of cheating a government healthcare program in Minnesota, in an alleged fraud worth $90m.
The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has fired the two leaders of theUS Preventive Services Task Force, a health group that determines when insurance must provide free preventive care for millions of Americans.
Stat of the day: Bezos calls Amazon’s $40m Melania film ‘good business decision’
Jeff Bezos wearing a suit.
Jeff Bezos was asked about the film during an interview on CNBC this week. Photograph: Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and executive chair, was asked about the Melania documentary during an interview on CNBC this week. Bezos said he had not been involved, but it was “just not correct” to say that buying the film for $40m was a way of currying favor with the Trump administration. “By the way, it appears it was a good business decision,” Bezos added. “It did very well in theaters.”
Culture Pick:Lupita Nyong’oresponds to rightwing criticism of The Odyssey
Lupita Nyong’o on the Oscars red carpet, March 2025.
Lupita Nyong’o: ‘Our cast is representative of the world. I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense.’ Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Lupita Nyong’o, the Oscar-winning actor, has responded to rightwing criticism of her role in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, where she plays Helen of Troy alongside a cast including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Zendaya. “This is a mythological story,” Nyong’o told Elle magazine. “Our cast is representative of the world.”
Don’t miss this:Is the world heading for anEbola crisis? – podcast
People in PPE from head to foot outside low white building
Red Cross workers gather to disinfect Rwampara general hospital before handling the body of a person who died of Ebola. Photograph: Gradel Muyisa Mumbere/Reuters
On 17 May, the World Health Organization categorised an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a public health emergency of international concern. For Today in Focus, the Guardian explored why experts are concerned about this outbreak, which has recorded approximately 600 cases and 139 suspected deaths.
Climate check:Below-average 2026 hurricane seasonpredicted for US
Satellite view showing swirls of cloud
A weather system over Texas on 20 May. Photograph: Noaa
The US will experience a below-normal hurricane season this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), which predicts eight- to 14 named storms with winds at 39mph or more. Experts say the US is unprepared for hurricane season amid cuts to the National Weather Service by the Trump administration.
Last Thing: ‘Per my last email’ – how to stop the spiral of email incivility
A Gmail inbox file photo.
‘Unlike a rude verbal comment, a rude email can be reread repeatedly, which compounds the psychological harm.’ Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA/Google
A recent study of more than 1,000 employees found that rude emails trigger work rumination, that very specific misery of replaying an exchange in your head, linked to higher rates of anxiety and depression, Clarissa Brincat writes. So, she asked experts how to stop the spiral of incivility? If in doubt, “shut your laptop and go for a walk”.
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