A senior official from the Democratic National Committee has alleged that the party poured $2 billion into efforts to convince the American public to disregard their own observations during Joe Biden’s campaign for a second presidential term.
David Hogg, the 25-year-old vice chair, stated on Friday that the Democratic Party failed in the 2024 presidential election due to their massive expenditure aimed at persuading voters that former President Joe Biden was in good health and the economy was thriving.
‘People said to us that “Joe Biden is too old,” and they said that “prices are too high,”‘ Hogg recounted on Real Time with Bill Maher.
‘We invested $2 billion to assert that “No, he’s not,” followed by “Yes, he is,” and eventually “No, they’re not, look at this stock market graph,”‘ he remarked.
Host Bill Maher had earlier argued in the segment that woke ideology was what turned voters away from the Democrats at the polls.
But while Hogg conceded the point, he claimed the stunning defeat had more to do with voters thinking Trump heard their concerns – while Democrats were pushing back on what they were feeling.
‘I think the reason that worked though, Bill, is because people felt like they weren’t heard by us,’ he argued.
Hogg, who was a student at Parkland high school during the deadly shooting, then went on to mention how the party allegedly covered up Biden’s mental decline, and declared: ‘If you tell people not to believe their eyes and their wallets, you’re going to lose.’
Still, the former president has said he does not believe it would have made any difference if he had dropped out of the race sooner.
‘We left at a time when we had a good candidate,’ Biden said of Harris in an interview on Wednesday. ‘She was fully funded.
‘And what happened was, what we had set out to do, no one thought we could do,’ the former president added. ‘We had become so successful in our agenda, it was hard to say, ‘I’m gonna stop now.”
But Biden has previously said he initially intended to serve only one term, and wanted to be a transitional figure for the future of the Democratic Party.
‘I meant what I said when I started, that I’m preparing to hand this to the next generation…but things moved so quickly, and it made it difficult to walk away,’ he admitted in the interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today show.
But after a disastrous debate against Trump on June 27 last year, it appeared to many in the Democratic Party that Biden’s mental acuity was declining – and on July 21, he finally passed the baton onto Harris.
That gave Harris just 106 days to build-out a presidential campaign, and she ultimately lost to Trump in November.
Now, Hogg is seeking to court those new Democratic leaders that Biden had spoke of.
He vowed to raise millions of dollars through a political action committee unaffiliated with the DNC to support primary challengers running against longtime incumbents in solidly Democratic congressional districts.
Hogg argued that the Democratic party needs a shakeup to bring in leaders who will more aggressively take on President Trump and connect with younger voters, saying they do not currently view established Democrats as a ‘real alternative to the Republican Party.
‘That will not change if we keep the status quo,’ Hogg said. ‘We have no other option but to do the hard work of holding ourselves and our own party accountable.’
He added in a statement posted on social media that he is not breaking any current DNC rules, and his actions don’t interfere with the party’s responsibilities.
Yet Hogg’s announcement has set up a civil war within the Democratic Party leadership, as Chairman Ken Martin argued that party officers should be banned from taking sides in primaries
‘No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger,’ Martin told reporters last month – publicly countering Hogg’s idea.
He argued that party neutrality is crucial to maintaining the confidence of voters, pointing to the bitter feud that emerged after supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders´ 2016 campaign.
More liberal voters believed Sanders was stymied by party insiders putting their thumb on the scale in favor of Hillary Clinton, who won the nomination but went on to lose the general election to Donald Trump.
‘You can´t be both the player and the referee,’ Martin wrote in an op-ed.
He added that he is now drafting proposed bylaw changes that would require officers to remain neutral in all Democratic primaries.
