The Democratic National Committee is circling the drain.
Unlike the Republican National Committee, which had no debt and $128.53 million in cash on hand at the end of last month, the DNC under the leadership of Chairman Ken Martin had only $16.3 million on hand and was over $18.5 million in debt.
'The result of fraudulent activity by an external third party.'
According to the New York Times, the Democratic Party is so desperate, it has begun asking vendors to put off sending invoices until after the midterm elections.
In its desperation, the DNC had to post something near and dear as collateral in order to secure a $15 million loan from Amalgamated Bank in October — a loan that was reportedly timed to enable seven-figure financial transfers to then-gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey.
NOTUS, citing D.C. deed records, highlighted that the DNC actually put up its physical headquarters at 430 South Capitol Street in Southeast D.C. as a security — but did not explicitly note the building's use as assurance in the relevant FEC filings.
This evidently prickled those elements within the DNC that have turned on the DNC chairman, who was described last year by party officials as "weak and whiny."
"Ken gaslighting us about the DNC's finances and not being transparent about the financial situation makes us doubt if he can oversee the DNC during the most important primary of our lifetime," one DNC member said, according to NOTUS.
A DNC official said in a statement obtained by NOTUS, "This is not new. The loan documents were publicly released in November, and the DNC's building was also used as collateral in our prior lines of credit in 2019, 2018, 2014, and many other years."
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Martin tried to paint lipstick on this donkey in a July 20 blog post, stating, "So why does the DNC have less cash on hand than some expect? Because we made a conscious decision to invest money in the work required to win in 2025, 2026, and beyond. We are converting the cash we raise into electoral assets: more people, earlier organizing, better technology, and stronger state parties."
"A larger bank account does not knock on a door, register a voter, recruit a candidate, or protect the vote," Martin wrote. "We have chosen to build. We are replacing a boom-and-bust campaign model with permanent political infrastructure. We are not choosing between winning now and building for the future. Our investments are designed to do both."
Despite his practiced ability to cast failure in a positive light, Martin, who took over the DNC in February 2025 and whose term is supposed to end in 2029, is fast running out of friends and beginning to crack under the pressure.
Multiple sources described to the New York Times an incident earlier this month where Martin, "in a pique of frustration," allegedly threw his phone at the desk of a junior aide while reprimanding the individual. Martin and the DNC declined the Times' invitation to comment on the matter.
Around the DNC headquarters, which has been staked as collateral, Martin has allegedly been making dark jokes about his ouster and expressing concerns about leaks and a potential mutiny.
"Ken needs help — H-E-L-P," former acting DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile told the Times. "And if he's reluctant to say it, I'm here to help him ask. It's hard. It's very difficult."
Some Democrats are publicly calling for Martin to throw in the towel.
California Rep. Sam Liccardo (D), for instance, tweeted on Sunday, "Ken Martin must resign. As Democrats, we have become too captured by failing strategies. We must fail forward, and pivot. The urgency of this moment will not reward — and our children will not forgive — torpidity."
The DNC's humiliation was compounded further this week by the revelation that besides the $75,000 or more the organization is paying in interest on the $15 million October loan, it was scammed out of nearly $29,000 last year, reportedly by an email scammer pretending to be Martin.
A senior FEC campaign finance and reviewing analyst issued a request to the DNC on July 8, 2025, for information pertaining to a "misdisbursement" totaling $28,860.92 referenced in a monthly report that "appears to be related to an apparent unauthorized disbursement of Committee funds."
The DNC said in response that the "identified transaction was the result of fraudulent activity by an external third party."
A committee staffer received a fraudulent email from an unknown individual claiming to be Martin in February 2025 — just days after Martin became chairman — and made a hefty payment to the fraudster, NOTUS reported.
The DNC promptly reported the transaction to its bank, Wells Fargo, but was reportedly able to recover only $7,000 of the cash. The staffer is no longer with the DNC, according to NOTUS.
"This was a one-off mistake that was promptly caught and addressed, and no similar issues have occurred since," DNC spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said.
In addition to throwing away money it can't afford to lose, the DNC is grappling with the party's historic unpopularity.
According to an Economist/YouGov poll conducted last month, 54% of Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party. Among those over 29, the numbers are even worse for the party.
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Veteran political strategist Donna Brazile faced fierce criticism after her response to sexual assault allegations against Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner.
Platner has faced a damaging series of scandals, but the latest allegations are leading many Democrats to rescind their endorsements and call for him to step down.
'He's got a pattern of abusing women and you're empathizing with him?'
While Brazile did call for Platner to be replaced, she also said he needed time to heal.
"It's time for Mr. Platner to step aside and be replaced," she wrote in a post on social media.
"Platner needs time to heal, focus on his family and well-being. Enough. Enough," she continued.
Her strange reaction was lambasted by critics online.
"Why does he need 'time to heal' from assaulting women?" one user responded.
"So your main concern here is the mental health and well-being of the accused rapist? Interesting you didn't say anything about his victim," another reply reads.
"Wait a minute. Platner's accused of sexual assault, and HE needs 'time to heal'?? It sounds like he needs time to chill behind bars!" another user said.
"Heal from what? He's got a pattern of abusing women and you're empathizing with him?" another user replied.
"The time for Platner to heal will be after his ironically named cellmate Tiny, who is also a sexual reprobate, is done with him," another user joked.
Politico first reported the allegations of rape by a woman who dated Platner nearly five years ago.
RELATED: 'Should be nowhere near Congress': Even 'The View' thinks Platner is a TERRIBLE candidate
Platner was also accused of sending sexually explicit messages to women while he was still married to his wife.
If Platner chooses to step down from the campaign, it would severely deflate Democrats' hopes of wresting away control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans.
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At 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, CNN will host the first interparty presidential debate of the 2024 election, a debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who have not yet even been officially certified as their respective partyies' nominees.
Their debates in 2020 were contentious, and Thursday promises to be no different. The network hosting the debate, CNN, will likely play a significant role as well, and if past presidential debates hosted by CNN are any indication, the network will likely run interference for Biden.
Here are three notable moments in which CNN operatives apparently assisted certain Democrat candidates:
On October 16, 2012, then-President Barack Obama joined current Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney for their second of three debates before the 2012 presidential election. CNN hosted the debate, and then-anchor Candy Crowley served as moderator.
A month prior to the debate, on the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks of 2001, Islamic terrorists stormed an American diplomatic compound and a nearby annex in Benghazi, Libya, and murdered four Americans: Ambassador Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service officer Sean Smith, and two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
Obama even then cheered on his teammate: 'Can you say that a little louder, Candy?'
In the days and weeks following, Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and others blamed the attack on a YouTube video, created by an American, that criticized Muslims. "Based on the best information we have to date," Rice said at the time on "Face the Nation," "... [the attack] began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where ... there was a violent protest outside our embassy sparked by this hateful video."
But the video had nothing to do with what turned out to have been another coordinated terrorist attack on Americans on September 11.
During the 2012 presidential debate, Crowley asked Obama about these events, and Obama insisted that within 24 hours, he called them "an act of terror." Romney then jumped in and asked Obama whether he had understood him correctly: "You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror, it was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you’re saying?"
"I want to make sure we get that for the record," Romney continued, "because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror."
Crowley then stepped out of her role as moderator and openly sided with Obama, claiming that Obama "did, in fact," call the Benghazi attacks an act of terror. Obama even then cheered on his teammate: "Can you say that a little louder, Candy?"
A few weeks later, Obama routed Romney and coasted to re-election, 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.
Donna Brazile, who has bounced back and forth between Democrat campaign work and newsroom punditry for decades, was a powerful figure in the 2016 political landscape. By that point, Brazile had been making regular appearances on CNN as a Democrat strategist for years.
She had also spent years in DNC leadership roles. So when DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz abruptly resigned her DNC position in July 2016 following the explosive news from Julian Assange's WikiLeaks that the DNC had rigged the Democrat primary for Hillary Clinton against Sen. Bernie Sanders, Brazile immediately stepped in as interim DNC chair, even as she continued her contributor position at CNN.
'My job was to make all our Democratic candidates look good.'
However, the WikiLeaks scandal became much more personal for Brazile in October 2016 when leaked emails revealed that earlier that year, Brazile had shared with the Clinton campaign at least two questions Hillary Clinton would likely receive during an upcoming primary debate co-hosted by CNN.
One question related to fallout from the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Another related to the death penalty:
Here's one that worries me about HRC.
DEATH PENALTY
19 states and the District of Columbia have banned the death penalty. 31 states, including Ohio, still have the death penalty. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, since 1973, 156 people have been on death row and later set free. Since 1976, 1,414 people have been executed in the U.S. That’s 11% of Americans who were sentenced to die, but later exonerated and freed. Should Ohio and the 30 other states join the current list and abolish the death penalty?
Sent from Donna's I Pad. Follow me on twitter @donnabrazile
That year, Brazile also apparently promised in an email to a Clinton surrogate that she would "send a few more" questions along as well.
Brazile vehemently denied feeding the Clinton campaign any CNN questions, even waxing indignant and claiming that she was a victim of Christian persecution during a particularly heated exchange with then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who pressed Brazile about the accusations. Despite her caterwauling, Brazile resigned from CNN just a few days later.
Donald Trump ultimately prevailed in the 2016 presidential election, and by March 2017, Brazile publicly admitted that she had, in fact, given Clinton's team the debate questions.
"In October, a subsequent release of emails revealed that among the many things I did in my role as a Democratic operative and D.N.C. Vice Chair prior to assuming the interim D.N.C. Chair position was to share potential town hall topics with the Clinton campaign," she wrote in an article published by Time.
"My job was to make all our Democratic candidates look good, and I worked closely with both campaigns to make that happen," she continued. "But sending those emails was a mistake I will forever regret."
Chris Wallace has spent the past two years of his storied journalistic career floundering about at CNN. He joined the network in early 2022 and was supposed to be the star host of CNN+, the network's streaming service that was launched and canceled within just a month.
But in fall 2020, Wallace was still with Fox News, the network that had been his home for more than 15 years. In late September that year, Wallace moderated a debate between then-President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden. Trump was bombastic, repeatedly attempting to put Biden on the defensive about his son Hunter's involvement with Burisma and Ukraine.
'Mr. Vice President, you get the final word.'
Biden repeatedly stammered that his son had done nothing wrong and all the accusations against him had been "discredited," assertions that have since been proven false. The federal government even introduced Hunter Biden's infamous "laptop from hell" into evidence against him in his recent trial, noting that it had been authenticated as previously belonging to Hunter Biden.
Yet back in 2020, Joe Biden insisted that his son had been unfairly maligned, and Wallace seemed to help shield Biden from Trump's relentless attacks. "The mayor of Moscow's wife gave your son three and a half million dollars. What did he do to deserve it?" Trump asked Biden.
"It's not true. None of that is true," Biden stammered.
As Trump continued hammering Biden about the accusations about Hunter, Wallace repeatedly ordered Trump to back off. "Let him answer," Wallace interjected, though the cross-talk continued.
After another minute or so, Wallace told Biden: "Mr. Vice President, you get the final word." Biden then immediately replied, "Well, it's hard to get any word in with this clown."
Biden then pivoted, throwing out unspecified accusations about Trump's family members and attempting to talk about the American people, but Trump tried to steer the conversation back toward Hunter and Ukraine. At that point, Wallace ended the discussion.
When Trump asked rhetorically whether he could continue his line of questioning, Wallace raised his voice and replied, "The answer to the question is no." Wallace then demanded that the debate move on to another segment. Though he haphazardly requested that both participants stop interrupting one another, Wallace took particular aim at Trump. "I'm appealing to you, sir, to do that."
When Trump asked about Biden's behavior, Wallace retorted: "Well, frankly, you've been doing more interrupting."
Now, nearly four years later, Wallace views that debate as having sealed the election for Biden. "I actually think Donald Trump lost the presidency in that debate by his performance," Wallace said on an appearance on CNN's "The Source with Kaitlan Collins." "He dropped about four or five points. He never regained it."
Wallace also asserted that Trump "interrupted Joe Biden or me 145 times in 90 minutes," a statement that seems to situate himself with Biden and in opposition to Trump.
Wallace will not be hosting the debate on Thursday. Instead, the network has tapped for the role Wallace's colleague, Jake Tapper, who has repeatedly compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and characterized his presidency as a "nightmare."
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An ABC News panel expressed shock on Sunday that President Joe Biden is not building any electoral lead over Donald Trump despite his predecessor's legal troubles.
Over the weekend, a new Wall Street Journal poll found that Trump and Biden are tied (46%) among registered voters. Not only are they tied, but Trump's standing with voters has improved compared to the same WSJ poll conducted in April. That survey found that Biden had a three-point lead over Trump. So not only is Trump gaining despite four criminal indictments, but Biden is slipping.
ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos found the result "shocking."
"It is kind of shocking in a way that, despite all of the baggage that Donald Trump carries, he's tied with Joe Biden right now," Stephanopoulos said on ABC News' "This Week."
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, admitted the poll seriously troubles her.
"George, when I looked at that recent poll, the Wall Street Journal, I said, 'Oh, this could keep me up at night,'" Brazile admitted, explaining that Biden and the Democratic Party are having trouble connecting with younger voters.
— (@)
Later in the segment, Brazile said Trump has orchestrated a political "movement" that demands "respect."
"I'm old enough to say this: I've seen two movements outside of the social justice movements in my life on the political side," Brazile said. "One was the Reagan movement. Reagan had a hold on his base. The country at large, they saw him as someone who was willing to stand up for American values, whatever that might have meant. Now I thought it was reactionary. The other movement I saw was Barack Obama, hope and change. That galvanized the American people.
"I’ve never seen anything like this with Donald Trump," she continued. "I mean, what doesn't kill you make you stronger? I mean, being indicted, that's making him stronger? Raising $10 million using an ugly mug shot to raise money? This is a movement.
"And anyone who thinks that you can apply the old political rules to try to defeat this candidate based on 'he's scary, he's ugly' — whatever you might want to call him — this is a movement. And we have to respect the fact that it's a movement," she admitted.
‘Shocking’: George Stunned By New Poll Showing Trump and Biden Deadlocked Despite Trump’s ‘Baggage’ www.youtube.com
Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute, also explained that Trump is "incredibly shrewd and disciplined when he’s focused on the political."
"When he's focused on the issues, he speaks in a very accessible way that could be meaningful in a general election," Salam said.
Salam further explained that Trump has "galvanized" voters who are suspicious of the "establishment." And fortunately for Trump, the number of American voters who are "more suspicious" and "less trusting" of the government is growing.
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Martha Raddatz wrung her hands about the Comey indictment on 'This Week' while dismissing lawfare from the Biden administration.
Here are all the questions asked during the Sept. 7 edition of 'This Week.'
The Biden that will be most problematic for Democrats is the real Biden — the gibberish-speaking, confused-looking old man that he is.
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