Hakeem Jeffries Goes to Bat for Ken Martin Amid Reports of DNC Turmoil: ‘Has My Full Support’

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters Sunday that he continues to back Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin, despite recent red flags of distress within the organization.

Jeffries spoke to reporters following a midterm rally for union leader Bob Brooks (D) in Bethlehem, PA.

“Yes, the chairman has my full support,” Jeffries said. “What we’ve seen over the last 18-plus months is that Democrats have won every single meaningful election up and down the ballot across the country during that period of time, and we look forward to our continued partnership.”

The New York Times reported Sunday that the DNC was fending off creditors, and that Martin was so stressed he reportedly threw a phone at a staffer’s desk.

Reporters Shane Goldmacher and Reid J. Epstein, wrote that the DNC was asking its vendors to delay billing them until after the midterms as they grapple with $2 million in debt. In comparison, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has $128.5 million, according to the report.

In addition, the reporters wrote, “Mr. Martin’s fraying nerves are showing. In a pique of frustration in early July, he threw his phone at the desk of a junior aide while upbraiding the person. The phone-tossing incident resulted in a formal complaint to the DNC’s human resources department.”

Martin was later hauled before the DNC’s  human resources officials about his behavior, according to three sources who spoke with the Times.

Neither the DNC nor Martin would comment on the incident, according to the report. In a statement, Roger Lau, the DNC’s executive director said that the billing issues were “nothing more than standard negotiations with vendors over contracts and payment processes.”

Martin was elected to a four-year term in February, and only a vote of the organization’s 450 members could remove him before his term is up in 2030.

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