DNC chair denies reports about staff 'paranoia,' chaos, but even MS NOW host is skeptical
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin denied reports of staff paranoia and chaos as outside "noise" to a skeptical MS NOW host on Saturday.
Democratic National Committee Chair (DNC) Ken Martin denied Saturday that he presided over a paranoid workplace at the party's Washington headquarters — where he'd allegedly even been hit with an HR complaint — prompting MS NOW hosts to question why the allegations were emerging from inside the organization.
Martin was pressed about the alleged HR complaint for throwing a phone at a staffer's desk and reports that employees had become fearful of leaks and decisions he allegedly made in isolation. Martin denied the reporting and praised the DNC’s employees.
"Multiple sources also described a growing sense of paranoia inside DNC headquarters under your leadership and that the staff had become afraid of leaks and decisions that you were making in isolation," MS NOW co-host Jacqueline Alemany said at one point.
"Well, the reporting is not accurate, but what I would say is every day when I go into the DNC, what I see is a staff that works extremely hard," Martin said. "They’re working overtime. I’m usually the first one in, the last one to leave."
Martin dismissed the "noise on the outside" and said Democrats were focused on winning in November, when Democrats are hoping to win back Congress to stifle the Trump White House.
"But to be fair, Mr. Chairman, some of this noise is coming from the inside, right?" co-anchor Eugene Daniels asked.
Martin said he did not know why the allegations were coming from inside the DNC before shifting to voters’ economic concerns.
"You know, I don’t know, but as I travel across the country, Eugene, what I hear from the American people, they’re not focused on any of that," Martin said.
The New York Times cited six people familiar with the alleged phone incident, although none witnessed it firsthand. Accounts differed over how forcefully Martin threw the device, but the newspaper reported that it landed on the aide's desk while Martin reprimanded the staffer and led to a human resources complaint.
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NOTUS separately reported that the phone did not strike the aide but left several staffers shaken. Martin apologized to the aide during an HR meeting the following business day, according to the outlet.
The reports followed a May meeting in which Martin allegedly expressed anger about information leaking from DNC headquarters. Fox News Digital reported that members of the party’s leadership team were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements before a meeting about the committee’s finances.
The internal tensions emerged as the DNC faced a steep financial disadvantage ahead of the 2026 midterms. Federal Election Commission filings showed the committee ended June with $16.3 million in cash and $18.5 million in debt, compared with the Republican National Committee's $128.5 million in cash and no debt. The DNC had also drawn $15 million from a credit line secured in part by its headquarters.
Rufus Gifford, a former Biden deputy campaign manager and Obama-era DNC finance director, previously pointed to the internal leaks as evidence that employees had lost confidence in Martin's leadership.
"The leaks coming from inside the building streaming across every media outlet say to me that the (diligent and wonderful) staff are losing or have lost faith," Gifford said.
Martin defended the committee’s spending strategy in a July Substack, claiming the party was investing its money in staff, organizing, technology and state parties.
"But a party is not a savings account," Martin said. "Its purpose is to build power."
Fox News Digital reached out to the DNC for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.