Some Democratic National Committee members are “super frustrated” with the growing amount of influence the White House has in the party’s political decisions, The Hill reports.
Some members are alarmed by the “amount of participation” some senior aides to President Joe Biden have had in the early months of his first term.
“People are super frustrated in the trenches around what’s happening with the DNC and the White House’s control of it,” one DNC member told the outlet. “The White House is not thinking about how to build the electorate writ large, but they’re concentrating on [a] few states. It’s all about [the] presidential reelect.”
The influence of Biden’s inner circle is “becoming an annoyance” from members more focused on 2022 state races than the 2024 presidential election.
The frequent participation has left members felling that Biden is “clearly posturing” to run for a second term.
Ricchetti influence grows:
Some DNC members have balked at top Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti’s growing influence in DNC deliberations.
Ricchetti has made it a habit to offer “informal advice” to the DNC and has been closely involved in setting the top priorities for the party.
“He’s pivotal politically. Nothing moves without Ricchetti’s sign-off,” a DNC source told The Hill.
Ricchetti is also expected to be heavily involved in Biden’s appointments of “at-large” members of the committee.
“Those are really big items, that’s where a lot of political favors are repaid. All that goes through the president,” Ken Martin, the chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, told the outlet. “My sense is that it is Ricchetti who’s probably talking to the president about this stuff.”
The White House denied that the adviser would be involved.
DNC torn?
Some members are concerned that new DNC Chairman Jamie Harrison is torn between focusing on Biden’s agenda and the larger party agenda to hold control of Congress.
“What’s happening is a bit of a split within the DNC between ‘Team Biden’ and people who are trying to run an election cycle,” a DNC member told The Hill.
“I think that Jaime Harrison is definitely caught in the middle of this,” another source said.
A third DNC member said Harrison was “hamstrung” and complained about the DNC’s “inability to implement even basic changes,” like reinstating an Obama-era ban on corporate donations.
