DNC Chairman Ken Martin threw a phone at a junior aide's desk in early July. An HR complaint was filed. And that's not even the most embarrassing thing that happened to the Democratic National Committee this month.

The party that wants to run the country is currently asking its vendors not to send invoices until after the midterms, which aren't until November.

Let's walk through the numbers, because they tell the story better than any press release ever could. The DNC is sitting on $2 million in debt. It took out a $15 million line of credit last year, pledging its own Washington headquarters as collateral. The interest alone runs $75,000 a month, with over $700,000 already paid. Starting in January, they owe $1.66 million a month in principal payments. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee is holding $128.5 million in cash on hand, and President Trump controls a $400 million super PAC.

One hundred days before the midterm elections, and the DNC is leveraging its office furniture to keep the lights on.

Martin, who took over the chairmanship with a term running through 2029, is already making what the New York Times described as "dark jokes about how long he'll last." At a May staff meeting, he addressed what had become a flood of leaks — over two dozen staffers reportedly talked to the Times for a single story. His message to the team, as reported by Newsmax and PJ Media: "It pisses me off when I see leaks out of this building. No more of that shit. No more."

Inspiring stuff. He followed it up with: "Keep your head up. Keep a smile on your face."

The leaks didn't stop. They rarely do when the ship is going down.

DNC Finance Chairman Chris Korge is overseeing a budget so strained that the committee had to transfer $1 million from its own 2028 convention fund just to cover current operations, while still sending $3 million each to the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial campaigns. Executive Director Roger Lau characterized the practice of asking vendors to sit on their invoices as "standard negotiations with vendors over contracts and payment processes." Standard. Sure.

The internal fractures go deeper than the balance sheet. Party officers were required to sign NDAs just to attend a June meeting in Pittsburgh. Former DNC Vice Chairman David Hogg has become a public flashpoint, exposing a party that can't agree on whether it represents progressive activists, establishment insiders, or working families. The answer, increasingly, appears to be none of the above.

Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley has reportedly been fielding calls about potentially replacing Martin, according to people familiar with the conversations. But nobody expects a change before November. There's no clear alternative, and the party faithful are too busy arguing about who lost 2024 to plan for 2026.

Martin told his staff: "My success is your success. So the weaker I am, the weaker all of you are."

Twenty-four people leaked that quote to a reporter.