DNC Chair Ken Martin threw phone at aide's desk, faced HR complaint in sign of 'fraying nerves': report

Stressed-out Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin faced a formal human resources complaint after allegedly throwing his phone at a junior aide's desk at the party's Washington headquarters in early July, The New York Times reported Sunday, as financial concerns and internal tensions placed his leadership under scrutiny.

The cause of the alleged outburst remained unclear, but one DNC source briefed on the episode described it as worsening conduct. "It's just f---ing unacceptable. This is spiraling behavior," the source told NOTUS. The Times described the show of frustration as a sign of Martin's "fraying nerves."

The Times cited six people familiar with the incident, none of whom witnessed it firsthand. Their accounts differed over how forcefully Martin threw the phone, but the newspaper reported that it landed on the aide's desk while Martin was reprimanding the staffer and led to a formal HR complaint.

NOTUS reported that five sources said Martin threw the phone in the aide's direction after a scheduled period of donor and political calls. The phone did not strike the staffer, but several aides were shaken, according to the outlet. Martin apologized to the aide during an HR meeting on the following business day.

Federal Election Commission records showed the committee ended June with $16.3 million in cash and $18.5 million in debt. By comparison, the Republican National Committee reported $128.5 million in cash and no debt.

Martin defended the committee's strategy in a Substack essay last week, saying it raised $154.8 million from grassroots and major donors through June, compared with $95.2 million during the comparable 2017-2018 period. "The current DNC has raised the most money of any DNC without the White House in the 198-year history of the Democratic Party," Martin said in a Monday Substack. "But a party is not a savings account. Its purpose is to build power."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, DNC Executive Director Roger Lau characterized the vendor-invoice requests as routine contract discussions. "This is nothing more than standard negotiations with vendors over contracts and payment processes," Lau said.