Liberal gun-control activist David Hogg, 25, popular on the left, has brought self-admitted unknown Democrat National Committee Chair Ken Martin, 51, to tears and sharing a defeatist attitude.
"No one knows who the hell I am, right?" Martin told Democrat leaders and Hogg in a two-minute audio clip shared Sunday by Politico, which ends with the chairman's voice cracking with audio emotion if not tears.
"I'm trying to get my sea legs underneath of me and actually develop any amount of credibility so I can go out there and raise the money and do the job I need to to put ourselves in a position to win.
"And again, I don't think you intended this, but you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to.
"So it's really frustrating."
With pauses and sounds of sniffling, the audio of the May 15 Zoom call ends.
"The other night I said to myself for the first time, I don't know if I wanna do this anymore," Martin said before emotion apparently overtook him in multiple moments of choking up.
Hogg has been a staunch gun control activists since his days at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which was victimized by the murder of 17 on Feb. 14, 2018.
Seeking to advance gun control, Hogg has vowed to break from Democrat leadership, including the DNC, to use his fame and fundraising ability to primary Democrats who don't comport with his agenda.
When reached for comment by Politico after reviewing the audio, a Martin spokesperson said the DNC chair is "not going anywhere" right now.
"I took this job to fight Republicans, not Democrats," Martin said in a statement. "As I said when I was elected, our fight is not within the Democratic Party. Our fight is and has to be solely focused on Donald Trump and the disastrous Republican agenda.
"That's the work that I will continue to do every day."
Hogg didn't respond to Politico's request for comment.
A DNC vote for leadership seats is coming Monday, which likely coincides with the release of the exclusive audio clip.
DNC Associate Chair Shasti Conrad attended the Zoom meeting with roughly 10 DNC officials and supported Martin in glowing terms from what was in the audio because he "showed vulnerability in a private conversation" and "stood up" for the party against malign forces within.
"He shows up with authenticity. Always," she told Politico. "That's what you'll hear on the tape."
Martin is trying to bring the party together by singling out the gun-control activist, saying Hogg's "fight" is setting the party back by exposing "warts."
"It has plenty of warts, and we're all trying to change those, for sure, but the longer we continue this fight, the harder it is for us to actually do what we all want to do, which is make a difference in this country again," Martin says on the audio clip.
"I deeply respect you, David. I, too, was looking forward to working with you, but this has created a situation."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.