Leading Democratic organizers are turning their backs on Hillary Clinton surrogate David Brock, charging that the Media Matters founder has been a nuisance to the party.
Soon after Democrats faced stunning defeats in November, Brock moved to construct a vehicle to "kick Donald Trump's ass" in an attempt to pivot himself as a leading operative for the party.
Brock pitched his latest scheme to a group of donors in Florida this past weekend, detailing plans to use a news entity he recently purchased as the "nucleus" of a multi-faceted offensive against Trump.
Despite Brock's involvement in generating opposition research and ads for the Clinton campaign, Democratic activists and former campaign members are skeptical of his ability to drive results, according to a series of interviews conducted by the Daily Beast.
"His ability to produce wins for Democrats is nonexistent," Jeff Weaver, former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders' presidential run, told the Daily Beast. "He does not have the kind of understanding of what kind of coalition you have to bring together to win national races—that's his fundamental problem."
A former senior Clinton campaign official echoed a similar sentiment.
"I don't think David Brock has been helpful to the party to date, and I don't think he will be a big part of its future," the official told the Daily Beast. "And it's surprising that many other people don't see it that way."
Brock declared during the 2016 campaign that Democrats would win the election by a landslide, telling Politico in April last year that the party would have an "unprecedented opportunity to build a sustainable progressive majority." Brock attributed the predicted success in part to a trove of opposition research he and his team had assembled against Trump.
Meanwhile, a second senior Clinton campaign official called Brock's 2016 operations "useless," adding, "You might as well have thrown those [tens of] millions of dollars down a well, and then set the well on fire."
Brock brushed aside criticisms, calling on the political left to focus on "destroying" Trump rather than each other.