DNC official Lindy Li says she encountered a “fierce backlash, calls for retraction over Hegseth’s remarks,

Leading Democratic National Committee (DNC) powerhouse Lindy Li is facing a backlash from members of her own party after voicing her support for President-elect Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth .

She said her stance sparked a level of intra-party vitriol that caught her off guard, to the point where some are calling for her to leave the Democratic Party entirely.

Li, a Democratic strategist, served as a deputy to Vice President Harris and a member of the DNC National Fundraising Committeea membership he noted requires raising “millions of dollars” on behalf of Democratic candidates. He also appeared almost every day on air for Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.

He said what is happening to him underscores the party’s broader posture of finger-pointing and internal blame even after its heavy electoral losses.

So it was in that context that he appeared on NewsNation’s “Morning in America” ​​over the weekend and offered what he described as “limited support” for Hegseth, Li told Fox News Digital on Monday. . The two share Princeton University as their alma mater and both appeared at the same time on “Fox & Friends” this fall.

Asked about his nomination Sunday, Li told host Markie Martin, “I actually think he’s a good guy.”

“Maybe you’re looking for someone to oppose the nomination, but I actually have personal interactions with (Hegseth),” he said, adding that “because I’ve been on Fox and Friends; I’ve met Pete, he’s my partner from Princeton.”

He repeatedly refused to answer questions about Hegseth’s path to confirmation amid allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct. Hegseth has it denied any wrongdoing.

Still, the torrent of criticism continued, ranging from party leaders to public voices within the party who urged her on social media and in text messages reviewed by Fox News Digital to resign or be “fired.” , which Li mocked because she, in her current capacity, is not on any DNC payroll. (As a Democratic strategist and fundraiser, she has raised millions of dollars for both President Biden and Harris in their respective presidential campaigns, and has appeared on television countless times. Her family has also donated buildings, including a church in the Philadelphia area).

Still, Li said, the criticism made her question, to some extent, her loyalty to the same party for which she raised millions of dollars during the 2024 election cycle alone.

“I’m not just a random donor. I’m one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Asian-American fundraiser on the Democratic side,” she said.

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Instead, Li said he sees the fallout from the fairly innocuous comment as a “microcosm of what’s wrong with the Democratic Party” in “not allowing any dissent, any criticism.”

He said this reinforces the contention of certain factions within the Democratic Party: The leadership has learned the wrong lessons after its losses in the House, Senate and 2024 presidential races. Instead of entering into an open dialogue with the public about their mistakes, they have become more determined to blame within the party and to point the finger.

He described to him a “vindictive” effort by some leaders to discount his support and the millions he has raised on behalf of his party.

He also pointed to some Democratic leaders’ decisions to bolster the idea of ​​identity politics, a strategy most prominently featured by outgoing Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison.

Harrison, whose leadership role ends in February, has strongly rejected party critics who have urged them to take a different path after their resounding losses in 2024.

He also used a speech last week to push back on the notion that Democrats need to abandon “identity politics,” despite criticism that embracing those issues could have led to his losses in key swing states.

She told him that she and others think that’s part of the problem.

“Harrison is asking us to bend down on identity politics. And I think that’s a counterproductive strategy,” Li said in the interview.

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“It’s crazy,” he said. “If you want an explanation of why they lost, this is it,” Li added, pointing to what he described as the Democratic Party’s “purity tests” and the “purging” of Democrats deemed unfit or unfit. they get party line

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Meanwhile, Li said he faces no shortage of options as he weighs what a future role in the Democratic Party might look like or whether he even wants to stay there.

“I think I’m too old to completely exile myself from the party,” Li said of his contributions to the DNC. “Management knows it.”

“People from Trump’s team have already contacted me to see if I would be willing to switch,” Li added. “So I’m not an orphan, you know? And I know people are actively trying to recruit me.”