The Daily - The Latest: What Happened in Iowa?

Episode Date: February 5, 2020

After a night of chaos and confusion at the Iowa caucuses, and nearly a full day since the results were initially expected, the state’s Democratic Party has announced only partial numbers, from 62 percent of precincts. We look at what the debacle in Iowa will mean for the results — when they’re finally released.“The Latest,” from the team behind “The Daily,” brings you the most important developments on today’s biggest news stories. You can find more information about it here.

Hello, Iowa City! All of the game day excitement is shifting to Iowa. The shape of the 2020 race could change dramatically. For it! For it! For it! Who says it? Who says it? Who says it? Today marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump. What happened in Iowa? Well, it looks like it's going to be a long night. We're not feeling good.

This is a real hit when it comes to, A, the Iowa caucus, and B, faith that people have in free and fair elections in this country. It is too close to call, so I'm just going to tell you what I do know. Good afternoon, and thank you all so much for taking a little time today to chat a little bit about what happened last night. Hey, it's Alex Burns, political reporter for The New York Times, still stuck in a hotel in Des Moines at 6.40 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday as we continue to wait for the final results of the Iowa caucus. The story of today has been that after last night's debacle, when some

combination of human and technological error prevented the results from being announced, everyone was waiting impatiently for a 3.45 p.m. announcement from the Iowa Democratic Party chair, Troy Price. The reporting of the results and circumstances surrounding the 2020 Iowa Democratic Party caucuses were unacceptable. He comes out about 20 minutes late to start the briefing. As chair of the party, I apologize deeply for this. He apologizes. How can anyone trust you now? We have been working day and night.

Take some annoyed questions from reporters. And how can you ensure Americans, assure Americans that these are verifiably accurate results? Well we're going to take the time we need to get these results done. Now that we have the first batch that's going to be coming out here in a couple of minutes. And says the results are about to go live. So all of us still here in Des Moines immediately start hitting refresh on the Iowa Democratic Party website. And here, in just a couple of minutes, we will be reporting.

But basically 18 hours after we expected the results, they are still a long, long way from complete. 62% of precincts from all 99 counties. Only 62% of the precincts have been reported. And look, I understand how much pressure the Iowa Democratic Party is under, but it seems like a highly questionable decision to make people wait this long for any information and then release only an incomplete picture. Anyways, thank you all folks. The results are coming in. We will see you later. So immediately you see cable television trying to make sense of it in real time.

And there you go. So how does Sanders lead in the state delegate equivalent? Excuse me, how does Buttigieg lead in the state delegate equivalent? If he's not leading on the second allocation, it gets into it. I got to take a look here very closely. But my theory, my suspicion is... And as we're recording this, it still remains unclear when we will actually know the final results of the Iowa caucuses. What is clear is that Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders

are the two candidates who have pulled ahead away from the rest of the pack and that Joe Biden has really fallen behind. But the latest is that the importance of those results really feels diminished in a meaningful way as a result of all this chaos. Typically, two things happen after Iowa. You see some candidates drop out, and you see one candidate claim victory and try to turn that into momentum heading into New Hampshire. But the way this has all played out, neither thing, clear losers, clear winners, is really happening yet. There's still too much uncertainty about who the number one candidate will ultimately be. In fact, right now, Bernie Sanders is winning the popular vote, while Pete Buttigieg is winning in the state delegate count.

That second number has as much to do with geographic distribution of a candidate's support as it has to do with the actual raw numbers of the vote. And it's that number, the state delegates, that is the traditional measure of who wins Iowa. So what you're seeing right now is both candidates trying to claim victory. They're not complete, but results are in from a majority of precincts, and they show our campaign in first place. We see Buttigieg come out on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after these partial results are announced, and deliver an emotional speech claiming victory and validation and sounding for all the world like a man turning toward a general election against President Trump.

A campaign that some said should have no business even making this attempt has taken its place at the front of this race to replace the current president with a better vision for the future. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is pushing hard on the idea that the popular vote, the count that matters in normal primary elections, is the most important measure of support here. Last night in Iowa, we received more votes on the first and second round than any other candidate.

It's possible once the final results are in, that split, with Sanders claiming the most raw votes, but Buttigieg claiming the most state delegates, will remain. And neither of the top two candidates would ever concede that the other had won. Or maybe in the end we will end up with one clear winner, a candidate who gets to take that big traditional victory lap in the national spotlight. But we aren't there yet. So that's the latest. Tomorrow, we head to New Hampshire, where we'll start trying to understand

what, if anything, these results mean to voters there, and whether Bernie Sanders is still the favorite in a state that he dominated four years ago. A state, by the way, that takes a simple primary vote next Tuesday.