What A Day - Iowait The Results Of The Caucuses

Episode Date: February 4, 2020

The Iowa caucuses were a joyous affair, filled with high hopes, hard work, and spirited neighborly debate. Attempts to report the results of the caucuses were an unmitigated disaster. We talk you through the multiple “victory” speeches, the arguments against letting Iowa kick off the primary season, and more.And in headlines: YouTube doesn’t want your deepfakes, at-risk fireflies, and Boris Johnson’s media kerfuffle. Plus, Hysteria's Erin Ryan fills in for Akilah!

it's tuesday february 4th i'm gideon resnick and i'm aaron ryan filling in for akilah hughes and this is what a day the most accurate and technically proficient vote counter of all daily news podcasts we are the best at both speed and quality control we're gonna call it geek wad okay so i'm still in iowa and i'm in los angeles and on today's show the results of the iowa caucuses sort of uh we'll walk through them or the lack thereof together. Okay. The Iowa caucuses happened last night. We, however, do not have the results from the Iowa Democratic Party who runs them due to a reporting issue. There are reports that Iowa Dems might release the results later today, but we'll see. So Gideon, it looks like our hopes for a smooth Iowa caucus have shattered like a bottle of red wine on the floor of a gymnasium. What's the latest? Honestly, I wish that were me dropping

that bottle and that I could sop it all up with my mouth. It is chaos. It is truly chaos. The latest news is that we don't know when we're going to get actual results from this. We have multiple campaigns that spent the remaining hours of the day on caucus night giving victory speeches, some even more so than others. I think South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg was the most effusive in terms of saying he was victorious. Senator Bernie Bernie Sanders campaign was putting out some of the precinct totals that they had. And nobody, nobody actually knows the state of anything. And you know, this, this all comes after another reported issue of a Des Moines Register poll getting pulled over the weekend that also kept everybody in the dark. But I mean, just to back up and explain for a second a little bit like what we were able to learn and what still remains to be learned. Iowa Democrats put out this

statement on the reporting issue. And the backstory here is that they're using a new app, and they're using new reporting methods where they were reporting three different sets of numbers. So, again, this was a situation that was kind of thrown into chaos from the start. But what Iowa Democrats said was it was not a hack or an intrusion. It was inconsistencies at three precinct sites. And that was around 9 p.m. We were starting to get reports from the Iowa Democratic Party that they were doing, quote, quality control on the results that they've received, quote, out of an abundance of caution. And they said that part of the delay came from having to report these three sets of data at once for the first time. So I think you and I would both agree that this is sort of like a

nightmare situation for people trying to have faith in this process, if there is any faith to have in this particular system anymore, being the caucus and being the way that it was conducted. And it also just, you know, is leading to candidates either declaring victory or, you know, people like former Vice President Joe Biden raising concerns about the reporting system and perhaps even suggesting therein that that could have resulted in the showing that, you know, it appeared that he had on Tuesday night. So, yeah, I think a lot of us who are watching this before the Iowa caucus happened, we were predicting that we couldn't guess who was going to win, but we all probably thought

that a winner would be declared. What do we make of these results? And what are the big takeaways of the night? And most importantly, is Iowa like I was saying, for all these candidates to get out and just say, we won. And it's just, you know, Iowa for a long time was sort of this momentum builder. It was sort of this thing that wasn't necessarily that important in the grand scheme of a delegate count. And it was something that was supposed to kind of help propel you along. And now we're getting an even crazier look at that, like that sort of situation on speed with people literally just spinning without even, you know, knowing everything that happened. And, you know, giving the impression that things were going well when perhaps they might not have been going well for a lot of these campaigns. A lot of us who are not in Iowa and following along on cable news

saw the chaos that came along with no results being delivered. You were there. Where were you last night? And what did you see? So we actually initially missed when this, you know, when this announcement came out from from the Iowa Democratic Party. But it was just this thing of like, oh, okay, so all the results sites are really slowly loading here. And like, we're getting updates that like, the last time we were at this point in the night of the caucus, it was like 85% were reporting. And so we were in the dark as much as everybody else and sort of only able to get these little anecdotal things that we could see. And we were at a location in West Des Moines that had two caucus sites within it. It was sort of a more suburban area. And Buttigieg actually won both of them, at least according to the counts that they did in the room that I witnessed with my own eyes.

Now I'm even kind of doubting that to an extent because this is such a crazy situation. And, you know, at least initially that kind of seemed indicative of the kind of support that Buttigieg gets and the kind of support that they were thinking that they were going to get throughout the state. The most interesting kind of observations from within there was all the people were broadly respectful, even as they're going through this zany process of lining up in this hot gym and figuring out who they're going to send on from Iowa. And all the precinct captains, when they were making their out, you know, who they're going to send on from from Iowa and all the the precinct captains when they were making their cases were saying all the candidates were great. And it was very important to, you know, make sure that at some point down the line, everybody lines up for the Democratic nominee. And then just to add to that entire scene, Andrew Yang came and spoke on his behalf, too.

So even that was crazy before we had this other news that interrupted the entire process. We did talk to some caucus goers afterwards. Let's listen to some of what they had to say about this. What would it mean for you if Bernie Sanders won the Iowa tournament? Oh, man, it would change the world. I think it is a good place to be in, and then he's looking good in New Hampshire. And I think a lot of stats show that if he wins Iowa and New Hampshire, it shows really good for him winning president.

So I'm really excited about that. I'm excited for the movement. You know, it's really about all of us. It's not about Bernie. Bernie's just a leader. We are all doing this together, and that's what's really cool about that. I'm excited for the movement. You know, it's really about all of us. It's not about Bernie. Bernie's just a leader. We are all doing this together, and that's what's really cool about it. I caucused for Elizabeth Warren. Good, really excited. I really liked our turnout. I was happy to see the numbers that we got and comparing to everybody else. I actually saw her here in Des Moines in January of last year, and it was really great, and it's been great following her ever since.

So I've been kind of on her side ever since. So you're surprised that Amy did so well? Yeah, especially since she, it sounded like people were thinking that she wasn't going to be viable in some districts and stuff. I was surprised how well she was doing in our district. And what does you two hope for? Just that she's a moderate. I personally prefer moderates over the more far left kind of style. I feel like moderates are more likely to win the general election.

That was Jacob Adams, Brady Rabune, and Abby Meisenberg after the caucuses on Monday night. And they and everyone we spoke to said they'd get behind any Democrat against Trump. And the irony now, I guess, is they'll have to figure out who that Democrat is, perhaps even later this year. Then we also ended up at the Sanders party where he briefly spoke. And then supporters were, at least before we left, waiting hours to see if he would come back. And the last that we heard from there was, you know, he would come back out and speak a little bit more if more results were final. You know, in the run up to the Iowa caucuses this year, a lot of Democrats were criticizing them for being the first saying that the state, you know, is too white and too small and not representative of America as a whole. And it shouldn't be first. Well, did the Democrats who say Iowa shouldn't be first actually kind of get their way last night? Like, was the point that Iowa shouldn't be the first proven by the dysfunction of the caucuses? Yeah, in a sense, for different reasons, right? I mean, like you were saying, like, we've heard a lot of people talking about the order of these states not necessarily being reflective of the issue on this particular caucus night. But

in a sense, yeah, it's only going to add fuel to that fire of people talking about things like that. When you have a bunch of candidates that are putting the time and the money and the effort into something like this, and then the result is no result, it's going to make a lot of people stop and think, is this the best way for us to do these kinds of things? And for me, at least, I'm curious to see what that could mean for even the next caucus that's down the line, which is Nevada in just a couple of weeks. But we'll obviously be staying on this story as it progresses throughout the week or whenever we know what the hell is going on. Stay tuned for that. Thanks, Gideon.

And now for some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Johnson. The ban targeted reporters from certain publications like HuffPost and The Independent while allowing others to stay. Instead of letting Johnson's team choose who gets permission to ask them questions, the journalists all left as a group. Johnson has a tricky history with the press. He's advised officials in his administration to not talk to political journalists and has mentioned defunding the BBC. Critics are accusing Johnson of borrowing from the Trump playbook, which of course it's from the same playbook. You think these big, soft blonde guys are smart enough to come up with anything original on their own? I do not. YouTube.com, my absolute favorite place to watch lyric videos and people calmly slicing soap, announced that it will be taking

down misleading content related to the 2020 election. This move marks the first time the site has laid out a plan to tackle fake political vids. Under the new rules, YouTube will not allow users to spread incorrect voting dates or lie about a candidate's citizenship status. Well, where was this years ago? Deep fakes or videos manipulated by artificial intelligence will also be taken down if they were created with malicious intent, which I guess means if you make a deep fake of Tom Steyer doing a backflip off a snowboard jump just to be nice, you're good. Tech companies have taken a lot of heat for allowing viral misinformation on their sites, and it's good to see YouTube finally doing something about it. Well, now I want a whole genre of deep fake compliment videos to

come up where we see our favorite celebrities complimenting other celebrities that they haven't actually complimented. I think that sounds nice. Our world's collective mason jar is a lot less blinky tonight. A new study in the journal Bioscience warns that human behavior could bring about extinction for fireflies, a.k.a. the one good bug. Tufts biology professor Sarah Lewis talked to scientists around the world about dwindling firefly populations and identified three major threats. Habitat loss, pesticide use, and perhaps, most surprisingly, light pollution. Since fireflies use bioluminescence to attract mates, artificial light can be an obstacle to courtship.

Yes, just like some of us, these modest bugs absolutely hate to do it with the lights on. Fireflies aren't the only at-risk insect. Scientists estimate that as many as 41% of insect species could be facing extinction. Hold your flies tight while you still can, don't use pesticides, and maintain ponds and gardens to give them a safe, no drama place to hook up. Get a room. A Montana state representative told a large gathering of Republicans that all socialists should be jailed or shot. Sounds like the evil ghost who haunts every Republican's home just came to life and got elected to state government in Montana. State Rep. Rodney Garcia made the comments at an event meant to kick off election season this Friday and later confirmed them to Montana's Billings Gazette, calling socialist enemies of the free state and saying, quote,

In the Constitution of the United States, if they are found guilty of being a socialist member, you either go to prison or are shot. Unless the Constitution of the United States is what Garcia calls Ted Nugent's blog, this is categorically not true. The Montana Republican Party has already condemned Garcia's comments, and Republican leaders of the Montana House wrote a statement saying he should resign. Interesting point, but one counterpoint. Please, for the love of God, be careful when you set this maniac loose. Yeah, we definitely don't need a Montana Pinochet running around. Absolutely not. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Please don't

wake us up because we're very, very sweepy and tell your friends to listen by the way if you're into reading and not just caucus tallies written on sopping wet paper towels like me what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe i'm aaron ryan i'm gideon resnick and that's how you hold the last ever Iowa caucus. And that's how you record a joint line in two different states. Booyah. Yes, we did it. What a Day is a product of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tun is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kshaka.