The days-long Democratic debacle in Iowa has forced the Associated Press to throw in the towel Thursday and declare no official winner in what was likely the state’s last first-in-the-nation caucuses. In some of his trademark presidential trolling, a newly “ACQUITTED” Trump offered some trolling advice for the Democrats about who to blame.
“The Associated Press is unable to declare a winner of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses because of irregularities in this year’s process and the tight margin between Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders,” AP announced on social media Thursday.
“Following the Iowa Democratic Party’s release of new results late Thursday night, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by two state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted. That is a margin of 0.09 percentage points,” AP explained in its “no winner”-announcing report. “However, there is evidence the party has not accurately tabulated some of its results, including those released late Thursday that the party reported as complete. The AP’s tabulation of the party’s results are at 99% of precincts reporting, with data missing from one of 1,765 precincts, among other issues.”
And that’s not all, AP explains. The Democratic National Committee has now ordered Iowa to recanvass the results, requiring them to recount and recalculate all the votes. Whether state Democratic officials choose to do so remains to be seen.
As a result, AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Sally Buzbee issued a statement Thursday announcing the it is simply “not possible” to determine a Democratic winner in Iowa. “The Associated Press calls a race when there is a clear indication of a winner. Because of a tight margin between former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders and the irregularities in this year’s caucus process, it is not possible to determine a winner at this point,” said Buzbee.
In response, Trump trollingly tweeted, “I think they should blame RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA again!”
“If they can’t count votes properly, how are they going to run U.S. HealthCare?” he added.
I think they should blame RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA again! If they can’t count votes properly, how are they going to run U.S. HealthCare? https://t.co/JsNB8jvKoo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2020
As AP notes, DNC Chairman Tom Perez issued a blistering statement on Thursday ordering the Iowa Democratic Party to clean up their mess.
“Enough is enough,” a frustrated Perez tweeted. “In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.”
Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.
— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) February 6, 2020
Perez’s demand followed a party-embarrassing New York Times analysis finding that “more than 100 precincts reported results that were internally inconsistent, that were missing data or that were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses.”
“In some cases, vote tallies do not add up,” the Times reported on Thursday. “In others, precincts are shown allotting the wrong number of delegates to certain candidates. And in at least a few cases, the Iowa Democratic Party’s reported results do not match those reported by the precincts.”
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