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CNN Live Event/Special
Iowa Democratic Party Promises Partial Caucus Results At 5:00 P.M. Eastern; Company Behind App In Iowa Apologizes For Problems; Warren Blasts Plan To Release Partial Iowa Results. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired February 04, 2020 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:30:39]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And welcome back.
It looks like we'll be getting at least some of the first results from the Iowa Democratic caucuses in just around two and a half hours from now. A technical glitch with the app, the Iowa Democratic Party used to report results has caused a massive delay and confusion and frustration in this first nominating contest.
The candidates have already physically moved on, many to New Hampshire as they wait to find out if it's good news or otherwise that came out of Iowa.
CNN's Abby Phillip remains in Des Moines, Iowa.
Abby, what can you tell us right now about what they are doing at the IDP, the Iowa Democratic Party, to try to get these results out as soon as possible?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, you know this process of getting the result is made more complicated by just how much they have to put together.
They have three different sets of data that they're trying to both tabulate and validate in order to put it out by this afternoon. So it is a time intensive process.
And it's a time intensive process that is already kind of layered on top of a caucus process that -- a pretty senior Iowa political strategist, Jeff Link, just explained to me, it's sometimes chaotic. Sometimes people walk out of the room in the middle of the process, and it creates sort of an imbalance between the numbers at the beginning of the night and the numbers at the end of the night.
So they're dealing with all of that trying to put these numbers out by the end of the day.
And they're doing it, in part, because there's a lot of pressure from these campaigns to have a definitive answer about who is where in terms of where they stand with the results. Who can come out of this state claiming victory? There are some questions about whether they will get any kind of
momentum out of it.
I mean, I'll tell you, the Iowan officials that I spoke to, Iowan Democratic officials I spoke to today, a lot of them think there's still time for these results when they do come out to really give one or more of these candidates a bump.
But it's going to rely on the results being reliable because there can't be any questions about whether or not the data being released is accurate. And I think that's one of the stresses that is being put on the party.
There's also -- part of this that a lot of these party officials are volunteers. They have other jobs, so they're relying on essentially a work force of people to kind of come in and help them do this really labor-intensive process.
I spoke to one party official last night who was like, I have to work today. I'm not sure I can make these results out in a very short amount of time. So there are all these pressures, Jake.
But I mean, I'll also tell you, here in Iowa, there's a little bit of anxiety among Iowans about what this means for them as a state, what it means for the process overall.
I think a lot of advocates for the Iowa caucuses here in the state will say that the caucuses have been a net positive for the Democratic Party, even with all of the chaos, and that just these three data points they were trying to get out so quickly over the span of a few hours last night was the straw that broke the camel's back.
But there are some worries that this will only fuel the critics of this process who want to take away the first-in-the-nation status for Iowans.
A lot of people here in this state still think there's a lot of validity to the process and that there's still value to the Democratic Party, in particular, for keeping the caucuses here -- Jake?
TAPPER: They're going to have to fight to keep the caucuses after this.
Abby Phillip, in Des Moines, thank you so much.
The company behind the app -- you're not going to believe what it's called, but it's actually called the Shadow -- is now apologizing for its problems, even though computer experts had warned officials about the app before the caucuses.
Here with me is our Alex Marquardt.
Take me through what we know about how this all happened and what Shadow is having to say about it.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, this appears to be an issue of new technology being rolled out in a widespread way in a very established process. This app, it has become clear, had not been tested with local officials. They had not been trained on it.
We spoke to a number of caucus chairs who said they did not receive the training on how to use this app, and that came as late as last week. So very late in the game.
Jake, there were some 1,700 precincts, and so there was widespread confusion. Some people didn't understand how to use the app. Some people reported errors.
And many others said they weren't able to transfer the results, communicate the results of the caucuses back to the IDP via this app. A number of precinct chairs, caucus chairs had to report the old- fashioned way via paper or phone.
[14:35:15]
We did get a statement from Troy Price, the chairman of the IDP. He said that, "While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data. We've determined this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system. The application's reporting issue did not impact the ability of precinct chairs to report data accurately."
Now, Jake, a number of the people we've spoken with would certainly take issue with that.
I spoke with someone last night, a caucus chair, who said she spent 29 minutes on hold before giving up. Then she just took a screen shot, a picture of the results from her precinct and sent it to Troy Price both via text message and via email.
Now, you're right, Jake, we have just heard from Shadow, Inc. They are the developers behind this app. They said, "We sincerely regret the delay in the reporting of the results of last night's Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns and Democratic caucus-goers."
Much confusion, indeed -- Jake?
TAPPER: Alex Marquardt, thanks so much.
The Trump campaign is already capitalizing on the chaos in Iowa, swiping at Democrats, declaring President Trump the winner. But behind all that, there's the serious question: Will this caucus confusion help President Trump?
Stay with us.
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[14:40:44]
President Trump wasting no time in capitalizing on the Iowa imbroglio and all of the drama coming out of the Iowa Democratic Party, tweeting that, "The Democrats will start blaming Russia" for the problems with the vote count.
The Democrats so far have been very clear that interference had nothing to do with the issues they had with the reporting app.
The president's son, Eric Trump, also jumped in and tweeted out that the vote is being fixed. Again, no evidence of anything like that.
And we should point out, Bakari, as incompetent as the Iowa Democratic Party has proven to be in this case, the Iowa caucus process, whatever you think about it, and even if people think that primaries are preferable, the caucus process is in front of everybody. So every single precinct, there are witnesses to what the final vote is.
This is really actually -- and again, I understand why people hate caucuses, but you can't really fake the results of this because everybody sees it.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: People hate caucuses for good reason. They're decently anti-Democratic. The fact that it's in the open and you have the peer pressure and wrangling, the fact that you have to get childcare, you can't be working all the hours, that's a fundamental problem.
But, yes, I think the word we used earlier was "opacity."
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: That's the opposite of transparency.
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: Exactly, exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
JESS MCINTOSH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Like 800 in their SATs.
SELLERS: I'm bumping up. My mom would be so proud.
(LAUGHTER)
SELLERS: But there's a great deal of transparency throughout this process.
My disappointment is not with the people of Iowa. I think most Democrats would say that. I sound like Bernie Sanders.
Democrats also know that, on the map, when John King comes here in November of 2020, one of the states that we're going to try to win -- I don't know how long we'll put it in play, but we're going to try to win and bring back to our column is Iowa.
TAPPER: Obama won it twice and then Trump won it.
SELLERS: Correct. But I do think the leadership in Iowa -- and I know them very well. They're very good people. They're not doing anything nefarious.
They are doing things with some negligence or gross negligence because you cannot hide from people. And that is what's been going on.
So I mean, I spoke to my good friend, Tom Perez. I know he's making a statement soon.
TAPPER: The chair of the DNC.
SELLERS: The chair of the DNC. Unfortunately, for Tom Perez, everything comes back on him.
And one small note about this, which is interesting, because in South Carolina, the State Ethics Commission, the secretary of state and the state ethic -- I mean Election Commission, along with the Democratic Party, run the primary. So there's a large state agency --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: An apparatus.
SELLERS: An apparatus that helps.
In Iowa, it's just the Iowa Democratic Party contracting with vendors, consultants, et cetera. There's no procurement process. There's no checks and balances.
I do have faith in New Hampshire and Nevada and South Carolina get it right.
MCINTOSH: You can't hack the results of a caucus. It happens in front of everybody. You can't -- there's no numbers to fudge.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Unless you have an app.
MCINTOSH: You could mess with the app.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: No, but even if -- the point is -- the point is that there's a paper trail of everything down to a room full of 50 people.
(CROSSTALK)
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: That's where they're going.
MCINTOSH: But of course, this is what the Republicans want. This is literally the strategy that Trump uses all the time when he is in hot water is to suggest that everybody's engaged in the same sort of behavior that he himself is obviously engaged in.
So of course, he's going to try to make something that is a lot of human error and a really bad thing sound like the kind of nefarious election meddling and rigging that he himself is open to receiving in 2020. (CROSSTALK)
ALEXANDRA ROJAS, FORMER 2016 BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN ORGANIZER: I think that's totally right. I think the ideal situation for Trump and why he continues to do this is to make the American people feel like nothing can change, that there's no hope in our democracy, and that ultimately benefits him.
And I think that's why you see folks like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who are talking about leveling the playing field and, quite honestly, taking that particularly head on and taking --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Right. Just stop with the conspiracy theories. Stop. This was negligence, is the word that you used. Incompetence might be a word. Meltdown might be another word. Stop with conspiracy. This is not what the American voters need.
TAPPER: Who are you talking to? To President Trump?
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: I think I am. Stop with the conspiracy theories.
(LAUGHTER)
BORGER: And the people -- his son or whoever it is, the American people need to have faith in their system, and not keep the pot stirred about phony conspiracies.
[14:45:06]
BASH: One thing that we saw --
BORGER: It's crazy.
BASH: -- when we were at the caucus last night is the point that you're making, is that, never mind the fact that we're now almost 24 hours later, we don't have the results. But the results exist, and they exist because of a series of reforms.
BORGER: On paper.
BASH: On paper. A series of reforms, including the fact that they had to fill out those cards. Those cards exist. And that didn't happen before.
So for all of the guff that the Iowa Democratic Party is getting for the app debacle, for the crisis management debacle, not coming out and reassuring people or at least talking to people in an impression way, the votes do exist.
TAPPER: So you and I were at Des Moines 47, one of the precincts following that caucus last night. We know that Elizabeth Warren, you know, narrowly won over Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. (CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: We know that. We can go and look at the results --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: -- when they put them out and so can everyone else who was there --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: -- including representatives from every campaign who were there.
Coming up, at least one candidate is not impressed with the party's pledge to release just about half of the Iowa results at 5:00 Eastern. How Senator Elizabeth Warren is blasting the move, next.
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[14:50:39]
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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): I just don't understand what that means to release half of the data. So I think they ought to get it together and release all of the data. That's what we need.
(CROSSTALK)
WARREN: Well, they should get all of the data. We're doing what we can to help, and we have called on other campaigns to do the same.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Senator Elizabeth Warren expressing what I think the rest of America feels, except the people in the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters, frustration, confusion.
Moments ago, she learned the Iowa Democratic Party is going to release data but only part of the data at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, just over two hours from now.
Alex Rojas, your reaction?
ROJAS: I mean, I think that's exactly right.
(LAUGHTER)
ROJAS: It kind of doesn't really make sense to release 50 percent of it. You should try and release all of it when there's the American people and campaigns are trying to figure out who's winning.
But I think that Elizabeth Warren's response here is being honest about the problems, giving the information that their campaign has over to the Iowa Democratic Party, focusing on attacking Trump, which is obviously what we need to do here.
And also trying to make sure that, as she gives comments, we're building trust and keeping trust within our public institutions. There's a real crisis of legitimacy right now.
She's built a campaign to tackle corruption head on. And I think she might surprise folk when is we look at the final --
(CROSSTALK)
MCINTOSH: I'm worried they're going to make it worse.
TAPPER: By only giving 50 percent?
MCINTOSH: They're going to give 50 -- 50 percent of the data is meaningless. Like the answers that we actually want are, what went wrong, is all the data OK. We want to see somebody come out and answer some questions.
(CROSSTALK)
MCINTOSH: And then we want the final results.
Half of the results does nothing for anybody. They're going to come out and say someone's ahead, someone's in second and someone's in third.
(CROSSTALK)
MCINTOSH: But that won't be it.
BORGER: They had two choices. One is you release it, as you have it, and you feel what you have is accurate and you let that out. Because you're under a lot of pressure to be forthcoming.
And the other choice is to just wait. And who knows how long the other 50 percent would be.
MCINTOSH: There's a third choice --
(CROSSTALK)
MCINTOSH: -- where we wait but take some questions, where we get to ask what happened?
BORGER: Well, we'll see.
MCINTOSH: Hopefully.
BORGER: Hopefully, maybe, today, we will get some answers.
But imagine if you're Elizabeth Warren or any of these candidates --
BASH: So frustrating.
BORGER: -- who have spent almost $70 million together out there in the state of Iowa, who have moved, some of them -- Elizabeth Warren is one of them who have spent a lot of time in the state of Iowa.
You campaigned your heart out. You feel that your campaign for the presidency rests upon win, place, or show, in this race and, suddenly, you're dealing with an app that had a problem?
I mean, imagine the feelings, not only for the candidates but the people who worked for the candidates, who moved to the state of Iowa. I think they're all being kind of restrained about it to tell you the truth.
SELLERS: Imagine those who dropped out.
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: Imagine all the people who were building these races around the viability in Iowa --
BORGER: In Iowa.
SELLERS: -- and then you have this false start. So you're sitting here -- and like one of the things I think the Iowa Democratic Party should do, you can't do it now, you can't renege for all intents and purposes, but put all the data out at one time.
What's the difference between 17 hours and 24 hours? I mean, we're already here now. We're waiting. You already flubbed this. At least get this right.
My biggest -- what's going to happen is you're going to have -- what happens if Joe Biden in the data that comes out is fifth?
BASH: Right.
SELLERS: Right?
BASH: Right.
SELLERS: That's a disadvantage to his campaign.
BASH: Absolutely.
SELLERS: Or what happens if Amy Klobuchar is fifth but she actually finishes fourth? Or there is some -- or Sanders is first but Buttigieg ends up winning?
I mean, so why do you allow that confusing narrative --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: You say wait. You say wait.
SELLERS: Yes. I mean, what's the matter? Why do it now?
TAPPER: This is the kind of thing I really hate to beat a dead horse. This is the kind of thing people lose their jobs over, like I mean in private industry for like being this incompetent in terms of a really important project that you're only expected to do once every four years.
BASH: We've all met the man who runs the Iowa caucuses. He's a really good guy. Excuse me, who runs the Iowa Democratic Party. He's a really good guy. I'm sure that the amount of guilt and shame he feels right now outweighs whether he's going to have a job.
But it's hard to imagine that there won't be a change because of this. It's hard.
[14:55:02]
TAPPER: Yes.
Everyone, stick around.
As we get closer to the partial results from Iowa, new reaction from candidates, new reaction from their campaigns. Some of them will join us live.
Plus, new reporting on whether the president will address this tonight in the State of the Union address when he comes face-to-face with Speaker Pelosi.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And good afternoon. I'm Anderson Cooper, here in Washington.
[15:00:04]
The chaos in Iowa continues. Results from the first nominating contest of the 2016 presidential election are still two hours away, we're told.
