‘I apologize deeply for this…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) After claiming that a “coding” error in an untested app had caused a crash Monday, delaying results in the party’s Iowa caucus, Democrats in the Hawkeye State released partial results late Tuesday showing a neck-and-neck race between former mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The results reflected just over 60 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Des Moines Register, and had Buttigieg at 27 percent with Sanders trailing at 25 percent.
“I apologize deeply for this,” said state party chair Troy Price. “We hit a stumbling block on the reporting of the back end of the data, but we know this data is accurate.”
The teaser was unlikely to quell the inter-party acrimony that had sprung up around the two candidates after Buttigieg prematurely declared victory and Sanders supporters took to social media to express their displeasure.
Fellow front-runners Elizabeth Warren (18 percent) and Joe Biden (15 percent) trailed behind—perhaps signaling the most noteworthy developments thus far after Biden’s name repeatedly surfaced in recent Senate impeachment hearings.
Both Sanders and Warren also were waylaid by the hearings, which all senators were constitutionally obligated to attend.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire whose advertising blitz has seen him fast ascending in the polls, strategically chose not to compete in the early states, which he claimed were a waste of resources.
The technical glitch exposed some of the increasing fractures in the veneer of a unified Democratic party that candidates have sought to maintain as they approach the no-holds-barred general election battle against incumbent President Donald Trump. Trump’s approval rating on Tuesday reached a new high of 49 percent, according to Gallup, surpassing his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Recently, as the far-left Sanders has risen in the polls, he has faced attacks from establishment Democrats—including members of the Obama administration, 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton and Warren, whose policies closely mirror those of her socialist Senate colleague.
Even longtime liberal mouthpiece Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball” who notoriously felt a “tingle” up his leg for Obama, was visibly distraught over a late run for Sanders, whom many consider to be too far to the left to win.
“I’m not happy,” said Matthews during a panel appearance on his network’s “Morning Joe.” “I’m not happy with this field.”
“I think he’s gonna win big tonight.”
The Bernie surge has Chris Matthews on the verge of tears. It’s okay, Chris.pic.twitter.com/65FT4C3Ik9
— Samuel D. Finkelstein II (@CANCEL_SAM) February 3, 2020