through, including bernie sanders voters, that he was going to bring this record turnout of new people and they were going to surge to get rid of donald trump. if you're not doing it in this state, democrats need to think about what does the coalition because the coalition to get rid of donald trump is more likely going to look like a state that's a lot more diverse like georgia or florida. i don't know. it's difficult to make the argument there's a surge of white voters eager to get rid of donald trump. >> all night long we've used the word viability. and i think we have to ask about the viability of the iowa caucus. the company has to find someone to challenge trump. going forward, i saw the bernie surge. that's about 1/3 of the party but it's not the party.

and the party gets into a civil war situation, we have a real disaster. if trump isn't facing a serious challenger, that's a problem for the country and i worry about that happening. >> we've come to the top of another hour. can you pan right and show us the results of the iowa caucus. might as well talk about 2016 results. they're up on the board. >> these are the last iowa democratic caucus numbers we have. >> hillary clinton, followed by bernie sanders and martin o'malley, who leaves iowa on a rocket for new hampshire. >> bernie sanders was at 49 four years ago. he's lost somewhere around half of the support he had in iowa four years ago. >> you're turn dg feing defeat victory.

>> it's a -- bernie sanders voters are not as attached as people seem to think all they are. because they got another chance four years later and they have split off. like half of them have split off to other candidates. that's a very big deal that he hasn't been able to hold the support he had four years ago. >> isn't that a possibility? >> it shouldn't be if they're attached to you. look, we've seen candidates in large fields get huge amounts of support, like way outside everybody else. it's not happening here. what they're saying is oh, now at the there's more on the menu more than hillary and bernie, i'm interested in elizabeth and pete and these other people. but if you give them -- i think if you once again gave them a hillary/bernie choice, then bernie would have 49 again.

>> that's an interesting point when you consider the number, as least as it's being reported, is the same as 2016. 171-ish thousand voters. that tells you a lot about the folk whose turned out. and it does tell you a lot about how the candidate who had almost 50% of the vote four years ago has lost some of that. some you can say there's a lot more people on the stage. it says to me the democrats are, at least in this cycle, thinking this through and weighing out their option as little bit more. which makes the case i've been trying to say. don't put so much on this first state because this thing is an unsettled question for a lot of democrats. and i think iowa, despite the hiccup and the craziness with the process, is telling us we want to look a little bit more. andrew yang is still on the stage coming out of iowa.

and pete buttigieg is going to be in a stronger position. that dynamic is still very much unplay here. and i think a lot of people want to wrap it up and get past iowa and say, okay. this is the guy or gal that's going to do it for us and the voters are saying not so fast. >> 11:00 local time on a school night and a lot of kids are on the mayor pete riser, waiting to see mayor pete. once a parent, always a parent. we're having a little fun with the 2016 results, but that's all we got. >> want to go county by county? we could do it all night. again, you've heard these statements. we've got a couple from the iowa democratic party saying they've got 25% of the presinks and they're not telling us which e presinks those would be. and not tolling us how they're arriving at that.

when they've had 25/30% of the p p precincts's tonight. and they told us they would begin releasing the results, quote, soon and that lasted an hour a1/2 and since then all th questions procedure wise that have not been answered. they seem to be in lock-down mode. and frankly, i think at this point now, i think it's past midnight. it's 1205:00 right now. it's been three hours plus since they told us soon. i think the thing most encouraging would be a plan. what are you planning to do as they release these results. how is it going to come? because frankly, the size of the statements, which we have a lot of questions out there, no communication from the state party.

>> elizabeth warren has had an idea as she has grown famous for her selfies after a speech or an event, she is doing so one by one in front of a flag back drop that has cameras faceing it anyway as people wait and i'm guessing the way she works no unhappy customers before she leaves an event. >> so, this is the demonstration project of the elizabeth warren campaign, which is she runs into every event. she does the hundreds f not thousands of selfies after every event. can we turn around her remarks, which she just wrapped up moment said ago? she started speaking at about the same time as joe biden. here's what she had to say. >> thank you, iowa. thank you so much.

so, listen, it is too close to call. so, i'm just going to tell you what i do know. >> you won. >> as the baby daughter of a janitor, i am so grateful to be up on this stage tonight. tonight, as a party, we are one step closer to defeating the most corrupt president in american history. tomorrow donald trump will make a speech about the state of the union. but i have a message for every american. our union is stronger than donald trump. and in less than year our union will be stronger than ever when that one is replaced by one very

persistent woman. [ crowd chanting "warren"] >> donald trump and i see america from very different viewpoints. and we have since we were born. trump grew up in new york city in a 23-room, nine-bathroom mansion. i grew up in oklahoma in a two-bedroom house with one batherabat bathroom and a converted garage where my brothers slept. by the time i was three, trump was getting a $200,000 allowance every year from his dad's real estate empire.

in total he got nearly half a billion dollars from his dad. me, i took small jobs to make money, baby sitting, sewing dressing for my aunt. donald trump claimed bone spurs to avoid the draft. all three of my brothers signed up for military service and the oldest spent five 1/2 years off and on in combat in vietnam. before becoming a tv reality show host, he spent half of his career stiffing small businesses, ripping off workers and scamming students. i spent most of my career studying why families go broke and fighting to make it easier to get back on their feet. before i was even elected to office, i built an entire federal agency to stop big banks and financial institutions from cheating people.

i tell you this -- i love it. but i tell you this because a person's values matter. a president's values matter. and the only thing donald trump values is donald trump. he believes that government is just one more thing to exploit. a tool to enrich himself and his corrupt buddies at everyone else's expense. i believe government should work for everyone. we don't know all the results tonight, but tonight has already shown that americans have a deep hunger for big, structural change to make our economy and our democracy work for everyone.

tonight showed that our path to victory is to fight hard for the changes americans are demanding. changes that democrats, independents, and republicans are demanding. tonight showed that our agenda isn't just a progressive agenda, it isn't just a democratic agenda, it's an american agenda. throughout our history when moments of crisis have called on us to meet challenges, americans have answered the call, even when the doubters and critics say that our dreams are too big and the fights are too hard, we persist. in the 19 -- in 1700, when people said we can never overthrow a king and form a new

republic, farmers and merchants came together and fought side by side until we won our independence. in the 1800s, people said slavery would endure forever and african-americans would never see liberation. but abolitionist and enslaved and formerly enslaved people formed an underground railroad and more than 2 million waged a war to defeat the tyranny of slavery. and in the 1900s, people said we could never rescue our economy from the depths of the great depression or defeat fashionism, but we forged a new deal. we mobilized to defeat fascism, we built a middle class and we march for civil rights. americans do big things. that's who we are.

we don't settle, we don't back down, we meet big problems with even bigger solutions. so i'm here tonight because i believe that big dreams are still possible in america. tonight you showed that when you imagine an america that lives up to its ideal, you can set in motion the process of making it a reality. all it takes is some hard work and better connections. and here in iowa that's what happens. you came together, you organized, you showed that we are united in our conviction. that hope defeats fear. that courage overcomes cynicism.

that we will always be a stronger party and a stronger nation when we unite around our shared values to advance justice and expand opportunity to everyone. so, right now, across america, there are folks standing with groups of friends and sitting on the couch with loved ones and maybe even watching this quietly on their phones because everyone else in the houses is asleep. watching and thinking maybe i could help out. maybe i could volunteer some time. maybe i could get in the fight. and that is how we're going to do this. i am here tonight to tell you if you have hope that america be better than it has been in these

last few years, and if you have the courage to speak out and do a little organizing with us, then this campaign is for you. if you can imagine an america where corruption doesn't block our ability to reduce gun violence, an america where we can urgently tackle climate change, an america where we can bring an end to the opioid epidemic, then this campaign is for you. if you can imagine an economy where every job has dignity, where people are paid a livable wage, and where everyone, everyone has a real chance to thrive, then this campaign is for you.

and if you can imagine a democracy where people, not money, come first, this campaign is for you. and if you can imagine an america of moral clarity that lives its values every day, then this campaign is for you. tonight we are one step closer to winning the fight for the america we imagine is poslk. tonight is for you. tonight is for every volunteer who put their feet to the pavement to fight for change. it's for every organizer who braved the blistering cold to knock on doors.

it's for every person who made a call or sent a text to spread the word. i'm going to tell you about some of our volunteers because tonight is for the veteran who came back diagnosed with ptsd and who volunteered every week to help us become a nation that honors its promises to its veterans. tonight is for every undocument undocumented, unafraid organizer and volunteer. whoor proudly knocked on doors to let the world know that the path to progress runs through courage, not fear. tonight is for the innovative, persistent women who organize

baby sitting clubs so they can get in more hours of volunteering. and tonight is for the single mother who had been homeless and who was so determined that her twin daughters would grow up in a better world that she found the spare moment to make calls on our behalf. tonight is for everyone who believes no matter the color of your skin, who you love, how you worship, where you were born or what zip code you live in, you should be safe and your opportunities should be pretty much as good as everyone els -- yep. in every day and every way this movement is made up of people who know that the only way to make progress and build power is

to fight from the heart. so, tonight, iowa and all of you, i want to say thank you. thank you for living your values. thank you for standing together, fighting together, persisting together. you have made me a better candidate and you will make me a better president. [ applause ] and while i'm at it, i want to thank my sweetie, bruce. and thanks to bailey, he truly is a good boy.

together, together we have built a movement powered by hopeful curages people who will do the work to make the change we need. and year juwe're just getting s. this race will be decided by people like you. and if you believe that something should be done, then i'm asking you to do something. go to elizabeth warren.com right now, pitch in a few bucks, sign up to volunteer, get involved with our campaign wherever you live. because this started right here in iowa. but from tomorrow t will run from ocean to ocean, east to new hampshire and then west to nevada and then down to south carolina. this fight will stretch across all 57 states and territories that makeup this great nation until we unite together as a party in milwaukee.

the road won't be easy -- [ crowd chanting] the road is not going to be easy but we're built for the long haul. we're fuelled by the hope in our hearts, our optimism and our determnation run deep. and no matter what lies ahead, we are not afraid. this, this is our moment. this is the moment we have been called to. our moment to make history.

our moment to dream big, fight hard and win. >> and like we planned it this way, we seamlessly switch to live coverage of mayor pete, who has just started talking. >> thank you. >> thank you. what a night.

because tonight an improbable hope became an undeniable reality. so, we don't know all the results, but we know, by the time it's all said and done, iowa, you have shocked the nation.

because, by all indications, we're going to new hampshire victorious. now, one year ago it was in the deep freeze of an iowa january where we began this unlikely journey to win the american presidency. we weren't well known but we had an idea, a moment when washington has never felt further from our every day lives, a midwest mayor could

carry the voices of the american people all the way to the capitol and make sure they're actually heard. we had the belief in spite of every poisonous tweet that a rising majority of americans were ready for action and new answers. we could see an american majority europeaning for leadership to rally us together to make a difference in our lives. we saw that americans were ready to come together but our politics were not and to seize

this moment, we needed a new path porward, one that welcomed people instead of pushing them away because this is our best and maybe last shot. we knew with this american majority we are on the cusp of changing the game for ordinary americans, but that we could not win or govern if we wroete peope off who didn't agree with us 100% of the time but if we could come together, the future we know is possible would start on january 21st, 2021.

now, there were skeptics, an awful lot who said not now, not not this time. all this talk of belonging and bridging divides is too risky. so, i say with a heart full of gratitude, iowa, you have proved those skeptics wrong. [ crowd chanting] >> by your effort and it was by your effort, we brought together

an extraordinary coalition of americans, progressives, proderates and that good number of what we like to call future former republicans. and that's how we're going to win in november. because it's about adding to our cause, adding to our majority. that is how we will guarantee that on the day donald trump leaves office, we'll be ready to move america forward into the era that must come next. i want to thank every member of our campaign family, every organizer, every volunteer, every caucus goer who talked to a neighbor or coworker. every staff member and supporter who believed. and anyone who shares our vision

can join the 3/4s of a million grassroots supporters and chip in for pete for america.com. and while we're at it, my mother who not only helped raise me but put her love of language to work, answering letters sent to our campaign.

my father, who left us just in the very early days of this journey, but whose own journey to this country made tonight possible in the first place. and to the love of my life, keeping my feet on the ground, how about a hand for the future president of the united states, let's hear it -- [ crowd chanting]

i also want to congratulate my fellow democratic competitors of this diverse and formidable field. for months, we have been having an honest and respectful but vigorous debate about the course of our party and the future of this nation and tonight iowa chose a new path. from river to river in churches and community centers and high school gyms, you joined your neighbors to say the time has come to turn the page and open up a new chapter in the american story. you chose to move on, not just from the broken policies of these last few years but the broken politics that got us here.

and tomorrow because of what we did here, the nation will have that choice too. we take our message onward to new hampshire to nevada and south carolina and beyond to every corner of america. and as we do, we will be building the movement that not only will win the election against donald trump but win the era for our shared values. we have exactly one shot to defeat donald trump and year not going to do it by over reaching or division or saying it's my way or the highway. this is our shot, our only shot to galvanize an american majority to win. and make no mistake ours is the

campaign that will defeat this president. [ crowd chanting] >> a president who cuts taxes for corporations while crushing the rights of organizers have to compete. like one who lives and works in the industrial midwest. a president who tries to cloak himself and his wrong doing in religion should have to debate candidate not afraid to remind america that god does not belong to a political party.

and a paz who avoided serving when it was his turn should have to stand next to a veteran ready to show what troops deserve from a real commander and chief. now this president may get a pass on the floor of the senate but this november the verdict will be up to us. and when i'm your nominee, we will win big enough to send, not just donald trump's presidency, but trumpism itself into the dust bin of history where it belongs.

something is stirring in america right now. you can feel it. we saw tonight in the bluest counties and the reddest, in rural towns and industrial cities, in big communities and small in the suburbs in between, we're seeing democrats hungry to win, independent voters who had been turned off by our politics. republicans tired of trying to look their kids in the eye and explain this presidency all standing together and all standing together to declare we are defined not by who we voted for in the past but by what we're voting for in the future. this is the coalition that no pundit saw coming. and it's the cotligz president

won't see coming either. it's a majority we're assembleing to agree not just on who we're against but on what we are for. we are unifying rising american majority ready to raise wages and empower workers in this fast-changing economy. a majority ready and determined to put an end to endless war. a majority committed to bringing about a day in america where your race has no bearing on your health, your wealth, your access to education or your relationship with law enforcement. [ applause ] a majority of americans ready to

support our teachers with a president and secretary of education who believe in public education. those americans are counting on us to come together now and they cannot wait. i've met americans not even yet old enough to vote but who know that we cannot wait. an 11-year-old asking how his family will be able to afford the insulin he needs, he can't wait for a president who will insure there is no such thing as an uninsured american or an underaffordable prescription. the 14-year-old who let me know she's already written out a basic will because she's terrified the next day in school could be her last. cannot wait for a president who will see to it she can walk in

her school without fear. the 10-year-old who let me know he expelkts ct to be around in and wonder whether we acted fast enough to secure his future. he cannot wait for a president secured to enlist a fight for our climate. we are running for them. this campaign is giving voice to them and it has room for everyone because no matter who you voted for in elections past, and for that matter, no matter who you caucused for tonight, we welcomed you in our campaign and you belonged in the future we're building for america.

whether you're a young woman or a veteran battling addiction in claire mont, you belong. whether you clean hotel rooms in las vegas or are getting a new business up and running in charleston, you belong. i believe the presidency has a purpose. and the purpose of our american presidency is not the glorification of the president, it's the unification and empowerment of the american people to solve these big problems. america has a place forever. and i believe this, not because of my age but because of my experience. i believe in american unity because of my experience

serving, of lacing up my boots in a war zone, along side americans so different we hardly had anything in common besides the flag on our holders and our lives. i believe in american boldness because of my experience governing. guiding a city once called dying out of the shadows of our empty factories and into a brighter future. and i believe an america belonging because of an experience you have tonight. looking at you and wondering how it felt to be an indiana teenager, wondering if you would ever belong in this world, wonder figure something deep inside him meant he would forever be an outsider, that he may never wear inuniform, never

accepted, never know love. and now that same person is standing in front of you a mayor a veteran, happily married and one step closer to becoming the next president of the united states. [ applause ] that is the america we're building. that is the america so many iowans chose tonight. if you're ready to build an american life defined by belonging, this is our chance. if you're ready to define an america defined by boldness or

unity, this is our chance. so, with hope in our hearts and fire in our bellies, we're going on to new hampshire, on to the nomnation and on to chart a new course for this country we love. thank you. thank you, iowa. thank you so much. thank you. >> it sure sounded like a victory speech to us and our experts. we'll talk about it. we'll run to a quick break. as he greets his husband, chasen. we'll talk to this man who sure sounded like the victor in iowa tonight. ♪ ♪

look who's still working. still in iowa, still taking selfies before flying east to new hampshire. this is happening as we speak. and bailee the dog is there somewhere too. we have more members of our family joined us. nbc news correspondent. her role will be introduced in a moment. and long-time republican

political -- he's one of the best hangs in all of politics. great company, great experience. thank you for being here. >> i want to tell you about one piece of reporting in the break and then i think we can talk to the reporter who source said this. they've been reporting the iowa democratic party, within the last hour, hostaed a conference call with the various candidate's campaigns. they confirmed the iowa democratic party hung up on the campaigns, as the campaigns pressed the party for more information about the issues with reporting results and when they would receive more data or results. no official call, no official comment from the iowa democrats. but if they were in fact on a conference call at once and ended by hanging up on them t would be bad idea to plead

technical difficulties, if they were going to try to make this go away. >> your call is not important to us. >> and we're still seeing zero results out of iowa. we've had two on the record statements as to what was going on. first instance they said there was quality control issues, in terms of data. quality checks in the second statement, more specific. saying they found inconsistencies in the reporting of the three different sets of numbers the partedy said they were going to put out tonight. there's three sets of numbers being the initial allocation of supporters in the caucus and the reallocation after some candidates dropped out. they were going to give basically popular vote numbers and then the all-important delegate allocations. we've seen nothing from the party and it seems this is getting heated with the campaigns. we're going to one of the headquarters now where barrett is actually the source of our reporting on this in terms of

what happened on the conference call. thank you again for this and helping us understand what's going on. can you elaborate at all further on what happened in the conference call? >> reporter: sure, rachel. so, i'm at klobuchar hq. she came on and left and her campaign manager tweeted they're seeing internal numbers and from caucus sites that they're doing even or better than vice president biden, which is interesting because they don't have the results officially from iowa democrats. we've heard from staffers here that on the conference call intended for a status update with what the security issues might be, the iowa democrats hung up as they started asking questions, looking to have an idea when we might get results, when we might understand what has been going on. i did get, right before we came on air, an update from the iowa democrats and they told me

essentially they opened the floor for questions and they had to get back to business because they're dealing with quality control. so, that's the latest update we have here. i want to let you know what we're hearing from sources around the state is precinct caucus calls -- as far as we know we're going to waitet for a little while. >> the one caucus secretary we talked to from one precinct in aims, iowa, when he talked to us -- you could actually hear the hold music. he was almost two hours at the point we talked to him in terms of how long he had been on hold. so, these chairs trying to get results in are not getting anywhere. thank you so much. you've been helping us a lot tonight. really appreciate it. >> of course.

thank you. >> at least they had back-up paper. that's the good news because these votes could be counted by hand if that turns out to be necessary. >> so, there's this app. you were just regaling us with what you've learned about the app. >> so, the app is brand new this year. the democratic party declined to tell anybody who developed the app. we know it wasn't one you could get on apple. this is privately sourced and privately distributed. just a couple of days ago, we understand, to the various caucus chair people so they could file these results. they call the app a fancy calculator. it turns out not to be so fancy. one of the first issues with the app is party folk were supposed to download it on to their own personal cell phones. and tonight, as of 5:30 we already talked to 12 various caucus leaders having trouble downloading it.

we actually have a copy. i think the control room can put it up. it says test barrier. app is ready to download. this type of file can harm your device. do you want to keep app release apk anyway? yikes. well, you might imagine people were hesitant to download this. that seems at least part of the problem. >> and they're saying the app did not go down. and this is not a hack or intrusion. but if the hack failed because nobody was able to -- or willing to put it on their phone to use it, that is a form of failure. >> and people were having trouble logging on as well. >> when you said at the outset, thank god there is paper is true. what we will have from iowa is we will ultimately have a correct result some day. because the is a checkable real basis for the count that won't

disappear ass to when it gets done and what the impact of the results are when they arrive, anybody's guess. >> and several of the precinct chairs have said we're just geing it wait till tomorrow. >> i know you don't like to brag and you've seen dumpster fires in your lifetime. where does this rank? >> this is pretty high. i'm sure on the high decibel call to campaign managers, that term beginning with the word cluster was hugely invoked. this thing is interesting. it's the seconds one too. there was minor tremor before. this is going to be the first caucus where you could vote online. and they have to shut that down because they didn't think they could execute it. they're worried putin would win or something. here we are again with an untrained system, which means the big loser is the iowa caucus, which is already under fire. >> if i had told you the

benchmark poll would be cancelled and never publish said because of inconsistencies, if i told you that approaching 1:00 a.m. eastern we wouldn't know results because of inconsistencies in the first in the nation caucus, would you have believed me? >> no, because democracy is our special thing in america. what we have, what holds us together, the ability to hold an election efficiently and honestly. i love the romance of politics. the crack of election night when the winners clear and the losers clear and the winner gets to be victorious and the loser geets be great and honest and admit they lost. we've lost that tonight. we've lost it because of a screw up. and we lost it in florida when they couldn't count the votes and has to butterfly ballot.

i tried it out with my kids. one got it right and one didn't. this should be professional, not a volunteer operation. somebody will try to back it up and say they did their best and give out all the trophies. i noteilous the candidates took the victorious trophy. everybody got first class because it was a little league operation tonight. i got a problem with iowa on this. if you want it first, do it right. i don't think they got another chance at this. my bet is they're going to move it and have a real election or nothing. in australia, nobody's in the booth with you and you come out having made your own personal decision. it's your secret. my mom never told dad she voted for kennedy because she didn't have to and it's her right to keep it secret. se

secrecy and the crackle of election night. mike bloomberg is laughing at the democratic party right now. i deal with numbers and communications for a living. i made billions doing it. i think i could help the party. >> we got to be off the air in about 45 seconds. you can get an uber x in des moines in about 45 minutes. i can't get you the election results though. >> and julian castro saying i told you. this doesn't make any sense. and here's what i'm seeing on twitter. everyone doesn't believe in the process now. we can talk all these technical questions because we understand it. other people are like oh, my god, it's a hacking. it's this and this. if that's the attitude, this is more damaging. >> the end of another hour. chris hayes takes the baton for another hour to come. >> stay with us.

our ongoing special coverage of the iowa caucuse