hi, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. one hour from now the iowa democratic party set to release partial results from last flight's first in the nation vote. the iowa caucuses of course, after an epic failure of the systems that were supposed to tally and report the results from caucus locations across the state of iowa. today's 5:00 announcement will be the first look at any results from iowa and it will not represent the complete tally.

now that is something that some campaigns will rightfully argument will disadvantage them over others. how did this happen? "the washington post" reports, quote, hours after voters at more than 1600 caucus sites declared their presidential preferences, democratic foothills were scrambling to explain when the results might materialize. as midnight neared state party leaders met with the campaigns. a phone call that ended abruptly according to someone familiar with it and sought to reassure the public about the reliability of a caucus system that has long can you help keep these iguys protected online?? been criticized as quirky and easy, connect to the xfi gateway. byzantine, seeking to capitalize what about internet speeds that keep up with my gaming? on the uncertainty, michael let's hook you up with the fastest internet from xfinity. bloomberg announcing today it what about wireless data options for the family? will double the ad spending amid of course, you can customize and save. what it views as a murky and still wide open nominee contest. can you save me from this conversation? one thing is for sure, the iowa that we can't do, but come in and see what we can do. caucuses which were supposed to we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. shift the nation's attention ask. shop. discover. at your local xfinity store today.

away from the unsuccessful effort by democrats to remove donald trump from office after he was impeached by the house of representatives have instead thrust the tuesday's new hampshire primary while putting the best spin possible on what happened in iowa. >> math, for one thing we know, is that we are arriving with the momentum in the 2020 presidential campaign right now and we had a victorious night in iowa that shocked the public and will propel us to victory. >> iowa is what it is. right now i'm in new hampshire to talk to people about why i'm in this race and how we all need to pull this party together and we need to focus on beating donald trump. >> let's stay in a good spirit because you all know what happened out there in those precincts. >> now it is time for new hampshire to seek. and speak loudly. >> now it is on to new let's give them time.

and i'm not being critical. let's give them time to work out hampshire. nevada. south carolina. the issues carefully because a lot depends on it. so we don't know precisely how california. and on ward to victory. many delegates we have but i feel really good about getting >> but for all of the energy and optimism, the candidates more than our fair share. frustration beginning to spill >> i'm really disappointed. out into the open. we came out of iowa knowing it here is mayor pete earlier today. >> the frustration is the is a tight three-way race at the timing. the results will come in and i will trust the results but we top. and that the three of us, wanted to see those results last night so that we could address buttigieg and bernie and i, will our supporters with a firm divide up most of the delegates official account in hand instead we're waiting for the official from iowa. numbers and at the same time we and that's important to note. know for the road ahead. >> unfortunately for mayor pete and all of the candidates for >> more reaction from joe biden that matter, that firm official and elizabeth warren after last count is not what was promised night's iowa debacle. as we expect to hear the first sat 5:00 p.m. tonight. results in about 35 minutes. but other candidates may argue it is a start. biden there urging the democratic party to be cautious iowa caucus confusion is where in reporting early results even we start with our favorite reporters. as elizabeth warren seems to former democratic senator claire name names and suggest the mccaskill, from the root jason results won't put him in the top

johnson, chief public affairs officer from move on.org and tier. let's go to ali vitale. deon de pierre and michael what is the mood from there. jackson. and we'll start with the action. >> reporter: we know there are three tickets out of iowa and cal perry is in iowa reporting elizabeth warren is claiming one of them and we don't know which on the chaos thatten shoed last one, she's not jumping feet night. von hilliard is still in iowa. first into the i won pool like in new hampshire ahead of next competitors but she is trying to week is ali vitale on the road stake a claim and frame the argument that she's one of the and mike men alley is there and top three which tracts with the expectations her campaign has shaquille brucester has just been setting all week. and there is consternation landed with the sanders around the results and the chaos campaign. we just played mayor pete's last night and the number of man hours and months the campaigns reaction and it is on brand for mayor pete to speak to the spent on the ground preparing for the iowa caucus. on a call today with the iowa frustration that people feel. but the vibe or the signals democratic party and i was on coming out of supporters were there, troy price facing they were on track to have a questions from campaigns and not giving that many answers. decent showing last night. a lot of people trying to >> reporter: nichol, i just calculate if it is better for the results to come out in part talked to a came aide and they or if it is better to wait and expect, when the results -- do them in full. of course there is this desire to just plant the flag and that in about 56 minutes when the

is kind of the fear when we were initial results are supposed to be released, the iowa democratic on this phone call, some of the people for the biden campaign parties has indicated that a majority, at least 50% of the for example saying, hey, wait a results, will be displayed here second, didn't we agree to a 99 at the top of the hour. but for the buttigieg campaign, county strategy and what are we that campaign tells me they doing with the 50% of the expect the results to indicate them to be competitive. results coming out. the pert to planting the flag is what you've been talking about really going mano a mano with throughout this entire segment, is that you want to have that bernie sanders. what you saw from the entrance iowa moment. it is all about momentum. polls but also in the numbers it is all about bouncing into they tabulated. new hampshire with buzz. they have their own results from the thing is, it is 4:30 almost about 75% of the precincts which the day after the iowa caucus indicate them to have a good shot at the lead in iowa and and we still don't know who won. and guess what is coming that is why you heard the south tonight? state of the union. bend mayor strike that tone. tomorrow we're back in he said at one point it was impeachment. those are a lot of news stories implausible hope and now it is that could swall up who won. that doesn't mean they don't undeniable reality that he has a want to win, it is bragging real shot at winning this rights and making clear they nomination and that is why he spent time and resources for a good reason but at same time you wanted to make that speech last do it for the buzz and i'm not night. it ultimately happened at 11:30 sure how much buzz the but it was a iowa moment he wanted to capture. candidates will get regardless the midwest man that needed to of the outcome. >> you get all of our buzz for win here or be highly competitive because if you look standing in the cold for us for beyond at polling in nevada, the first half hour of this show. south carolina and the i'm really grateful.

super-tuesday states, he's still thank you so much, my friend. at single-digits. we have one more friend standing he needed to send a signal to in the cold. the rest of the country, his it is mike menially in concord campaign did, that he is new hampshire with joe biden. relevant to this race and if the so i'm most intrigued, not just results come out in about an by what the candidate is saying hour we'll know and have better and what the campaign is doing, understanding whether that is but by how they're feeling. truly the case. because my hunch is that they're >> and did you say it was 75% of feeling a little relieved. the vote in that they counted on this may have bought them one their own? he thinks he's in the lead? more day to say that they're closer to the top than they may >> reporter: they think that they are in the lead or at least actually be, at least in iowa. almost in the lead compared to bernie sanders. >> reporter: you're absolutely they said, yes, they have about right about that, nicolle. 75% of the results and to put because i think if not for the that in perspective, we're not debacle in iowa, we would have a expecting much more than 50% to real conversation right now come from the folks here in the about the precarious state of iowa democratic party. the former vice president of the united states and one-time >> von hilliard, it is never boring following your reports front-runner for the democratic from out there. nominee, joe biden. thank you for spending time with i base that in part on the body us. let me bring in cal perry. language leading up to iowa from the candidate and his campaign. he's still in iowa city. what all of those visuals we saw i enjoyed our conversations from caucus sites and the eds we were getting from others around immensely last night. and you have some incredible reporting. take me through what you -- what the state about how many places joe biden wasn't viable when you reported online, the emails they had promised they were going to be viable all across

that you uncovered. just take me through what you've the state. and also on the numbers that unpacked in terms of how this we're getting from the other campaigns and even from the went down and who knew what, biden campaign itself, instead when. what you see and you heard from >> reporter: so every caucus has a chair. the former vice president at the 1600 and each has a charp top of the block here, he is sounding like the good cop while his campaign is very much playing bad cop. chairperson and they were putting out that letter to the talking online and complaining iowa democratic party last night talking about the acute about the app. i'll read you some emails at failures, the considerable flaws of this process. 9:09, nobody having trouble with kate benningfield the campaign the app. should feel dumb. manager talking about the and then i've given up on the integrity of the process being at risk. app i'm not going to use the they wanted to get the results app. i'm going to call in my results released to them, have a chance to review them before the someone jokes don't submit your release publicly. they are not at this point results and then at about 9:39 appearing to get that. so it is a real question of how a.m. the makers of the app email we go forward. the group with a new pin number, meanwhile the campaign, some of a new way to get into the app the staff is still in iowa deciding if and where to but it failed. i want to bring in mike carbury redeploy resources and shoring who was here in iowa city. up campaign donors who are how did the night go for you? skittish and wondering whether they're backing the right guy. >> the caucus went great. >> let me ask you two questions. the new procedures and if what we're getting at 5:00 is preference cards, that all went 50% of the vote, i'm guessing

very, very well what the problem was getting the results in. that is easily accessible vote i realize that 5:00 when they said it was live, i put my pin and it may under-count some biden vote. in and got the error code and are they anxious about this 5:00 called the 800 number and they couldn't give me any help and said you're just going to have announcement? to call it in. >> reporter: absolutely. they're clear position has been >> did you talk to anybody on they should see all of the results before we see some of the 800 number, because people were trying to call. them. and nicolle, one of the points >> i got in early, at 5:00 and last night with all of the we tried to put my pin number in caucus results that we were seeing, the places were the and it still didn't work and i cameras were last night are not had had been trying to do this since the middle of last week necessarily where the biden and reached out to them but they said okay you have to use the campaign spent time. i spent time to rural, motel and phone-in portion. >> reporter: before i let you go. are we doing this again in four kc general store than bigger years, should we do this again cities that a lot of folks were in four years? >> iowa is a great place to looking at last night. and so if we're getting the start but caucus is maybe not results from bigger places and not the rural areas it may not the way to do it. there is all sorts of problems reflect what they consider their with the caucus system and we strength -- their strong areas saw them last night and the last -- in the last caucus. reporting process and we saw >> mike, you're certainly one of the most interesting spots at them four years ago when republicans announced the wrong this point in this. winner or maybe eight years ago. i have one last question for you. how many planes flew direct to but it inherently caucusing is new hampshire and how many planes carrying biden staff knew

hard to do and run by direct to south carolina? volunteers. we have great volunteers here and the great staff. but we do elections really well. >> reporter: well that is a great question because i think and iowa should step up and say, my conversations with the listen, we don't have to be campaign leading up to this were first. but we could be second, third or depending -- they had different fourth. because this is a great place to campaign. you could go door-to-door. redeployment strategies based on different outcomes so without people in iowa loved to pick the knowing what the outcome is, they don't know where where to president and they think they do put their bodies. they had over 150 staff and they a pretty good job of it. surged resources into iowa and >> reporter: thank youment just there are people hanging out in to echo what mike was saying, a lot of people here are very des moines wondering where to go next. >> i'm guessing many will head upset. thousands of volunteers out for straight to south carolina. and i know we have to get you hours at a time and getting the caucus site up and running and inside before you literally freeze, but it is sort of like a you saw it last night, you were tenth life. if joe biden is at nine anchoring, and people left in the middle when the rules political lives having this changed. uncertainty lets him say as so people in iowa are upset about the way it went last claire mccaskill said this will night. have an asterisk by it until the >> stay up for our conversation. end of time. i want to bring in michael steel, as chairman of the let them count new hampshire and national party, i don't even south carolina as the new first know where to begin with what the state party has done to two. >> reporter: nicolle, i interviewed the former vice president last week and he said nothing that happens here on monday is going to end this

the -- it is from their own party candidates. campaign. their whole argument is this is >> typically what would happen is from the state party a long haul and they would win and do well in the subsequent perspective is working in the primary, the first four primary contests and this gives them an states, you're going to be opportunity to make the case before we even know what the pretty much lockstepin final result is. but again with michael bloomberg coordinating and making sure all in the wings, this campaign once it moves beyond the first four of the principal parts are in and is an air war and not a place. so you rely on and trust the ground war and he needs state party. resources to compete and that is they're the ones who ultimately where the donor situation really choose what they use and how becomes a big concern. they put together their process. >> mike, your reporting is second to none on this biden beat. thank you so much for standing unfortunately tom perez is going outside for the longest of all to get the short end of this of our colleagues. very, very short stick. we'll send you some hand because as the national warmers. chairman, he has to account for thank you. michael steele, this is to me how this ultimately plays out. one of the more interesting and it is a little bit of an inside so on the back end you have to be able to go in and assess, analysis. but this may have bought biden a little bit of breathing room iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, you guys ready? that he might have needed. are all of the pieces you need again we don't know the results from last thiet. in place? but if it wasn't good for him what do you need from us? and that is where this thing this might buy him some time. began to break down. >> i may be off rails with the there was very little rest of the political -- >> which means you're probably coordination and conversation, at least from the folks that right. >> iowa and biden -- joe biden

i've talked to from the dnc, with we got there and we're good never staked a claim in iowa. and then now all of a sudden we realize they're not. get over it people. >> claire, same question. he never came to play in iowa. he did -- he did i'm here. how does the party take a case okay. to the country that they can run but he never put it on the ground here. it when they can't run 179,000 he probably figured from the very beginning fourth, maybe person caucus. third on a good hit, a good >> i would say that the president, when he gets an acquittal, it will have an night. his play has always been south asterisk because of the unfair trial. well the iowa caucus this year carolina, his play has always will always have an asterisk. been grab a little bit maybe out i talked to someone answering of new hampshire, we'll be very the phones in the boiler room, who was a volunteer and he said competitive in nevada, south carolina. then you get into super-tuesday that people were calling in and actually giving results that where a whole lot of the base of indicated that a group that the democratic party shows up, wasn't viable in the first alignment became viable in the second. aka black folks, and he's just well that is not allowed under the rules. start picking off the states. this is a new rule -- and we saw now the x-factor in this is it last night. so what happened when they michael bloomberg. everyone thinks michael called in and said two delegates bloomberg is only going to play an air war. don't make that mistake. for candidate x, even though michael bloomberg is fully they didn't have enough for viability after the first go prepared to play a ground war

around. he said well we had to take it. too. his staffing is well over -- because everybody had gone home. so that means that they've what 1,200 people -- awarded delegates to candidates >> making good money. that did not earn them under the >> very, very good money. >> so i think we need to step rules. back from the significance of which is really unbelievable when you think about that. iowa, what it means to joe and they're going to be able to biden, in my estimation and look go back and show that because when they did the first at what joe's team -- that last alignment, if a group went question was an important one viable they weren't entitled to with, how is he redeploying? any delegates at that caucus that night under the rules that where is he putting emphasis. they put out. so changing all of the rules, we wait to see thatment everybody will play the game in for a by enlarge older volunteer 30 minutes or less on numbers crowd that have been doing it from iowa but he's thinking a for years, on top of the app, on little bit ahead of the game and more long ball than a lot of top of them being ill equipped folks are doing. a lot of folks want to come out tops in iowa and think that to handle the questions. they've done more to switch to a barack obama and get slingshot to the nomination, sorry folks, primary than probably anybody that is not happening. predicted that they would. that is not in election. >> jason. >> it is such a smart take, >> yeah, this is -- it's just ridiculous how you could allow michael steele and such on brand something like this to happen. for joe biden. he has the threshold for a and the calls and contacts that little bit of pain. he could take the hits. i had last night and people but he had to count on two around the country, oh, gosh now people coming in above him or we can't trust the process. three or however many are ahead

but when i look at the of him who were polling candidates, this is for mayor literally at negative zero among pete and bernie sanders, this is a la la land sort of moment and african-american voters in south moonlight. carolina. i was supposed to have my big >> right. >> right. moment and announce it and it >> exactly. >> who is going to beat him was taken from me by a mistake. there. >> it is so funny because i spent the last couple of days in in bernie sanders won, he didn't iowa and when you are there you get the opportunity to say i saw who had the impressive won. ground game. and if mayor pete -- and he it was pete buttigieg, warren might do well in other states, he could go to his donors and and sanders. and there were stories and say that he want and that is the stories that show that biden worst thing for both campaigns. didn't have then enthusiasm and >> and it was a year of work. it was thousands of volunteers. the excitement that there it was millions of dollars. weren't a lot of crowds and when if they were robbed of those you get out of iowa, in the opportunities, and i guess the past, whoever won would get the point is we don't even know if enthusiasm, would with get that. our pity is going to the right the money bump, the polling would be in their favor and now people. >> exactly. we don't know. that is gone. it doesn't matter what -- it is >> so we don't even know if they're the right recipient of gone. so now that enthusiasm that our sympathy. everybody was complaining that >> my pity goes to the staff. he didn't have, he's kind of the thousands of staff, hundreds like zeroed on out. of staff in iowa -- >> it is like a ball drop. >> the caucus-goers. like if the balloons dropped and >> the caucus-goers who put now you can't go back to the

their blood and sweat and tears ballroom. >> he does have like nine lives into this process for almost a year and look at had a happened so he has another opportunity. now can they do it? to try to push the democratic process forward, this happened. can -- did they send folks to look, last night democrats were south carolina? will they have a ground game? supposed to bring their a-game. you have to bring your a-game if can they bring it? and that is the question that we you're going against donald don't know. trump and they failed miserably >> really quick. >> it is like when you were a and it is going to be an kid and you're like i didn't study for the test and it is a asterisk. snow day and is it doesn't and how do you convince new count, right. this was a snow day for joe hampshire, how do you convince nevada which would have the same problem and in south carolina biden. whoa, now we're doing the that you know, democrats got project and south carolina is this. your vote is going to matter, where he is good at and so he your vote is going to count. got a snow day. >> you just gave me a pit in my >> lovely to see your face stomach and i'm glad we have another 46 minutes. again. happy to see you. we're going to shaq brewster thank you for spending time with us. after the break, donald trump traveling with bernie sanders. and his campaign capitalizing on and in new hampshire. so let me play a little bit of conspiracy theories in iowa, bernie sanders but let me give imagine that. you something to address on the stories next. back side, jason johnson said if as a struggling actor, this is bernie sanders' night, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchemel... he was robbed, so keep that in cut. liberty mu... line? mind. cut. >> obviously i am disappointed. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance i suspect i could speak for all so you only pay for what you need. of the candidates, all of their supporters and the people of cut. liberty m...

iowa. am i allowed to riff? that the iowa democratic party what if i come out of the water? has not been able to come up liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. with timely election results. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance can't understand why that so you only pay for what you need. happens, but it has happened. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ >> he's got a point there. >> reporter: exactly, nicolle. whit looks like this. heart failure look like? ♪the beat goes on and you hear senator sanders entresto is a heart failure pill saying he's disappointing that the timely results weren't that helped keep people alive and out of the hospital. produced but later on in the interview with reporters as he don't take entresto if pregnant; was answering questions on his it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. campaign plane, he said it would be unfair to suggest that the ♪la-di-la-di-di results that do come in are don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. inaccurate. and you get a sense of why. this campaign feels good about the most serious side effects are angioedema, what happened there. they think they are on the winning end of the iowa caucus low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. despite there are no official ask your doctor about entresto. results. just as von hilliard mentioned ♪the beat goes on yeah! that the pete buttigieg campaign released their unofficial doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? results and they did the same thing and updated it on the plane. memory support brand. it was only 45% -- or 60% of you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. precincts that they released today on the plane and they said prevagen. healthier brain. better life. they're ahead when you look at

the numbers. so, yes, there are many supporters that i've spoken with, volunteers that i talked to, that say this is a moment that they didn't get to have. they were at the party last night and the drinks were flowing and they were ready to celebrate and didn't have the celebration. one interesting thing about last night is that senator sanders came out very quickly after vice president biden. he came out, he gave his speech and it was about ten minutes long and then what you had was his surrogate nina turner come on stage and say we don't know if there are more results. if there are more results, he a clear plan for retirement to help cover the essentials, will come back out to the stage as well as all the things you want to do. and address you then. because when you have a retirement partner he was in the hotel room for an who gives you clarity at every step, hour because they thought he there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. might have a chance to come out and have that moment. he didn't get to have the moment there to declare victory but hoping to get that moment here in new hampshire. nicolle. >> jason, i want to come back to you because nina turner --

vicariously, i'm still sweating just from watching that debate that you had with her. i mean, this is two sided for bernie sanders. i wrote down both the numbers, brgt maintained it was 75 and they're in the lead. bernie said with 60% and they're in the lead. it is double-edged, right, because neither of them may be in the lead and they may use this window to say we did better than we actually did. >> exactly. and here is the thing, nicolle, both campaigns have 100% of reporting in and they don't want to end up being contradicted by the state party. there is no way that the sanders campaign didn't have somebody at every single precinct with their own numbers. >> i'm familiar with recount spin myself. >> exactly. and the funny thing is the position of the surrogates right we're just a few moments now, because whether it is nina away from a big announcement in or nina speaking for mayor pete iowa. the party chair who is under and the other surrogates trying fire will take questions from to figure out what do we say?

reporters, or at least address do we say we won. them. we'll bring that to you live elizabeth warren said i'm here when it begins. to talk to new hampshire. in the meantime, no stranger to everybody is in a bad position chaos and disorder, donald trump right now and your donors are also like i don't know. is rather predictably delighting in what is happening in iowa this afternoon. am i still supporting amy more than a dozen tweets and klobuchar because i don't know if he came in a strong fourth or re-tweets since last night on the topic and several hit double-digits. >> does this jam up that insinuating sinister activity. you might remember that is the moderate lane and after '16 i kind of environment in which he said i would not use the lane thrived and ultimately won in again but from watching the 2016 and repeatedly insisted that that election was rigged caucus-goers there were a lot of people with biden and klobuchar even suggesting he might not accept the results it if he and mayor pete as the first lost. now he's employing a similar choices and does that jam them up in that one of the three may strategy in this election aiming at democrats in iowa promoting have been dismal. >> no more so than elizabeth suspicion about a rigged warren and bernie jam up a process. joining our conversation just in time, former assistant director little bit the lane that is further to the left, those that want free college for everybody for counter intelligence frank and stuff like that. figliuzzi and from "the so -- >> that good stuff. washington post" and co-author >> yeah. of the "new york times" so i don't know how this shakes best-seller "a very stable out. amy is under a tremendous amount genius", and co-author carol of pressure because iowa, like

pete, frankly, was very lentic and carl rucker is here. important to her. a tweet caught my attenti boile she is next door neighbor, she russia to sort of make us doubt spent -- she was all in and the credibility and the veracity pushed all of the chips into of our elections. iowa. so if she doesn't finish in the top three, if elizabeth noses explain. >> well, russia did a great job her out which is what we're of prepping the -- the prepping hearing, the top three are in the battlefield. so they softened us up and some order, bernie, buttigieg causing us to doubt anything we and elizabeth, then it is tough see. but i can only imagine what it on her. looked like inside of the and maybe she -- i don't know kremlin this morning with putin what she does. probably calling in his head of >> elizabeth warren has been intelligence and saying, hey, did we do that thing in iowa invoked and we have joe biden and we have reporters on the last night? and the head of intelligence trail with both of them on the other side of this break. saying, no, sir, the americans plus as we wait for the first results out of iowa. we'll turn to our friend frank managed to screw it up all by figliuzzi about the damage themselves. if this happened in a vacuum and already done about chaos around the caucus and what that could we had this in iowa without two do to the public trust in the final result. also ahead, a author of a dozen russians indicted for messing with our election, we very stable genius looks ahead would have said it is a technical disaster but we'll fix to what democrats fear will it and move on. but now we're all doubting all of the results and russia wins embolden donald trump following his impeachment and expected

acquittal in senate. when that happens. and going to the big board with they've had this very effective steve kornacki to understand impact on our own perceptions and i've got some bad news in what the results will tell us about last night. stay with us. this regard, if you don't like d and flu symptoms without a prescription, what is happened in iowa, we're going to see it happen again in try theraflu multi-symptom. one shape or another. theraflu dissolves in seconds, get used to this new so it's ready to work before your first sip, and absorbs quickly to target and attack battlefield, this new lack of 8 cold and flu symptoms fast. trust and credibility we have in try theraflu. our systems because the longer we rely on technology, the more vulnerable we've become. >> claire, you were on the homeland security committee and this is where i miss a senate intel committee or a functioning bipartisan -- any of the national security committees to have gone out today and stood shoulder to shoulder and have said at a federal level, we're going to redouble our efforts to help maintain or restore the public's faith in the credibility of our elections. >> it is very frustrating as the ranking member on homeland security and keep in mind that the committee in the senate is also the government affairs committee.

which is the oversight committee of the united states senate. ron johnson was the chairman. i kept pushing and prodding and writing him letters, we need more hearings on election security, we need more disclosure about what happened with russia. he just wanted to talk about hillary clinton's emails and some conspiracy, lisa page and peter strzok. >> well they had their own committee. they did that too, right. >> right. but they would not -- we maybe had one here -- hearing or maybe two on election security. when you look at what happened and the 12 russians indicted, the fact there hasn't been aggressive oversight of what happened and how to fix it for the next one, or legislation -- mitch mcconnell is sitting on the election security bill that came over from the house. he is refusing to bring it to the floor for a vote. outrageous. >> it is so upsetting. and if you look at the way the senate has handled itself in the context of the impeachment case,

that the house managers put forward, they're going to do donald trump's bidding and his bidding seems to be in the opposite direction, to sow distrust of the election. >> before he was even elected president donald trump had had a strategy to sow distrust in american institutions, first and foremost our election system and trying to do that on the campaign trail in the fall of 2016. but across the board remember after he took office he complained about alleged voter fraud and said there were three to 5 million illegal votes cast in california and that is not true and he insisted it in front of congressional leaders, speaker pelosi among them and this is just more evidence for him to create doubt about our elections throughout this campaign year this year so that when the election happens in november, his supporters may believe that the results aren't to be believed. >> it is a terrifying prospect. you've got some reporting and your colleagues today about an emboldened donald trump. i have a hard time imagining other than streaking across the

south lawn what that would even look like. he functions as a -- but he functions as highly emboldened and unrestrained and uninhibited person right now. just explain what that might look like? >> well we've seen it -- >> leaving my example out of it. >> we've seen before after the mueller investigation concluded for example when the president feels like he gets off without the accountability that his actions may have deserved, he feels emboldened and pushed through the guardrails. the guardrails at this point are gone. there is no jim mattis or john kelly or reince priebus at the white house and the expected acquittal tomorrow in the senate is just another step that our reporting shows is likely to embolden him and make him trust his own impulses and instincts and feel there is nothing that could stop him. >> and largely because he's not being held accountable.

so you take accountability out of the system, that is the ultimate guardrail. that is not an individual, it is the entire piece. you get what you get. >> i want to explain what we're waiting for now. ahead of the first results being released out of the iowa caucus from last night, that is expected but ahead of that the chairman of the iowa state democratic party is expecting to come out and frank figliuzzi, i come back to you and see if you could stitch together what feels like desperate dots but the frez was just impeached by the house of representatives for trying to cheat in the 2020 election and the first contest in the democratic prime of 2020 is now as claire mccaskill and jason johnson said forever stained with an asterisk. what is the sort of role for law enforcement or for congress or for local officials in terms of right now, right now today reassuring the public's faith in the credibility of american

elections? >> this is all about accurate, honest, candid messaging. it is crucial to get this right. even if it means that somebody at the state party level may have to announce they're resignation. we need people to come out -- and by the way, i've spent the morning talking with my contacts in various federal government agencies and the good news is there is absolutely no evidence that this is foreign meddling. this is a technology screwup but more importantly this is a failure to test the system, to train how this app works but they had plenty of notice. we've all been saying, it is not about the tabulation of the votes, it's about the transmission of results and here it happened. so we need an honest explanation, we need a way forward and we talked about senate walking away from this.

mcconnell saying it is not a federal problem, we don't want to take ownership of this. there is one reason they don't want to take ownership because it is highly complicated and fraught with peril but we need somebody to step up and say this is what happened and this is how we're going to fix it. we own this problem. we're going to hake it better. if we don't hear that today, the public is right to be very troubled and concerned about moving forward with election results. >> and jason johnson, that is from a counterintelligence world view and federal law enforcement view. what is your view as someone more familiar with the complicated contours of the democratic party? is this scalp worth giving to reassure confidence in this process? >> they need to reassure confidence but i think the problem is who is the democratic party you're speaking to. you have supporters of bernie sanders who were skeptical of the process anyway and the joe biden people who say this is bad because the other party is bad. you don't knee who the propaganda -- who the apology letter needs to go to because democrats are in so many

different places and again as a whole, do i think this worries somebody in california voting on super-tuesday. probably not. but does this worry people in nevada and make people in general doubt the effectiveness of the process, that is a bigger issue. >> and other than sort of gleefully enjoying the mess of all of this is the trump campaign picking up anything about this murky field when we reported that michael bloomberg made a decision to double down and to spend more, to advertise even -- i don't know what doubling infinite looks like in terms of the math there. but this seems to be strengthening some of the people that donald trump should be most nervous about. >> that is right. and if you look at the last several months, this is probably the best day on the trump campaign. the gap on poll shows his approval at the highest point since his presidency began and approval in the economy is higher than in two decades, he's about to address tens of millions of americans tonight in the state of the union and claim

victory for the economy and for killing terror orrists and the democrats can't seem to count the heads in the gymnasium in iowa, literally, so it is a real problem for the democratic party at a moment when trump is gaining steam and about to be acquitted. >> so a perfect time to go back to von hilliard on the left side of the screen. because iowa's democratic party chair is about to make an announcement ahead of releasing the very first results. you heard it from phil rucker, the easy sort of insult for democrats on the part of the president is they can't even, as a party, count the heads in a gymnasium. do you think we'll get a answer to that, von hilliard? >> reporter: a couple of staffers have walked into the iowa event center. this is where the results were supposed to be announced last night. we're awaiting troy price, the chairman of the iowa democratic party to take the podium at any moment and he was slated to take

it here at the 45 mark and the initial results in which they're indicating a majority of the results meaning at least 50% of the results were supposed to be posted here online in the next 11 minutes. we're waiting for troy price and this is an uncommunicative party. when it comes to communication with the press, the only communication taking place outside of paper statements was last night in the 1:00 a.m. in which troy price held a conference call in which he spoke for 74 seconds before abruptly hanging up. there is a litany of questions this which you were were just tg about, as well as our colleagues have been asking these questions here of the party for months. in terms of who has tested this app, when was the app prepared. who was the company that was reviewing the app. these are the questions they did not answer all the way up to caucus day. why was it not required that these precinct chairs. you had individuals, locals that

were trying to run this app, there is no statement that's been made as to why these individuals were not required, why there was no testing of this app, because the party is blaming a large part of this on coding. why was there not a required testing of this. there are issues that the party has not answered. consequently you have every presidential candidate leaving the state. all of us here to parcel entrance polls as well as these campaigns putting out their own individual standings of the results based on what their organizers were telling us here. this is the sight here, i'm trying to get a sense of, as you can see the cameras, our photog who we've been hanging out with in iowa. the cameras have left the podium and are moving up, this is an operation in which the reality is, there's serious questions about whether the iowa caucus will be taking place again.

four years ago, there were question marks. this is complex, and i think the question is also, when we're looking at these results, i was on the phone with a buttigieg aide it could are real that perhaps bernie sanders is the top or elizabeth warren. ultimately, these other precinctses come in, that's when results could change. i was talking with tom courtney, he was one of those precinct chairs, he initially sent in the information from his precinct. i called them in the last hour, he said that several chairs were all meeting up with the local union hall in burlington and actively sorting through their paper trails. and who are they waiting for some someone from the iowa democratic party to join someone in burlington three hours away. do we have that information from burlington, iowa. we don't know. i guess that's a lot of what we

don't know. we haven't known much for the last 22 hours. hopefully troy price will do more than make a statement and answer some of these questions here. >> steve kornacki has some answers to our question. i think phil rucker crystallized it until a gut punch of a way. the republicans have a decent argument to make, if they can say the democrats can't count 179,000 people in auditoriums. >> you say 179,000, let's see what the turnout is. we have the iowa democratic party giving us an estimate, let's see if and when we get these returns if it matches up with that. they are saying in a few minutes at least the most recent statement we have, we're going to get about half starting at 5:00, could that be all at once? will that be trickling in, that's something we don't know. the other thing we don't know, let's say we get half of the vote, let's say we get half of

the results, very critical here where that half is coming from. there are five counties here we've been talking about. if it's coming from those five and not the rural areas, that would be advantage sanders. if he leaves and you're seeing johnson county, where iowa city is, university of northern iowa, if you're not necessarily seeing some of the rural areas where sanders struggled a bit, that's context if he were to take the lead in this conversely, if you were not to see those counties reporting that's also context, we're going to hopefully get returns here, and we're going to start to get some clarity, again, the indications are we're going to get half of the vote that's out there, we don't know which half, we don't know what form the iowa democratic party said in advance of this thing, they're going to give us three numbers, the initial preference,

the state delegate equivalent we are hope that's what we get here. there's a lot of hoping that's been going on for the last 24 hours here, we're sitting here at this moment with zero, we'll see. >> michael steele it is a stunning indictment of the process so far. i mean, this was four years in the making, it's been four years since the last iowa caucus. vaughn's reporting on the app not working. gave me chills. the app didn't work, no one knew if it would or wouldn't work. i mean, people put more thought into things without consequences that they do on their phones. >> the thing about something like this is, what we would always do at state level, when i was the state chairman, especially at the national level. you bring something new to the table, you stress test it, you run a mock trial if you will, in this case, a mock caucus to see where your bugs are and try to work those out beforehand. the fact that no one paid

attention to that is stunning. >> again, a little bit contrary in here, i wouldn't be doing this right now. >> yeah, i would not be holding this conference. >> ten minutes late, he might -- >> you'll release all at one time. >> all right, let's listen. see what he has to say. troy price, the chairman of the iowa state democratic party. >> thank you for taking a little time today to chat a little bit about what happened last night. the reporting of the results and circumstances surrounding the 2020 iowa democratic party caucuses were unacceptable. as chair of the party, i apologize deeply for this. last night we were faced with multiple reporting challenges and decided out of an abundance of caution, to protect the integrity of the iowa caucuses. and their results by taking the necessary steps to review and confirm the data. a thorough transparent and

independent examination of what occurred yesterday will follow. let me be clear my number one priority has been on ensuring the accuracy and integrity of results. we have been working all night in the best position to report results. here in a couple minutes. we will be reporting 62% of precincts from all 99 counties. the bottom line is, that we had a stumbling block on the back end of the reporting of the data, the one thing i want you to know, we know this data is accurate. and we also have a paper trail and documentation that have been able to use to provide information to help verify the results. this is personal to me. i'm a lifelong iowa an. i have caucused for 20 years.

and i know how important it is for -- to our party to our state and to everyone from our neighbors to new voters to be able to come together all across the state. we want iowa ans to be confident in the results and in the process. and we are going to take the time that we need to make sure we do just that. i know folks are going to be wanting to see the results as they come in. i'm happy to take a couple quick questions before that happens. >> how can anyone trust you now. >> we have been working day and night to make sure these results are accurate, the one thing i will say, is that the underlaying data, the raw data is secure. it was always secure. this was a coding error in one of the pieces on the back end. the raw data is secure. and i can assure iowa ans of that. >> are you worried it could cost

you your first in the nation status or endanger the caucuses as a nation? >> this is a conversation that happens every four years, there's no doubt that conversation will take place again. right now, my focus is making sure we get these results out. we are going to continue to do that, we will have the results out as soon as we can. jeff? >> when do you believe you will get to a higher percent. >> how can you ensure americans that these are verifiably accurate results. >> we're going to take the time we need to get these results done. now that we have the first patch that's going to be coming out here in a couple minutes. we're going to go through our processes, verifying everything. we have a paper trail, we have always said all along throughout this process, that we have backups to this system, that we have redundancies built in. one of the ways we do that, is through the paper trail. the fact is, is that as we started doing this last night.

it took longer than we expected. the paramount concern is making sure that these results are accurate, and reflect what happened last night in caucuses across the state, we're going to do just that, and that's -- we're going to take the time we need to do that. >> when was -- when was the app submitted for an independent clear party? why was the app never tested statewide and why would the party deny testing the app? >> i have no knowledge of the department of homeland security making that offer to us. i will say that we have worked with cyber security experts to test this app and to do testing and security checks on this app. we have -- we took the steps we thought were necessary, but we found a coding error last night,

once we discovered some irregularities as the results started coming in. >> why was it never -- will you have internal testing? >> were there any coding discrepancies during the third party testing? >> no, there weren't. >> that's why what happened last night is