Iowa Democrats say Trump supporters tried to sabotage Monday's caucus backup plan

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 6 February 2020

The Iowa Democratic Party owns most of the blame for the irksome delays in reporting Monday's caucus results — as of Thursday morning, there is still no declared winner. But maybe it doesn't deserve all the blame. In a conference call Wednesday night, Bloomberg News reports, state Democratic Party central committee member Ken Sagar said supporters of President Trump had flooded a hotline set up for local precincts to report their results in case a new vote-reporting app failed, as it did. Precinct chairs waited on hold for long periods of time, and some gave up.

Sagar said on the call that he was manning the hotline Monday night and many of the people who got through expressed support for Trump, two participants told Bloomberg. The Trump backers got the hotline number from photos of caucus paperwork posted online, one person on the call said. Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price reportedly alluded to the shenanigans in the call but did not mention Trump supporters.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.