Sanders and Buttigieg campaigns request partial recanvass of Iowa caucuses – as it happened

The rallies still rage in New Hampshire tonight, but that’s it from us. Stay tuned for more news from our stellar politics team, who will have updates.

At the Trump rally in Manchester, a familiar chant has appeared to have turned on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

New Hampshire crowd chants "Lock her up!" after President Trump alluded to Nancy Pelosi "mumbling terribly behind me" during the State of the Union.

"There was a little anger back there," he said. "We're the ones who should be angry, not them." https://t.co/2OrQPtHreq pic.twitter.com/TkKtm2MxgM

Continue reading...

‘Hijabi clout’: the Muslim women unknowingly used by 2020 campaigns

Sabirah Mahmud was in a Biden video. Ayanna Lee was in an ad for Warren. Neither of them consented, nor do they support those candidates

With the 2020 election well underway in the US, political advertisements with messages of hope and inclusivity have been flooding social media feeds and inboxes all across the country.

Sabirah Mahmud, a high school student and the national logistics director for the US Youth Climate Strike was surprised on 2 February when she came across footage of herself in a video ad for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, after a friend texted her. But the main shock was that it happened despite the fact she is a vocal Bernie Sanders supporter.

Continue reading...

Democratic debate: candidates clash on healthcare and race – video highlights

Democratic presidential candidates clashed in a televised debate in New Hampshire on Friday night at the end of a week dominated by the Iowa caucuses chaos and Donald Trump's acquittal.

Attacks were focused against Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, the two candidates who declared victory in Iowa, as the hottest topics discussed were healthcare and race

Continue reading...

Democratic candidates zero in on Buttigieg and Sanders at tense debate

Competing visions for the party were on display as moderate candidates challenged progressives ahead of New Hampshire primary

Democratic presidential candidates clashed on Friday night in a tense televised debate that was dominated by attacks against Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, the two candidates who declared victory after the Iowa caucuses.

In the week that Donald Trump was acquitted in his impeachment trial and days ahead of the New Hampshire primary, the competing visions for the Democratic party were on show as moderate candidates challenged the progressives, and those with more Washington experience called out the relative political newcomers.

Continue reading...

US politics: Buttigieg leads in Iowa as Senate prepares to acquit Trump – live coverage

  • Buttigieg just ahead of Sanders as Iowa votes trickle in
  • Pelosi rips up copy of Trump State of the Union speech
  • Only one Republican senator likely to vote to convict Trump
  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution

Pete Buttigieg threw everything into winning the Iowa Democratic caucuses and – with 71% of the vote in following Monday’s results debacle – his gamble may well have paid off.

If so, the former mayor of tiny South Bend, Indiana, may look back on this moment as the peak of his political career, or the start of a long, hard slog that could take him all the way to the White House.

Hello and welcome to another big day in American politics.

It’s fair to see Donald Trump is probably having a pretty good week. Last night he got 80 minutes to make his case for a second term on primetime TV with his State of the Union address, as the Democrats continued to struggle to publish results from their first primary contest on Iowa on Monday.

Continue reading...

Iowa Democrats apologise for caucus counting problems – video

The Democratic party in Iowa has apologised after it failed to reveal results from the Iowa caucuses. The system for reporting the votes failed to function, while a back-up telephone line also jammed, leading to no declaration of a winner despite the campaign moving on to New Hampshire

Continue reading...

Iowa caucus results: Pete Buttigieg pulls ahead as state Democrats release partial count – live

Some Iowans expressed frustration on Tuesday that the state Democratic party had bungled its moment in the national spotlight after the state Democratic party delayed releasing the results of the caucuses because of a technical glitch.

“They’re not complete, but results are in from a majority of precincts, and they show our campaign in first place,” said Pete Buttigieg, grinning widely as he addressed supporters in New Hampshire. “This is what we have been working more than a year to convince our fellow Americans: that a new and better vision can bring about a new and better day.

Continue reading...

Pete Buttigieg holds early lead in Iowa caucuses after chaos over results

Iowa Democratic party announces partial results with former South Bend mayor trailed closely by Bernie Sanders

Pete Buttigieg, the previously little-known former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held a narrow lead in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday night, according to a partial release of a majority of the results by the state Democratic party a day after an embarrassing organizational breakdown that marred the biggest night of the election year so far.

With 71% of the precincts reporting from all of Iowa’s 99 counties, Buttigieg held 26.8% of the state’s delegate count, trailed closely by the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders with 25.2%, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren with 18.4% and the former vice-president Joe Biden falling well behind with 15.4%. Sanders, meanwhile, had so far earned the largest share of total votes cast.

Continue reading...

‘Iowa, you have shocked the nation’: Democrats remain hopeful despite results chaos – video

The Democratic candidates vying to challenge Donald Trump for the US presidency in November were left in limbo and forced to make their scheduled speeches to supporters without knowing the outcome. Despite the lack of results, all candidates sought to claim a form of victory

Continue reading...

Iowa caucuses: results in chaos as Democratic party blames delays on ‘inconsistencies’ – as it happened

  • Party says they are using photos and paper trail to validate results
  • Biden’s campaign sends letter to party demanding ‘full explanation’
  • Iowa caucuses results – live updates
  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution

That’s it from me after a very anti-climatic night in Des Moines. The Democratic presidential candidates and the media circus accompanying them are leaving Iowa with no sense of who won the first voting state in the nominating contest.

Here’s where things stand:

One reporter described Iowa Democratic party chairman Troy Price’s voice on the press call as “deflated”, which is understandable considering the organization saw its worst nightmare unfold before its eyes tonight.

"Thank you and we will be in touch soon," Price said.

An understatement to say he sounded deflated. Since his election in 2017, it's been his sole mission to try to make a fairer, more transparent Iowa caucus that would also run seamlessly. Tonight was IDP's worst nightmare.

Continue reading...

Iowa caucuses off to disastrous start as results delayed due to ‘inconsistencies’

Hours after voting began there were no results as the state’s Democratic party said it was ‘simply a reporting issue’

The Democratic presidential primary contest got off to a disastrous start on Monday after results from the highly anticipated Iowa Democratic caucuses were dramatically delayed due to “inconsistencies” in the reporting of the data.

The state’s Democratic party said it was performing “quality control” on the numbers “out of an abundance of caution” following reports of problems with a phone app used to relay vote tallies.

Continue reading...

How do the Iowa caucuses work? Your guide to the night

The midwestern state is the first to vote in the presidential primary race. So what are caucuses, and how do they work? Here’s your guide to the night

The Iowa caucuses take place on Monday 3 February, kicking off the long process of nominating a Democratic presidential candidate who will eventually take on Donald Trump in November’s US election.

The primary race is made up of a series of contests called primaries and caucuses that take place in all 50 states plus Washington DC and outlying territories, by which the parties select their presidential nominee from the candidates who are running.

Continue reading...

‘You basically are nothing’: the Americans shut out of the Iowa caucuses

Hundreds of thousands of Iowans are barred from the Iowa caucus because of physical and legal barriers

As Democratic candidates began a last minute blitz across Iowa on Friday evening, nearly a dozen men gathered in a cavernous YMCA meeting room in downtown Des Moines to have a conversation that felt a universe removed from the 2020 race.

They were part of one of the largest groups shut out of Monday’s caucus: people with felony convictions. Iowans are barred from voting for life once they commit a felony, and people can’t vote even if they committed a crime decades ago. The state’s policy, one of the strictest in the country, means more than 42,000 Iowans out of prison won’t have a say in choosing a presidential candidate. Almost 10% of the black voting age population can’t vote because of a felony conviction.

Continue reading...

How the Democrats will decide who fights Trump – video

More than a dozen candidates are running to take on Donald Trump in the presidential election this year. But first they must win the Democratic nomination. Lauren Gambino explains the process

Continue reading...

Warren falls behind in Iowa but wins coveted newspaper endorsement

  • Des Moines Register: Warren is ‘the president this nation needs’
  • Sanders emerges as frontrunner in Iowa and New Hampshire


Bernie Sanders emerged as the frontrunner in the two earliest Democratic 2020 nomination voting states this weekend, Iowa and New Hampshire, according to the latest polls – but Elizabeth Warren received a powerful boost with an endorsement from the Des Moines Register newspaper in what is still considered an open race.

Warren had been slipping behind in Iowa, which holds the first vote in the nation with its caucuses just a week a way on 3 February, but the Register this weekend named her “the president this nation needs”.

Continue reading...

Trump impeachment: president’s legal team to include Bill Clinton investigator Ken Starr – live

Donald Trump’s legal team for the impeachment trial will include Starr, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz and Robert Ray

  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution

A delegation from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is in Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico today as part of an investigation into the Trump administration’s Remain in Mexico policy and the use of tent courts to process those cases.

Thousands of families are trapped in limbo at the Matamoros, Mexico refugee camp because of @realDonaldTrump's disastrous #RemainInMexico policy. No one should ever be subjected to these inhumane living conditions. No one. We are better than this. #DemsAtTheBorder pic.twitter.com/jovxC3WhHY

The conditions in the camps are heartbreaking. They get water rationed from a bucket. They see a doctor in what looks like a large portapotty. There are so many children. Before Trump’s #RemainInMexico policy these families could wait in the US for their asylum court dates. pic.twitter.com/FNcpGlF5rM

A jury of seven men and five women were picked for the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial today after a two-week selection process in which scores of people were dismissed.

Opening statements are expected to begin on Wednesday.

During jury selection, prosecutors had accused Weinstein’s lawyers of systematically trying to keep young women off the panel, though the final makeup of the jury turned out to be more closely balanced.

For its part, the defense raised an outcry and demanded a mistrial because one of the jurors is the author of an upcoming novel about young women dealing with predatory older men. The request was denied, but Weinstein’s lawyers continued to claim outside court that the juror had withheld the information on her questionnaire.

Related: More than 100 women protest Trump and Weinstein with anti-rape anthem

Continue reading...

‘You called me a liar on national TV’: audio released of testy Warren-Sanders exchange

Candidates and longtime friends trade angry remarks before Tom Steyer offers an awkward hello

CNN has released the audio of the testy exchange between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders that took place following Tuesday’s Democratic debate.

After the debate wrapped, Bernie Sanders outstretched his hand to Elizabeth Warren. Warren did not take it, and the two progressive candidates, who until recently have avoided criticizing each other publicly, exchanged words – which until now were inaudible.

Continue reading...

Warren-Sanders tension simmers and Steyer makes a mark: key debate takeaways

The Iowa debate ended in a quarrel between the two progressives, but there were other moments to remember

The final Democratic debate before voting begins in the Iowa caucus early next month ended in a testy confrontation between progressive senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

Related: Elizabeth Warren's confrontation with Bernie Sanders caps testy debate night

Continue reading...

Democratic debate: rivals square off in final debate before Iowa caucuses – live

  • Six candidates to debate at Drake University in Des Moines
  • Sanders, Warren, Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Steyer feature
  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution

Hours before the debate on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would vote to send its impeachment charges against Donald Trump to the Senate the following day.

Even though six Democratic presidential candidates failed to meet the polling requirement for tonight’s debate, one candidate who did manage to cross that threshold will not be onstage tonight: Michael Bloomberg.

Continue reading...

Warren says Sanders told her no woman could beat Trump in 2020

Sanders has called reports of his remarks ‘ludicrous’ as tensions between campaigns surge ahead of first votes

Elizabeth Warren has said Bernie Sanders told her during a private meeting that he did not believe a woman could beat Donald Trump in 2020, a version of events that Sanders vehemently denies.

In a statement issued on Monday evening, Warren offered her recollections of their conversation, a one-on-one discussion which took place in Washington at the end of 2018, when each senator was laying the groundwork for a presidential run.

Continue reading...