memeorandum: My chaotic, infuriating night running an Iowa caucus (Zach Simonson/Washington Post)

4:35 PM ET, February 4, 2020

Top Items:

This Is The Buzzy Democratic Firm That Botched The Iowa Caucuses — Shadow, a Democratic digital firm, created the app that was supposed to deliver quicker caucus results. — The tech arm of ACRONYM, a Democratic digital nonprofit group that has rapidly expanded in recent years …

Discussion: The Hill, Mother Jones, Vox, American Prospect, The Last Refuge, National Review, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, CNBC, Talking Points Memo, The Intercept, New York Times, ProPublica, Breitbart and Bleeding Heartland, more at Techmeme »

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

The most important Iowa result is in. Democrats should worry. — DES MOINES — No one knows how long it will be before it is clear which Democratic presidential candidate won the Iowa caucuses. — But the most important tally of the night has been reported, and it should worry Democrats.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

The Daily Beast:

Investors Rush to Downplay Ties to Firm Behind Iowa Clusterfuck — The frantic cleanup put a microscope on one of Democratic Party's fastest-rising digital stars. — Hours after a debacle that marred Monday's Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses, investors in a company hired …

Discussion: National Review, Spectator USA, Politico, The Atlantic, The Daily Caller, Financial Times, The Hill and Raw Story

Zach Simonson / Washington Post:

My chaotic, infuriating night running an Iowa caucus — People were excited to participate. Now the story will be about this mess, not their votes. — There's an old joke: “I'm not a member of an organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” We Iowans went into our caucuses expecting some snags.

Discussion: NB Blog and Slate, more at Techmeme »

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Democratic Party's Crisis of Legitimacy May Be Just Beginning — We are living in an era of what political scientists describe as “strong partisanship and weak parties” — or, alternatively, as “negative partisanship.” The electorate is polarized into opposing camps …

Tim Alberta / Politico:
The Death of Iowa — DES MOINES, Iowa — There can be no doubting …

Discussion: New Yorker, The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Getty Images, Washington Post, Vox and The Guardian

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Watch: Iowa Voter Freaks Out on Buttigieg Precinct Capt. After Finding Out Mayor Pete is Gay

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Hill and New York Post

New York Times:
‘A Systemwide Disaster’: How the Iowa Caucuses Melted Down

Brian Slodysko / Associated Press:
Bloomberg doubles ad spending after chaos of Iowa caucuses

Discussion: New York Times, Politico and Washington Post

Associated Press:
The Latest: At least 50% of Iowa results to come Tuesday

Discussion: Politico, New York Times, National Review, CNBC, The Hill, Washington Post and Breitbart

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:
Come on, we basically know how Iowa voted: Against Biden

Discussion: Breitbart and Big League Politics

Nick Coltrain / Des Moines Register: Bernie Sanders is ‘extremely disappointed’ Iowa Democratic Party hasn't released caucus results

New York Times:
App Used to Tabulate Votes Is Said to Have Been Inadequately Tested

David Hurlburt / WCVB:
Exclusive: Bernie Sanders leads in WCVB/UMass Amherst New Hampshire Primary poll

Discussion: Breitbart

Nick Statt / The Verge:
The app that broke the Iowa Caucuses was sent out through a beta testing platform

Discussion: CNN, New York Times and Fox News

VICE:
The Democrats Screwed America With an App No One Asked For

Discussion: New York Times, CNBC and The Intercept

Wall Street Journal:
Iowa Caucus Results Delayed by Apparent App Issue

Discussion: Townhall, Slate, Fox News, Washington Post, Vox, NPR, Raw Story, Engadget, The Federalist, CNN, Mother Jones, The Daily Caller and Redstate

TMZ.com:
Pete Buttigieg Iowa Caucus-Goer Finds Out He's Gay, Wants Vote Back

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Daily Caller, Big League Politics and Townhall

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Social media was a cesspool of toxic Iowa conspiracy theories last night. It's only going to get worse.

Discussion: PJ Media Home, Reason, Townhall, Raw Story and The Verge, more at Mediagazer »

Politico:
'It's a total meltdown': Confusion grips Iowa with no official results in sight

Discussion: Fox News, Mother Jones, Washington Post, The Hill, National Review, New York Post, Associated Press, Common Dreams, Breitbart, Vox, Axios, Washington Free Beacon, Spectator USA, Vanity Fair, WHOTV, Raw Story, The Verge, NBC News, Power Line, Mediaite and Slate

Harold Meyerson / American Prospect: My Post-Election, Pre-Result Analysis

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
The Only Safe Election Is a Low-Tech Election

Discussion: The Philadelphia Inquirer, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Twitchy

Los Angeles Times:
Partial Iowa caucus results to be released this afternoon; timing of full release uncertain

Discussion: VICE, The Gateway Pundit, KTLA and Althouse

Charlie Warzel / New York Times:
Move Fast and Break the Caucus

Discussion: The Bulwark, The Guardian, Breitbart, Mediaite and Redstate

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Frustration, questions as delays hamper Iowa caucuses

Discussion: Politico, Vox, Des Moines Register, The Nation, Redstate, Common Dreams and IJR

Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
After Iowa — Everyone loses. Literally everyone.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Guardian and Slate

CNN:
Problematic app used in Iowa caucuses also set to be used in Nevada, sources tell CNN

Discussion: The Atlantic, New Republic, HuffPost, Axios, Washington Post, Slate, Common Dreams, New York Times, WHOTV, The Verge and Vox

Brianne Pfannenstiel / Des Moines Register:
‘It was a total mess’: Caucusing is long over, but Iowa still doesn't have a winner

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Big League Politics, Breitbart and The Smoke Eater

NBC News:
Iowa caucus app: Iowa Democratic Party blames ‘coding issue’ for results delay

Discussion: Politico, Washington Examiner, Fox News and The Daily Caller

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Trump Job Approval at Personal Best 49% — WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump's job approval rating has risen to 49%, his highest in Gallup polling since he took office in 2017. — The new poll finds 50% of Americans disapproving of Trump, leaving just 1% expressing no opinion.

Discussion: New York Times, The Federalist, National Review, The Hill, Fox News, Mediaite, The Erin Endeavor, Vanity Fair, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, CNBC, Twitchy, Townhall, Althouse, The Daily Caller, Redstate, New York Post, Bloomberg, Axios, Washington Times and CNN

Chris Cillizza / CNN:
Donald Trump just got the best polling news of his presidency

Discussion: National Review, Townhall and americandigest.org

Nick R. Martin / The Informant:

Threat against Adam Schiff — Hi, and welcome to The Informant, a publication covering hate and extremism in America, written and edited by me, Nick R. Martin. — A lot has happened in the past several days, so today's intelligence briefing is packed full of links and information.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Mother Jones and Raw Story

Politico:
Arizona man facing charges for threatening Adam Schiff

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and IJR

Politico:
Rand Paul reads alleged whistleblower's name and Republicans ‘fine’ with it

Discussion: Big League Politics and Daily Kos

Rashaan Ayesh / Axios:
Rand Paul reads alleged name of Ukraine whistleblower on Senate floor

Discussion: Breitbart

Yahoo News:

Top Navy SEAL commander resigns after apparent disagreements with Trump — The officer responsible for US Navy special-operations forces will step down from his position in September, — The Intercept reported over the weekend. — Rear Adm. Collin Green's retirement follows …

Discussion: Business Insider and Task & Purpose

New York Times:

Bloomberg Plans to Double Ad Spending After Iowa Caucus Problem — The former New York City mayor, whose campaign is fueled by a multibillion-dollar fortune, will also expand his campaign's field staff to more than two thousand people. — DES MOINES — Michael R. Bloomberg's presidential campaign moved …

Discussion: National Review, Axios, Political Wire, Vanity Fair, The Hill and The Independent

Grace Segers / CBS News:

Susan Collins will vote to acquit Trump, saying he's “learned” from impeachment — Watch Norah O'Donnell's exclusive interview with Susan Collins on the “CBS Evening News” on Tuesday, February 4, at 6:30 p.m. ET. — Washington — Republican Senator Susan Collins announced Tuesday she will vote …

David Enrich / New York Times:

The Money Behind Trump's Money — The inside story of the president and Deutsche Bank, his lender of last resort. — One Day in early 2017, Mike Offit went to the Yale Club in Manhattan for a lunch hosted by a group called Business Executives for National Security.

Discussion: The Guardian, Fortune and Raw Story

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Trump is about to get a lot more dangerous. Here's what's coming. — When President Trump is acquitted by the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, he'll surely take from it the message that he can continue abusing his powers however he sees fit to corrupt the 2020 election. He now knows he'll face zero consequences.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Raw Story

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Iowa Might Have Screwed Up The Whole Nomination Process — In trying to build a forecast model of the Democratic primaries, we literally had to think about the entire process from start (Iowa) to finish (the Virgin Islands on June 6). Actually, we had to do more than that.

Discussion: PJ Media Home and Spectator USA

The White House:

Special Guests for President Trump's 3rd State of the Union Address — Below are the special guests who will join President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tonight for the President's third State of the Union. — From brave military families to hardworking local leaders, this year's guests come from many walks of life.

Discussion: Associated Press, Axios, Fox News, CNN, Politico, Breitbart, NPR, The Hill, IJR, Bloomberg and Washington Post

NPR:

Giuliani Says Trump Should ‘100%’ Investigate Biden After Expected Senate Acquittal — Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who is President Trump's personal attorney, says the president should not back away from investigating Joe Biden even after Trump's expected acquittal Wednesday by the U.S. Senate.

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and The Daily Beast

Vanity Fair:

“I WANT THAT GODDAMN FUCKING STATEMENT”: Behind the Scenes of Trump's Secret Birther Implosion — Just before his first debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump's campaign decided it was time for him to revoke birtherism at long last. But, as Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng report in Sinking In the Swamp …

Discussion: Political Wire, Raw Story and Mediaite

Brian Stelter / CNN:

White House excludes CNN from annual pre-SOTU lunch with news anchors — New York (CNN Business)President Donald Trump's targeting of CNN is moving to yet another arena: The annual presidential lunch with television network anchors. — CNN anchors are being excluded from Tuesday's lunch, three sources said on Monday night.

Discussion: Mediaite, Vanity Fair, Twitchy, The Hill, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Townhall and Daily Kos, more at Mediagazer »

Jordan Libowitz / CREW:

CREW Files Hatch Act Complaint Against Jared Kushner — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Washington — White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President Jared Kushner violated the Hatch Act during a CNN interview on Sunday, according to a complaint filed today by Citizens for Responsibility …