memeorandum: On health care, is Trump malicious or just incompetent? Yes. (Catherine Rampell/Washington Post)

10:50 AM 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: National Review, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, The Intercept, CNBC, The Guardian, The Hill, Bleeding Heartland, Reason, NPR and Associated Press, more at Techmeme »

Tom Perez:

How We Prepared for 2020 — Tonight, our party's presidential nominating process officially kicks off in Iowa. Today, I'm reflecting on the three years we've spent preparing for this moment, the changes we've made to make sure we are ready. I'm proud of the historic reforms we passed …

Discussion: Power Line, Shot in the Dark, PJ Media Home and Twitchy

New York Times:

App Used to Tabulate Votes Is Said to Have Been Inadequately Tested — The state Democratic Party commissioned a new app to tabulate caucus results. It did not appear to go as planned. — DES MOINES — The app that the Iowa Democratic Party commissioned to tabulate and report results …

Discussion: Fox News, National Review, Vox, Fortune, Washington Post, CNN, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, The Bulwark, The Verge, Redstate, Common Dreams, Vanity Fair, The Gateway Pundit, WHOTV, Instapundit and Mediaite

Clare Malone / FiveThirtyEight:

That Last, Unreleased Des Moines Register Poll Of Iowa Really Did Show Biden In Fourth — If you're the sort of person who was glued to political Twitter on Saturday night — and God help you if you are — you would have seen a mass freak-out when it was announced that that the Des Moines Register …

Discussion: LifeSiteNews, NBC News, Townhall, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Redstate, Twitchy and Des Moines Register, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

‘A Systemwide Disaster’: How the Iowa Caucuses Melted Down — Unexplained “inconsistencies” in results, heated conference calls and firm denials of hacking left the contest in a strange state of almost suspended animation. — DES MOINES — Sean Bagniewski had seen the problems coming.

Discussion: National Review, Commentary, No More Mister Nice Blog, Shero and Fox News

Tim Alberta / Politico:

The death of Iowa — DES MOINES — There can be no doubting it now, not after so many years spent in the crosshairs, not after active presidential candidates began challenging its privileged position atop the nominating calendar, and certainly not after Monday night's debacle that left seven candidates …

Amanda Carpenter / The Bulwark:

Democrats Did the Russians' Work for Them — Iowa Democrats brought this conspiracy theory on themselves. — The Iowa Democratic party had one job: tally the results for the party's first-in-nation caucus. It's almost unbelievable the Democrats could fail to perform what has been, in previous years, an exceedingly trivial task.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Guardian, Raw Story, The Atlantic, The Independent and Vox

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

Iowa caucus mess nothing compared to intra-Democratic Party chaos on the horizon — The Iowa caucuses reveal not only a Democratic Party deliriously incompetent at handling a vote tally — this from the folks who have been screaming about voting fraud and irregularities for years …

New York Times:
Iowa Caucus Results 2020: Live

Discussion: Townhall, Redstate, TalkLeft and Mother Jones

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

Discussion: The Dispatch, Slate and The Daily Caller

Wall Street Journal:
Trump Campaign Ejects Bloomberg News Reporter From Iowa News Conference

Discussion: Breitbart and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
Buttigieg races to push narrative that he won Iowa despite no official results

Discussion: The Daily Caller, ABC News and The Hill

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:
R.I.P. the ‘First-In-the-Nation’ Iowa Caucuses (1972-2020)

Discussion: Vox, Daily Kos, New York Times, HuffPost, The Atlantic and Mother Jones

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

Discussion: The Guardian, Washington Post and Columbia Journalism Review

BuzzFeed News:
The Iowa Caucus Results Are Still Delayed And Campaigns Are Angry

Discussion: New York Times, Mediaite, Slate and Talking Points Memo

Tyler Olson / Fox News:
App used in Iowa Democratic caucus fiasco linked to ex-Clinton campaign staffers

Discussion: National Review, Damian J. Penny, Instapundit and New York Times

Thomas Beaumont / Associated Press:
Iowa's coveted status in doubt following results delay

Discussion: PBS NewsHour, Associated Press and Politico

Colby Itkowitz / Washington Post:
Iowa caucuses 2020 live updates: Iowa Democratic Party promises results ‘as soon as possible today’

Discussion: National Review, Vox, WHOTV, Slate and The Guardian

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

Discussion: The Federalist, Townhall, Mother Jones, Raw Story and Vox

Leah Barkoukis / Townhall:
‘Trainwreck’: Dems Blasted For Failing to Manage a Caucus But Wanting to Run Government, Healthcare

Discussion: New York Times, Bloomberg and Axios

Jeff Bercovici / Los Angeles Times:
Tech firm started by Clinton campaign veterans is linked to Iowa caucus reporting debacle

Discussion: New York Times, Big League Politics, Financial Times, Althouse and Redstate

Tristan Justice / The Federalist:
Democratic Party Withholds Results Of Iowa Caucuses, Citing Tech Errors

Discussion: The Capitolist and Townhall

John F. Harris / Politico:
The winner is ... no one — “Iowa,” a smiling Pete Buttigieg said …

Discussion: Breitbart and The Hill

Zachary B. Wolf / CNN:
The Iowa caucuses just died forever

Discussion: Washington Post

Myah Ward / Politico:
Trump claims he'll protect Iowa's first-in-the-nation status

Discussion: Associated Press, Political Wire and ABC News

NBC News:
Results for Iowa caucuses delayed as state Democratic Party finds ‘inconsistencies’

Discussion: Vox, Washington Free Beacon, Spectator USA, JONATHAN TURLEY, The Verge, Axios and Bloomberg

Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
‘It kind of failed us’: With eyes of the world on Iowa, another hiccup in American democracy

Discussion: Vox, Associated Press and Raw Story

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:
Iowa entrance poll: Most Dems care more about beating Trump than issues

Discussion: Axios, CNN, Associated Press, The Hill and Washington Times

Axios:
The Iowa caucus ends in a meltdown thanks to app's “coding issue”

Discussion: Reason, The Hill and Disrn

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

Discussion: The Nation

New York Times:
The 1,600 Volunteers Who Were Supposed to Make the Iowa Caucuses Run Smoothly

Discussion: The Verge and Twitchy

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: Redstate, Bloomberg, Axios, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and The Guardian

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: Political Wire 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.

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: Right Wing Watch

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: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

Sarah Blaskey / Miami Herald:

As others stand at attention for anthem, Trump fidgets, points, pretend-conducts the band — President Donald Trump has repeatedly said all Americans should “stand proudly” during the national anthem, and publicly chastises those who don't as disrespectful of the troops.

Discussion: New York Times, NBC News, The Hill, Raw Story, Mediaite, HuffPost, POLITICUSUSA, New York Post, Washington Post, The Independent, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, WFLA-TV, Page Six and The Root

Ryan Devereaux / The Intercept:

Federal Judge Reverses Conviction of Border Volunteers, Challenging Government's “Gruesome Logic” — A federal judge in Tucson, Arizona, reversed the conviction of four humanitarian aid volunteers on religious freedom grounds Monday, ruling that the government had embraced a “gruesome logic” …

Richard L. Hasen / Slate:

Trump's Jokes About Defying Election Results Could Create Chaos — There's a real possibility he could declare victory before all the ballots are counted. — As President Donald Trump plans a triumphant State of the Union address anticipating his likely acquittal by the Senate …

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Bloomberg says he hopes Sanders changes — Mike Bloomberg tells me he'd support Bernie Sanders over Donald Trump if those were his two options, but that people should understand Sanders at this moment is “so far to the left it's not practical” and that “what he wants to do would never get through Congress.”

Discussion: The Hill and Political Wire

Sean Colarossi / POLITICUSUSA: Nicolle Wallace Tells Bernie Backers That Their Vicious Attacks On Fellow Dems Are Helping Trump

Daniel Bice / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

‘An unacceptable and upsetting environment’: 2020 Democratic Host Committee under investigation — The two top officials overseeing Milwaukee's host committee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention were sidelined Monday amid allegations of a toxic work culture.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

David J. Neal / Miami Herald:

Congresswoman will bring Jeffrey Epstein victim to State of the Union as guest — California Congresswoman Jackie Speier's guest at Tuesday's State of the Union address will be Courtney Wild, who was molested by wealthy Palm Beach sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein when she was a girl and after whom a victims' rights bill is named.