BREAKING (CNN): Biden Campaign "Questioning Results" of Iowa Caucus Via Lawyers
Well, there it is. Can't imagine a bigger disaster than this. A candidate who seems not to have done well tonight *at least from what we saw on TV* trying to delegitimize the caucuses. This is ugly.
Well, there it is. Can't imagine a bigger disaster than this. A candidate who seems not to have done well tonight *at least from what we saw on TV* trying to delegitimize the caucuses. This is ugly.
1/ People who read this feed obviously know that Biden is not my candidate, even though I admire the man. But pulling a stunt like this to publicly question the results of a caucus he appears not to have done well in is just such a Trumpian move that I'm pretty livid right now.
2/ Now more than ever, the Democratic Party needs unity and a sense we can come together when the primaries are over. And as a nation, we need a sense that truth still exists. And here's the Biden campaign, apparently as a way of erasing the Iowa caucuses, blowing up all of that.
3/ Biden has just given enormous fuel to the conspiracy theorists in other candidates' camps. The only thing he and the other candidates needed to do tonight was shut the hell up and let the Iowa Democratic Party figure out what's going on. And Biden's campaign wouldn't do that.
4/ I understand that because this is a partisan time and everyone has their own favorite candidate, it'll seem like I'm only upset from the standpoint of my chosen candidate or whatever. But we have to all agree that this is bad for the party, and letters from lawyers don't help.
5/ Unintentionally, I think CNN played into some of the unhappiness certain folks will have tonight by showing the entirety of Biden's speech and *severely* cutting off Warren's even though there was little evidence from what CNN had reported that Biden outperformed Warren today.
6/ I'm an Occam's Razor guy. I think the simplest explanation is almost *always* the right explanation. I don't think there was anything but incompetence in play here. But people in 2020 assess how they *emotionally* feel—and now folks emotionally *feel* there was funny business.
7/ And there's also the bare facts, which are totally separate from any camp's ridiculous conspiracy theories. The *bare facts* are that at least one and maybe two candidates got cost a major boost tonight. Maybe three. And certain folks got their bacon saved. Bare facts.
8/ Then there's the legal side, which is that the candidate who everyone believes got his hat handed to him today was the first to bring lawyers into the equation and try to delegitimize the caucus. That's unforgivable, and as a lawyer I would never have advised Biden to do that.
9/ Everyone gets to support whoever they want in the primaries. That means if the Democratic superstructure in Iowa wants to largely back Biden, that's their right. But when you release cryptic note saying there are "inconsistencies" in your own likely-bad-for-Biden results, JFC.
10/ To be clear, what I'm saying is that *no* candidate, *including the one I favor*, should question the results at this point, and Iowa's Democratic Party should simply say "we're still working" and not irresponsibly release statements placing in doubt their own caucus results.
