I’ll recap the Iowa caucuses here and also include bits of related info. Updating as the night goes on below.

Iowa is one of a handful of states that still caucus; the difference is that the party runs the caucus and the state runs the primary. Caucuses operate differently in that they take hours, you meet in schools, churches, wherever, you can openly express support for your preferred candidate, hands are raised to indicate support, participants will physically group together, delegates are selected, and raucous debate is had. Here is a good primer on how Iowa’s caucus operates.

I discussed some of the Democrats’ warring and posturing on air earlier today:

Let’s begin with a party foul:

Legit question:

8:07:

Trump obviously wins the Republican caucuses.

8:25

Early trickle of info

Biden hasn’t reached viability (15%) at one percent:

8:37

One of the final polls before doors closed.

80% of caucus goers say they don’t use Twitter. Twitter makes everything a partisan echo chamber.

8:50

Hmmm … looking a bit rough for Biden

10:18

Iowa officials had ONE JOB. That dang Putin. 

A lot of coin tosses, reportedly

It’s like Romney’s Orca app:

It’s a dumpster fire:

More on the app that Democrats used tonight that is failing epically … maybe.

10:28

These people want to run our country:

10:30

Live look at Iowa Democrats:

 

But wait, there’s more:

It’s Poot-in:

10:33

All Democrat candidates are rushing the cameras to solidify a narrative out of this mess. Biden and Warren both speaking at the same time, Fox and CNN carrying Biden. I’m not crazy enough to turn on MSNBC.

It’s reportedly his fault, the former Hillary Clinton campaign manager:

10:41

My favorite Tweet of today so far:

Biden raises concern:

10:46

Bernie Sanders is speaking now. He’s yelling about Trump dividing up people of color and about the evil rich people. It reminds me of that time my Grandpa was in the veteran’s hospital in St. Louis, high on morphine because they removed a lung, and he told us the wildest stories, although his were more lucid than what I’m hearing from the Sanders event.

10:54

So … everyone just gets a participation trophy?

10:57

More:

Has Stacey Abrams declared victory yet?

11:00

Biden left already.

Boot Edge Edge is out:

Cue New Hampshire trolling:

Normally a winner would receive a bump from tonight’s victory but this mess plus tomorrow night’s SOTU is going to diminish any big wave from a delayed victory announcement.

11:18

We know who the real winner is of tonight’s caucus:

And it’s still a disaster:

Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said the party “found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results.” She added that, “in addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report.”

 

Good grief, more, this in Wisconsin:

Hmm. Seems like Biden’s camp know he lost big tonight and would like to stave off announcing that news:

Official Trump campaign statement:

“Democrats are stewing in a caucus mess of their own creation with the sloppiest train wreck in history. It would be natural for people to doubt the fairness of the process. And these are the people who want to run our entire health care system?”

So we have no results, no victors, a nervous national frontrunner (for how long, that depends) and a SOTU tomorrow. What a disappointment particularly for voters who spent all of this time and effort volunteering to do this only for this hot mess.

Uh …

Well, they’re all basically claiming victory tonight, but this is odd and will hurt his credibility if demonstrably false.

11:30

Wait — RNC statement:

WASHINGTON — Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel released the following statement on tonight’s Iowa caucus:
 
“While the outcome in Iowa is still uncertain for Democrats, the Republican Party is more unified than ever behind President Trump and his historic record of results,” said Chairwoman McDaniel. “In November, Americans will choose four more years of President Trump’s historic progress for our country.”

I’ll hit this first thing on air tomorrow.