Dem candidates snipe at each other and Iowa officials as they await results [View all]

[brooklynite]

Politico

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price informed the campaigns Tuesday afternoon that the state party plans to release at least half of the results by 5 p.m. Eastern time, providing some clarity after technical snafus plunged the contest into chaos.

“Moving forward — just like we would would have on caucus night — we will continue to release results as we are able to,” Mandy McClure, the state Democratic Party’s communications director, said in a follow-up statement. “We are also executing our plans and procedures to gather the paper documents and chasing any additional precincts to report results as we normally would on caucus night.”

But the candidates and their aides balked at the idea of only getting a partial picture of the outcome and engaged in a blame game over the persisting delays.

On the call, a Bernie Sanders aide took a swipe at Joe Biden, suggesting his campaign is responsible for holding up an already slow process to postpone the release of a weak finish for the former vice president.

“I do want to urge people in the interest of not discrediting the party, that folks who are just trying to delay the return of this because of their relative positioning in the results last night, I think that’s a bit disingenuous,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ senior adviser, said on the call.

Biden general counsel Dana Remus tried to cast doubt over the the entire caucus, referencing “growing reports” that people’s presidential preference cards were not accepted, while senior adviser Jessie Harris was incredulous that the state party would only release partial results.