Biden adviser won’t answer whether she believes Iowa results are accurate
A senior adviser to Joe Biden’s campaign refused to say Wednesday whether she believes the results reported so far from the Iowa Democratic caucuses are accurate.
The reporting of the results from Monday’s caucuses were delayed due to technical issues with an app. The Iowa Democratic Party began releasing results on Tuesday, which pointed to a disappointing finish for Biden behind his top three competitors: former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s communications director, told CNN’s John Berman on Tuesday morning, “We have real concerns about the integrity of the process, and I think there were some significant failures in the process last night that should give voters concern.”
In an interview on “CNN Right Now” with Brianna Keilar Wednesday, the senior adviser, Symone Sanders, was pressed about Bendingfield’s comments and whether she believed the data being reported by the party was correct.
“Is this data correct? In your view, is it correct?” Keilar asked.
“Look, Brianna, I have not analyzed the back ends of the data,” Sanders responded. “What we are saying, and what we have implored to the Iowa Democratic Party, are two things: One, we have to make sure we get it right. Getting it right means checking and triple checking, and making sure that there is a paper trail, the presidential preference cards. Don’t try to paint this as we’re trying to say this is some kind of a conspiracy theory, OK?”
At the end of the contentious exchange, Sanders, a former press secretary for Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, was asked about the results again.
“Well, I guess we’ll have to take the Iowa Democratic Party at their word, Brianna,” she said. “But again, we’re moving forward and the questions that we have raised are frankly legitimate questions. And this just makes all the more case about why we have to take our time. Democrats have to make sure we get things right. And we are looking forward to a primary in New Hampshire.”
Biden’s campaign has expressed concern over the results since Monday night.
In a letter to the Iowa state party Monday night, Biden’s general counsel Dana Remus wrote that “the campaigns deserve full explanations and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing, and an opportunity to respond, before any official results are released.”
Although the full results in Iowa have not yet been released, Biden acknowledged Wednesday that he had a bad night.
“I can’t sugarcoat it, we took gut punch in Iowa,” Biden said in Somersworth, New Hampshire. “The whole system took a gut punch.”
