The Iowa Democratic Party says its caucus hotline was so flooded by supporters of President Trump, who were “at times hostile,” that it “contributed to the delay” in the collection of results.
The party said it “experienced an unusually high volume of inbound phone calls to its caucus hotline,” which included “supporters of President Trump who called to express their displeasure with the Democratic Party, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
“The unexplained, and at times hostile, calls contributed to the delay in the Iowa Democratic Party’s collection of results, but in no way affected the integrity of information gathered or the accuracy of data sets reported,” the party said.
The statement comes after Bloomberg initially reported Wednesday night that a top state Democrat had told party leaders on a conference call that Trump supporters flooded the hotline used by Iowa precinct chairs to report caucus results after the telephone number was posted online.
The Trump campaign called the Iowa Democrats’ latest excuse for the unprecedented delay “pathetic.”
“Democrats are engulfed in the worst election embarrassment in modern history, and they’re looking for someone to blame. It’s pathetic,” Tim Murtaugh, a campaign spokesman, told Bloomberg.
The Iowa caucuses held Monday have been deemed nothing short of a debacle after technical malfunctions in a phone application meant to report caucus results to the state party delayed the results for days.
With only 97 percent of the caucus vote released so far, Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, holds a razor-thin lead over Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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