February 3, 2020

Trump Campaign Baselessly Suggests Iowa Caucuses Are “Rigged”

Yuri Gripas/CNP/Zuma

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With Iowa caucus results stalled as the state’s Democratic party performs “quality control” and addresses “inconsistencies,” Republicans are already alleging that the election is rigged. There is, of course, no evidence of that.

Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, took to Twitter Monday night to speculate that “quality control” meant “rigged,” echoing Trump’s repeated claims that the Democratic National Committee was rigging the election against Sen. Bernie Sanders. The president’s sons made similarly baseless claims:

Bogus allegations of election fraud have become a Republican mainstay in recent years, as the party seeks to restrict voting rights and suppress turnout. 

For its part, Sanders’ campaign said earlier Monday that the election is “not currently rigged.”

Mandy McClure, communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party, has called the delay a “reporting issue,” according to the New York Times. Many precinct chairs have had difficulties using a new app to report caucus results. Those problems are serious, but they don’t constitute a rigged election.

Listen to Mother Jones’ Ari Berman and Tim Murphy discuss the fallout from the Iowa voting debacle on this week’s special early edition of the Mother Jones Podcast:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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