Sen. Elizabeth Warren says the results of the Iowa caucus are “too close to call” and instead used much of a speech at her caucus party to criticize President Donald Trump.
The Massachusetts senator told hundreds who gathered to cheer her on in downtown Des Moines on Monday night: “We don’t know all the results tonight, but tonight has already shown that Americans have a hunger for big structural change.”
Her White House bid calls for fundamentally remaking the nation’s economic and political system.
Warren said, “A president’s values matters and the only thing Donald Trump values is Donald Trump.” She said the president believes “government is a tool to enrich himself and his corrupt buddies at everyone else's expense.”
She said: "If you can imagine an America where people, not money, come first, then this campaign is for you."
Although the Iowa results aren't yet clear, she added: “Tonight we are one step closer to winning the fight for the America we believe is possible.”
The Iowa Democratic Party says the caucus results have been delayed because of unspecified “quality checks.”
Earlier in the evening, party officials said the delay is the result of a “reporting issue” and not because of a “hack or an intrusion.”
Communications director Mandy McClure said that the party “found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results.”
She says the party is using photos of the results and a paper trail to “validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report.”
She says: “The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results.”
It was not immediately clear how long it would take the state party to produce results. Iowa holds the nation’s first presidential voting contest.
Warren's campaign manager, Roger Lau, called the delays “a mess” and says that “every second that passes sort of undermines the process a little bit.”
Lau told reporters that the campaign had seen very little official data. But he said based on the campaign's own internal figures, it sees a three-way jumble at the top with Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He says their internal numbers show former Vice President Joe Biden “a distant fourth.”
Even though no official results have been reported, Buttigieg declared victory.
Speaking to supporters late Monday in Des Moines, the Democratic presidential candidate says, “By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.”
Biden also declared the night a success.
"We feel good about where we are, so it's onto New Hampshire," Biden said, adding that he'd "walk out of here with our share of delegates."
Biden has said he didn't have to win Iowa to win the nomination, but he wanted to avoid a bad showing.
Several donors attending his Des Moines watch party said they want to see Biden finish in the top three in Iowa to boost confidence going forward as the race moves to more diverse states where Biden is expected to be stronger.
For his part, Biden stuck to his usual argument, making President Donald Trump his target. "Each of us knows, deep in our bones, that everything this nation stands for is at stake," Biden said.
Associated Press reporter Alexandra Jaffe contributed to this report.
