Democrats

NBC News reports: Richard Spencer, the Navy secretary fired from the Trump administration after he opposed the president’s intervention in the discipline of a SEAL accused of murder, will endorse Democrat Mike Bloomberg during an appearance with the candidate in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday, according to the Bloomberg campaign. Spencer, who also briefly served as President Donald Trump’s acting defense …

CBS News reports: Democratic presidential hopeful and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s support has surged in New Hampshire ahead of the state’s primary, according to a new WBZ/Boston Globe/Suffolk University daily tracking poll released on Thursday night. Buttigieg’s support shot up four points to 23 percent in the state over the past 24 hours, according to the survey. …

The Associated Press reports: The Associated Press said Thursday that it is unable to declare a winner of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses. With 97% of precincts reporting from Monday’s caucuses, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by three state delegate equivalents out of 2,098 counted. That is a margin of 0.14 percentage points. However, even …

Politico reports: Andrew Yang’s campaign fired dozens of staffers this week after an abysmal finish in the Iowa caucuses, according to four former staffers who were let go. Among those dismissed were the national political and policy directors of the campaign, as well as the deputy national political director — all senior-level positions. The people who were fired worked across …

The Washington Post reports: Three days after the Iowa caucuses, with 97 percent of precincts reporting, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) declared a victory in the first-in-the-nation nominating state, though no winner has been officially named. Speaking at his campaign’s New Hampshire headquarters in Manchester, Sanders noted that his campaign was winning the popular initial vote “by some 6,000 votes.” “What …

The Hill reports: Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez on Thursday called for a recanvass of Iowa following chaos and delayed results during the state’s Democratic caucuses earlier this week. Perez’s tweet came shortly after a New York Times report that found caucus results released Wednesday contained errors and inconsistencies that contradicted caucus rules in some cases, although the newspaper …

Fox News reports: U.S. Capitol Police are investigating a suspicious substance at Rep. Adam Schiff’s office, according to FOX News DC. FOX News’ Chad Pergram broke the news just after 10:30 a.m. EST on Thursday. Pergram reports that Capitol Police released the following statement: “The USCP is continuing to investigate a Suspicious Substance int vicinity of Room 2269 of the …

CNBC reports: Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign raked in a whopping $25 million in January alone and will use the haul to bankroll ads and staff across the critical Super Tuesday slate. The Vermont senator raised more in January than in any other month in the 2020 Democratic presidential race, his campaign said in announcing the haul Thursday. It added that …

Newsweek reports: New poll results from Morning Consult released Monday showed all five of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination defeating President Donald Trump in hypothetical match-ups. Mike Bloomberg, an entrepreneur and the former mayor of New York City, had the greatest lead over Trump. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they would vote for him if he were …

CNN reports: Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders are separated by the slimmest of margins in the latest update to Iowa’s Democratic caucus results. A fresh round of results around 12:15 a.m. ET Thursday showed the former mayor’s state delegate equivalent lead down to 3 over the Vermont senator. Sanders, meanwhile, maintained a lead of more than 2,000 votes in …

CBS News reports: On Wednesday, Pete Buttigieg held onto his delegate lead in the Iowa caucuses with 86% of precincts reporting. As of 5:30 p.m., Buttigieg had 26.6% of delegates and Sanders was close behind, with 25.4%. Next, in third place, Warren had 18.3%, Biden had 15.9% and Klobuchar had 12%. The state party is releasing results on a rolling …

Bloomberg News reports: Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he’ll vote to convict Trump on both articles. “The president is not entitled to act with blatant disregard for an equal branch of government or use the superpower status of the United States to condition our support of democracy and our allies on any political favor,” Manchin of West Virginia said in …

Arizona Central reports: Citing her concern for the Constitution as well as the conduct of future presidents, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema will vote Wednesday to convict President Donald Trump on the impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The decision by Sinema, a moderate Arizona Democrat who was seen as a swing vote, was one of the last …

Reuters reports: Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont remain in a tight battle for the lead in the Iowa caucuses following a new round of results released late Tuesday night. After a daylong delay, the Iowa Democratic Party has now made public 71% of results from all 99 Iowa counties. Buttigieg holds a …

The Associated Press reports: Billionaire presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg snagged his first endorsement from a governor on Wednesday, as Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo called him the right leader to take on President Donald Trump. Raimondo, a longtime political ally of Bloomberg’s, was due to appear with him at a morning event in Providence to officially endorse him, the Bloomberg …

USA Today reports: From start to finish, President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address was marked by partisan tension that spilled out in the exchange between the leaders of both parties: Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. He refused to shake her hand after she introduced him. She tore his speech up and tossed it aside as soon …

CNN reports: Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held a narrow lead in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday night, according to a partial release of a majority of the results by the state Democratic party a day after an embarrassing organizational breakdown that marred the biggest night of the election year so far. Buttigieg was trailed closely …

The Guardian reports: The chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) told the presidential campaigns on Tuesday to expect that a “majority” of the caucus results will be released at 5 p.m. EST, according to a source on the call. IDP communications director Mandy McClure followed up with a statement, saying that the rest of the results will be released …

Axios reports: Nevada’s Democrats say their Feb. 22 caucus will not use the same vote-tallying app that’s being blamed for the unprecedented delay reporting Monday’s Iowa caucus results. CNN previously reported Nevada would. When software introductions fail as badly as Iowa’s just did, engineers typically “roll back” their system to its last previously functioning state. For Nevada’s Democrats, that’s likely …

Just in via press release: Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA), Co-Chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, will bring survivor Courtney Wild as her guest to the 2020 State of the Union. Courtney is the namesake of the bipartisan Courtney Wild Crime Victims’ Rights Reform Act of 2019, introduced by Rep. Speier with Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), and Mo …