Notable Quote of the Day

“If we counted at the moment the polls closed, we would disenfranchise people. It's simple as that. And if we expect to have a count within four or five hours after the polls close, we need a much more sophisticated and, quite frankly, expensive infrastructure to make that even remotely possible.”

– Kathleen Hale, director of the Institute for Election Administration Research and Practice at Auburn University

Iowa Caucus

• With more than 99 percent of precincts in Iowa reporting, Pete Buttigieg leads Bernie Sanders in delegate state equivalents by 0.1%, and Sanders leads Buttigieg in the final found count by more than 2,600 votes.

• In a statement on Thursday, the Sanders campaign declared victory and submitted a list of discrepancies in the state delegate equivalent calculations. Senior adviser Jeff Weaver said, “We also feel confident that the discrepancies we’re providing tonight, in addition to those widely identified in the national media, mean that the SDE count will never be known with any kind of certainty. Given the rules changes we fought for that required the release of the popular vote count, SDEs are now an antiquated and meaningless metric for deciding the winner of the Iowa caucus.”

• Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called for a recanvass of the Iowa results. He tweeted, "In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass."

• The candidates have until 12 p.m. CT on Friday to formally request a recanvass or recount.

Democrats

• Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang are participating in the eighth presidential primary debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Friday. Linsey Davis, David Muir, George Stephanopoulos, Adam Sexton, and Monica Hernandez will moderate the debate, which takes place at St. Anselm College at 8:00 p.m. ET.

• The New York Times surveyed the presidential candidates on foreign policy, including  Israel, North Korea, cyberweapons, and the use of military force.

• Michael Bennet, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Deval Patrick, Steyer, Warren, and Yang will speak Saturday at the Our Rights, Our Courts presidential forum.

• The Biden campaign canceled about $150,000 in television spending in South Carolina, moving those funds to ad buys in Nevada, instead. 

• Rep. Mikie Sherrill (N.J.) endorsed Michael Bloomberg on Thursday. Richard Spencer, who served as acting defense secretary under the Trump administration in 2019, will endorse Bloomberg on Friday. Bloomberg also wrote an op-ed in The New York Times titled “Fixing Inequality Is My Priority.”

• Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and Rep. Andy Kim (N.J.) endorsed Buttigieg on Thursday.

• Tulsi Gabbard will hold town halls in New Hampshire this week with stops in Somersworth, Rochester, Portsmouth, and Concord.

• The Sanders campaign announced it will increase staffing in Super Tuesday states and spend $5.5 million on television and digital ad buys in 10 states.

• Warren responded on Thursday to a report that six women of color left her campaign in Nevada because of a toxic work culture. "I believe these women completely and without reservation and I apologize that they have had a bad experience on this campaign,” she said.

• Yang fired dozens of staff members from his campaign, Politico reported Thursday, including senior-level positions like national political director and national policy director. This was part of a previously planned restructuring after Iowa, campaign manager Zach Graumann said.

Republicans

• Donald Trump discussed his acquittal at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

• Joe Walsh wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post titled “Challenging Trump for the GOP Nomination Taught Me My Party is a Cult” on Thursday. He ended his presidential campaign on Friday.

What We’re Reading

• FiveThirtyEight: Election Update: What The First Few Post-Iowa Polls Say

• Politico: How Trump Rewired the Electoral Map

• Vox: What the economy tell us about Trump’s reelection odds

Flashback: February 7, 2016

Hillary Clinton visited Flint, Michigan, to discuss the clean water crisis in the city.