It seems no one is enjoying the Iowa’s presidential caucus fiasco more than Donald Trump. USA Today noted this morning:
President Donald Trump and his aides gleefully mocked the Democrats over the delayed results in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest, calling it an “unmitigated disaster” and the “sloppiest train wreck in history.”
“The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is ‘Trump,’” the president tweeted early Tuesday.
Describing the delayed reporting of Iowa results as “an unmitigated disaster,” Trump said: “Nothing works, just like they ran the Country.”
Given the circumstances, Democrats aren’t in a great position to push back against the presidential mockery. The “sloppiest train wreck in history” description is difficult to take seriously — some of us remember watching the Trump administration try to administer the president’s misguided Muslim ban and his needlessly cruel “zero tolerance” policy, both with disastrous effects — but Iowa Dems have earned their lumps on this one.
Let’s not pretend, however, that Iowa Republicans have run smooth presidential caucuses in the Hawkeye State. Exactly four years ago yesterday, one GOP presidential hopeful — I believe his name was Donald J. Trump — published a tweet that read, “Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.”
There was no meaningful evidence of Cruz-related fraud; no new election was called; and Cruz’s victory was never nullified. The point, however, is that as far as Trump was concerned, the Iowa Republicans’ caucus process in 2016 was a mess, too.
Four years earlier, Iowa Republicans participated in another presidential caucus, and the state party named Mitt Romney the winner. Two weeks later, state GOP officials announced, upon further review, that actually Rick Santorum won — and everyone should disregard the announcement they made 16 days earlier. And even then, Iowa Republicans conceded, they weren’t entirely sure those revised results were correct. It was in this same 2012 cycle that some GOP operatives were accused of engaging in criminal schemes, which led to multiple indictments and prison sentences. None of this is intended as a defense for the debacle that unfolded last night. But as Donald Trump celebrates, perhaps he should remember that Republicans in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
