Bernie Sanders Cartoons

Security adviser: I’ve seen no intel of Moscow helping Trump (Stupid Democrats at it again.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said he’s seen no intelligence to show that Russia is interfering in the U.S. presidential campaign in hopes of reelecting President Donald Trump.

Robert O’Brien’s comments come after conflicting accounts emerged from a recent closed-door briefing by intelligence officials, who spoke to lawmakers about Russian interference in the 2020 campaign. One intelligence official said that lawmakers were not told that Russia was working to directly aid Trump.

But other people familiar with the meeting said they were told the Kremlin was looking to help Trump’s candidacy. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discussed the classified briefing.

“The national security adviser gets pretty good access to our intelligence,” O’Brien said. “I haven’t seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump re-elected.”

O’Brien’s comments were released Saturday in a transcript of an interview with ABC’s “This Week” set to air on Sunday.

A nearly two-year investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded there was a sophisticated, Kremlin-led operation to sow division in the U.S. and upend the 2016 election by using cyberattacks and social media as weapons. Intelligence officials have warned Russia is doing the same in 2020.

But it’s a sore subject for Trump, who has played down the findings and said they are an attempt to de-legitimize his victory. And Sen. Bernie Sanders acknowledged Friday that he was briefed last month by U.S. officials about Russian efforts to boost his chances for becoming the Democratic presidential nominee — something that could be seen as beneficial to Trump’s reelection prospects.

O’Brien claimed he had not seen any intelligence or analyses indicating that Russia was aiding Trump and neither had top leaders in the intelligence agencies.

“All I know is that the Republicans on the side of the House hearing were unhappy with the hearing and said that there was no intelligence to back up what was being said,” O’Brien said. “But here’s the deal: I don’t even know if what’s been reported as being said (by the briefers) is true. You know those are leaks coming out of that hearing.”

O’Brien also denied reports that Trump became angry when he was told about the briefing and that he confronted former acting national intelligence director Joseph Maguire and subsequently replaced him with the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell.

O’Brien said Trump was not angry with Maguire and would have liked Maguire to stay in government in a different role. He said Maguire’s time as acting director of national intelligence was up in early March and the White House needed an individual — someone who had already been confirmed by the Senate — to temporarily replace him.

“Ambassador Grenell is there for a temporary period of time,” O’Brien said, adding that Trump was expected to announce a nominee to be quickly confirmed by the Senate as full-time director. The president has said he is considering three or four candidates.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews compares Sanders' Nevada win to France's fall to Nazis, draws calls for his firing

Wow! A democrat calling out a democrat.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews drew ire on social media Saturday after he compared the Nevada Democratic caucus victory of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders to France's fall to the Nazis during World War II.
“I'm reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940," Matthews said during the network's caucus coverage. "And the general calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over,’ and Churchill says, ‘How can it be? You got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It's over.’”
The backlash on Twitter was swift and severe, with many commenters calling for Matthews to resign or be fired. Many pointed out that Sanders' family includes survivors of the Holocaust.
But Larry O'Connor, a commentator with the Washington Examiner and KABC radio in Los Angeles, shared a different view.
"For the past four years," O'Connor wrote, "Donald Trump has been incessantly likened to Hitler and his supporters to Nazis, so to all the outraged Dems screaming about Chris Matthews making a clumsy, innocuous comparison between Bernie's win and 1940 France, may I just say..."
During his commentary, Matthews expressed doubts about Sanders' chances in November if he goes on to win the Democratic nomination and face President Trump.
“It looks like Bernie Sanders is hard to beat right now,” Matthews said. “I’m with [James] Carville all the way in terms of the dangers of what lies ahead in November. They’re sitting on so much oppo research on Bernie.”
Matthews said Republicans would “kill” Sanders in the general election but right now “it’s a little late to stop him.”

Sarah Sanders warns Trump backers about Bernie's momentum: 'We can take nothing for granted'

Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders warned supporters of President Trump on Saturday night not to underestimate Sen. Bernie Sanders following his projected victory in the Nevada Democratic caucuses.
"I think [Bernie Sanders] is looking like the presumptive Democrat nominee at this point. He's certainly moving in that direction," Sanders said on "Justice with Judge Jeanine." "And I think Republicans have to be extremely careful. We can take nothing for granted at this point. The stakes have literally never been higher."

"We can take nothing for granted at this point. The stakes have literally never been higher."
— Sarah Sanders

Bernie Sanders, who is no relation to Sarah Sanders, will win the Nevada caucuses, Fox News projected Saturday, furthering the democratic socialist's lead over his Democratic rivals and raising the question of whether he can be stopped on his path to the Democratic nomination.
Sarah Sanders noted the importance of Republicans voting in November to combat Bernie Sanders.
"If crazy socialist Bernie Sanders is the Democrat nominee, as he is well on track to be, literally the way of life and our very freedom is at stake at the election in November and Republicans have to come out in full force and make sure that they get Donald Trump reelected," Sanders said.

"If crazy socialist Bernie Sanders is the Democrat nominee ... our very freedom is at stake ... Republicans have to ... make sure ... they get Donald Trump reelected."
— Sarah Sanders

Sarah Sanders highlighted the negatives of a Bernie Sanders coalition and listed Trump's strengths.
"Bernie has a small kind of coalition that I think has a low ceiling. I think it's going to be hard for him to overcome that in a general election whereas the president has expanded very far beyond his 2016 base, in large part because of the success of his," Sanders said. "Say the economy is booming. Every demographic is doing better under this president and you're going to see that change the makeup of the voters that come out and support him in November."
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Sanders' win in Nevada reinforces his front-runner status, draws more attacks from rivals

LAS VEGAS – Celebrating what appeared to be a convincing Nevada caucuses victory, an exuberant Bernie Sanders crowed to a large crowd Saturday night after moving on to the Super Tuesday state of Texas.
“Don’t tell anybody, I don't want to get them nervous," Sanders said. "We're going to win the Democratic primary in Texas.”
Sanders' win in Nevada was called quickly by the major TV networks and the Associated Press  – and as the results continued trickling in from caucus precincts across the state Saturday, it became clear the populist U.S. senator from Vermont was racking up a sizable win.
Sanders explained how he pulled off the Silver State victory.
“In Nevada we have just put together a multigenerational, multiracial coalition which is going to not only win in Nevada, it's going to sweep this country,” he said.

“In Nevada we have just put together a multigenerational, multiracial coalition which is going to not only win in Nevada, it's going to sweep this country.”
— Bernie Sanders

His victory – following a win in last week’s New Hampshire primary and a draw with former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the Iowa caucuses -- instantly drew incoming fire from his top rivals for the Democratic nomination. And it made already nervous moderate and establishment Democrats even more jittery over the prospect of Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, becoming their party’s standard-bearer in November against President Trump.

Biden sharpens his knives

In a speech celebrating what appeared to be a much-needed second place finish, Joe Biden made an apppeal to party loyalists.
"I’m a Democrat … and I’m proud of it,” Biden said.

"I’m a Democrat … and I’m proud of it.”
— Joe Biden

Then – sharpening his knives – the man who served as former President Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years highlighted that history.
“I was proud to run with Barack Obama," Biden said. "I’m proud to still be his friend and, I tell you what, I promise you I wasn’t talking about running a Democratic primary against him in 2012.”
The shot by Biden referred to recent reports that former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had to convince Sanders to stop mulling a primary challenge against Obama as he ran for re-election in 2012.

'Leaves out most Democrats'

Minutes after Biden spoke, Buttigieg complimented Sanders before launching an attack on his rival.
“Sen. Sanders believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most Americans,” he argued.
Pointing to Sanders’ long time push for a government run Medicare-for-all plan that would replace current private health care coverage, Buttigieg emphasized that “Senator Sanders believes in taking away that choice -- kicking people off their private plans and replacing it with a public plan, whether they want it or not.”

“Senator Sanders believes in ... kicking people off their private [health] plans and replacing it with a public plan, whether they want it or not.”
— Pete Buttigieg

Buttigieg also claimed Sanders and his supporters are taking aim at moderate Democrats running in congressional races, saying the senator, “is ignoring, dismissing, or even attacking the very Democrats we absolutely must send to Capitol Hill in order to keep Nancy Pelosi as speaker, in order to support judges who respect privacy and democracy, and in order to send [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell into retirement.”
Although their candidate didn't run in Nevada, Mike Bloomberg’s campaign also took aim at Sanders – and used the senator’s apparent big win Saturday to once again make the much-derided pitch for the other moderate Democratic presidential candidates  to drop out of the race to allow Bloomberg to consolidate the anti-Sanders vote.
"The Nevada results reinforce the reality that this fragmented field is putting Bernie Sanders on pace to amass an insurmountable delegate lead. This is a candidate who just declared war on the so-called 'Democratic Establishment.' We are going to need Independents AND Republicans to defeat Trump – attacking your own party is no way to get started. As Mike says, if we choose a candidate who appeals to a small base – like Senator Sanders – it will be a fatal error,” Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey argued.

Pumped-up Biden

One of those candidates Bloomberg would like to see drop out is Biden. But the former vice president seemed energized after he was on course for a second-place finish.
After Biden suffered disappointing fourth- and fifth-place finishes in the overwhelmingly white Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, a stronger performance in Nevada's much more diverse electorate was a necessity for the former vice president.
"No final results yet but I feel pretty good," Biden told the crowd. "The press is ready to declare people dead quickly but we’re coming back and we’re going to win."
A pumped-up Biden then looked ahead to primary elections on Feb. 29 and March 3.
"We’re ready in a position now than we haven’t been until this moment," he said. "We’re going to win in South Carolina and then Super Tuesday."
After narrowly winning the delegate count in Iowa and finishing a strong second to Sanders in New Hampshire, Buttigieg acknowledged after the Nevada results started coming in that “we are moving on from the battle-born state with a battle on our hand.”

Disappointment for Warren

For Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts – what appeared to be a disappointing finish in Nevada followed a lackluster fourth-place finish a week and a half ago in New Hampshire.
Warren won rave reviews for her knockout performance at Wednesday night’s debate. But that prime-time punch-fest came after some 75,000 Nevadans had already cast ballots in early caucus voting.
Campaign manager Roger Lau spotlighted the early voting results versus the Saturday caucus results, tweeting the “Vegas debate shook this election up. The ⁦‪@ewarren⁩ vote share appears to have gone up more than 50% between early vote & those who caucused today. We’ve raised $9m in 3 days & more than $21m this month.”
And he optimistically predicted that “the Nevada debate will have more impact on the structure of the race than the Nevada result. Since a huge percentage of the votes were cast before the debate -- likely well more than half -- tonight’s results are a lagging indicator of the current state of the race.”
Warren – speaking in Seattle on Saturday night – wasn't discouraged by the Nevada results.
“We have a lot of states to go and right now I can feel the momentum,” she said.

“We have a lot of states to go and right now I can feel the momentum.”
— Elizabeth Warren

Klobuchar's positive spin

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, in a speech Saturday night to supporters in her home state of Minnesota, tried to put a spin on what looked like a very disappointing finish in Nevada.
"They’re counting the votes but as usual I think we have exceeded expectations,” Klobuchar said.

"As usual I think we have exceeded expectations."
— Amy Klobuchar

And she repeated a well-used line that “a lot of people didn’t think I’d be standing at this point.”
A top Tom Steyer campaign adviser told Fox News nothing has changed following the candidate’s poor showing in Nevada.
The billionaire environmental and progressive advocate poured plenty of resources and time into campaigning in Nevada – and didn’t appear to get much bang for his buck.
The race now moves to South Carolina - which the Biden campaign sees as his firewall - thanks to the majority African-American Democratic primary electorate.
But just three days later on March 3,  no fewer than 14 states from coast-to-coast will hold contests on Super Tuesday. Among them are the delegate-rich behemouths of California and Texas -- with their large Spanish-speaking populations.
Entrance polls in Nevada indicated Sanders scored big among Hispanic voters, which will only feed the frenzy that the senator is moving closer to locking up the nomination.
Fox News' Tara Prindiville, Madeleine Rivera, Kelly Phares,, Andrew Craft, and Andres del Aguila contributed to this report
Fox News’ Tara Prindiville, Madeleine Rivera, Andrew Craft and Andres del Aguila contributed to this report.

Marie Yovanovitch Cartoons

Former Ukraine diplomat Marie Yovanovitch has book deal (Are you surprised?)

Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch speaks at Georgetown University in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. She was awarded the 2020 J. Raymond "Jit" Trainor Award for Excellence in the Conduct of Diplomacy. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, the career diplomat who during the impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump offered a chilling account of alleged threats from Trump and his allies, has a book deal.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt confirmed Friday to The Associated Press that it had acquired Yovanovitch’s planned memoir, currently untitled. According to the publisher, the book will trace her long career, from Mogadishu, Somalia, to Kyiv and “finally back to Washington, D.C. — where, to her dismay, she found a political system beset by many of the same challenges she had spent her career combating overseas.”

“Yovanovitch’s book will deliver pointed reflections on the issues confronting America today, and thoughts on how we can shore up our democracy,” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said in an announcement.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but two people familiar with the deal told the AP that the agreement was worth seven figures, even though the book is not expected until Spring 2021, months after this fall’s election. They were not authorized to discuss negotiations and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss financial terms. Yovanovitch was represented by the Javelin literary agency, where other clients include former FBI Director James Comey and former national security adviser John Bolton.

“Ambassador Yovanovitch has had a 30-year career of public service in many locations, with many lessons to be drawn. This is about much more than just the recent controversy,” said Houghton Mifflin Senior Vice President and Publisher Bruce Nichols, in response to a question about why her book wasn’t coming out this year.

Yovanovitch told House investigators last year that Ukrainian officials had warned her in advance that Rudy Giuliani and other Trump insiders were planning to “do things, including to me” and were “looking to hurt” her. Pushed out of her job earlier in 2019 on Trump’s orders, she testified that a senior Ukrainian official told her that “I really needed to watch my back.”

Yovanovitch was recalled from Kyiv as Giuliani pressed Ukrainian officials to investigate baseless corruption allegations against Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was involved with Burisma, a gas company there. Biden, the former vice president, is a contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

According to a rough transcript released by the White House, Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy last summer that Yovanovitch “was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news.”

The allegations that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a political opponent led to his impeachment in December on two counts by the Democratic-run House. Earlier this month, the Republican-run Senate acquitted him on both counts.

Yovanovitch, 61, was appointed ambassador to Ukraine in 2016 by President Barack Obama. She recently was given the Trainor Award, an honor for international diplomacy presented by Georgetown University, and currently is a non-resident fellow at Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.

Bloomberg : 3 women can be released on non-disclosure deals

Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg waves after speaking at a campaign event, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Bloomberg said Friday he’d free three women from confidentiality agreements that bar them from speaking publicly about sexual harassment or discrimination suits filed against him over the last three decades.

The billionaire former mayor of New York also said his company, Bloomberg LP, will no longer use such agreements “to resolve claims of sexual harassment or misconduct going forward.”

His remarks come after days of intense scrutiny over the treatment of women at the company he’s led for three decades, and amid pressure from Democratic presidential rival Elizabeth Warren to allow the women to share their claims publicly. Warren hammered Bloomberg over the issue in the recent debate, his first time facing his rivals. The announcement Friday highlights his efforts to remove a vulnerability ahead of the next debate, on Tuesday in South Carolina, and refocus his campaign ahead of March 3, known as Super Tuesday, when he will be on the ballot for for the first time.

Bloomberg didn’t automatically revoke the agreements, but told the women to contact the company if they would like to be released. The three agreements he’s willing to open up relate specifically to comments he’s alleged to have made. His company reportedly faced nearly 40 lawsuits involving 65 plaintiffs between 1996 and 2016, though it’s unclear how many relate to sexual harassment or discrimination.

Bloomberg said in a statement he’d done “a lot of reflecting on this issue over the past few days.”

“I recognize that NDAs, particularly when they are used in the context of sexual harassment and sexual assault, promote a culture of silence in the workplace and contribute to a culture of women not feeling safe or supported,” it continued.

But his move only prompted more criticism from his rivals.

“That’s just not good enough,” Warren said while campaigning Friday in Las Vegas, a day before the Nevada caucuses. “If there are only three, then why didn’t he sign a blanket release?”

A spokeswoman for former vice president Joe Biden’s campaign said Bloomberg’s action “tells the public nothing,” by only addressing three agreements.

“If Mayor Bloomberg wanted to release all current and former Bloomberg LP employees from NDAs, he surely could have done so — and he still can and should,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said in the statement.Bloomberg’s Friday statements mark a stark departure from his remarks about the agreements in this weeks debate. He called the agreements“consensual” and said women who complained “didn’t like a joke I told.” The remarks were viewed by some as out-of-touch with the post-#MeToo era, which has prompted far more serious scrutiny of sexual harassment and innuendo by men in the workplace. Bloomberg is one of the country’s richest men, worth an estimated $60 billion.

It was the first time Bloomberg was truly put on the spot in an otherwise choreographed campaign, where he’s been promoting his message via television advertising and scripted speeches rather than debates and town halls with voters.

One of the women covered by Bloomberg’s announcement is Sekiko Sekai Garrison, 55, who filed a complaint against Bloomberg and his company in 1995. She did not respond to a phone message seeking comment on Friday.

Garrison’s complaint, reviewed by the Associated Press, was filed when she was about 30 and alleged Bloomberg told her to “kill it” when she told him she was pregnant with her first child. The lawsuit details several other alleged personal interactions with Bloomberg and describes a misogynistic corporate culture where women were typically paid less than men, subject to routine sexual harassment and demoted or fired if they complained.

In the alleged incident, Garrison said Bloomberg approached her near the office coffee machines and asked about her married life. When she told him she was pregnant with her first child, he said “kill it,” in a serious monotone. He allegedly then repeated it and called her “number 16,” a reference to the number of pregnant women employees.

Bloomberg has denied making the remarks. But Garrison said he left her a voicemail apologizing and calling the remark a joke. She resigned from the company.

Lawyer Bonnie P. Josephs, who filed the 1995 complaint on Garrison’s behalf, told AP on Thursday that she later handed the case off to another attorney. Josephs said she was then told that Garrison had settled the case against Bloomberg for a “six-figure sum” and signed a nondisclosure agreement.

A longtime Bloomberg aide confirmed that case was one of the three agreements Bloomberg mentioned in his statement, in which an NDA was signed that directly related to Bloomberg. The other two cases never went to court and are not public.

Bloomberg also said his company would undertake a review of its policies on equal pay and promotion, sexual harassment and discrimination and the use of “other legal tools” that prevent cultural change. He also pledged to push policies if elected president that expand access to childcare and reproductive health and guarantee 12 weeks of paid leave.

“I will be a leader whom women can trust,” he said.

__

Ronayne reported from Sacramento. Associated Press reporters Michael Biesecker in Washington, Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, and Yvonne Gonzalez in Las Vegas contributed.

Democrats face an important test in Nevada caucuses

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Just past the roulette wheel and slot machines, the smoky bars and blinking lights, Nevada Democrats are preparing to weigh in on their party’s presidential nomination fight.

Seven casino-resorts on the Las Vegas Strip stand among 200 caucus locations statewide that will host the presidential caucuses on Saturday, the third contest in a 2020 primary season that has so far been marred by chaos and uncertainty in overwhelmingly white, rural states. The exercise of democracy inside urban temples of excess is just one element that distinguishes the first presidential contest in the West, which will, more importantly, test the candidates’ strength with black and brown voters for the first time in 2020.

“Nevada represents an opportunity for these candidates to demonstrate their appeal to a larger swath of our country,” said state Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat who is not endorsing a candidate in the crowded field.

Nevada’s population, which aligns more with the U.S. as a whole than the opening elections in Iowa and New Hampshire, is 29% Latino, 10% black and 9% Asian American and Pacific Islander.

The vote comes at a critical moment for the Democratic Party as self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders emerges as the clear front-runner and a half dozen more moderate candidates savage one another for the chance to emerge as the preferred alternative to Sanders. The ultimate winner will represent Democrats on the ballot against President Donald Trump in November.

Yet on the eve of the caucuses, questions lingered about Nevada Democrats’ ability to report election results quickly as new concerns surfaced about foreign interference in the 2020 contest.

Campaigning in California, Sanders confirmed reports that he had been briefed by U.S. officials about a month ago that Russia was trying to help his campaign as part of Moscow’s efforts to interfere in the election.

“It was not clear what role they were going to play,” Sanders said. “We were told that Russia, maybe other countries, are going to get involved in this campaign.”

He added: “Here’s the message to Russia: Stay out of American elections.”

Despite the distraction, Sanders enters Saturday increasingly confident, backed by strong support from Latinos and rank-and-file union workers who have warmed to his fiery calls to transform the nation’s economy and political system to help the working class.

In a fiery speech the night before the caucuses, Sanders lumped the “Democratic establishment” in with the corporate and Republican establishment, saying they can’t stop him. He said the establishment was “getting worried” about a multiracial coalition that wants higher wages and health care.

The outlook was dire for virtually everyone else.

Long before voting began, there was skepticism about Pete Buttigieg’s ability to win over a more diverse set of voters after strong finishes in overwhelmingly white Iowa and New Hampshire. It was the opposite for Joe Biden, who struggled in Iowa and New Hampshire but looked to Nevada’s voters of color to prove he still has a viable path to the nomination.

The two women left in the race, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, were fighting for momentum, hoping to benefit from a sudden surge of outside money from newly created super PACs. Billionaire Tom Steyer has invested more than $12 million of his own money on television advertising in Nevada, according to data obtained by The Associated Press, which details the extent to which several candidates have gone all-in ahead of Saturday’s contest.

The pro-Warren Persist super PAC, created in recent days, is spending more money in Nevada this week than any other campaign or allied outside group. Persist, which hasn’t yet disclosed any donors and cannot legally coordinate with Warren’s campaign, has invested $902,000 this week in Nevada television on her behalf, according to spending data obtained by The AP. That’s more than Klobuchar’s and Biden’s campaigns have spent over the entire year.

New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who dominated the political conversation this week after a poor debate-stage debut, won’t be on the ballot. He’s betting everything on a series of delegate-rich states that begin voting next month.

“I think right now predicting who’s going to win here in Nevada would be a wild guess,” former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in an interview. “And if I were a gambler, which I’m not, I wouldn’t be betting on who’s gonna win here in Nevada.”

The political world, meanwhile, hoped there would be a winner at all.

Saturday’s caucuses are the first since technical glitches and human errors plagued Iowa’s kickoff caucuses. Nearly three weeks later, state Democratic officials have yet to post final results.

Nevada Democrats have projected confidence in their process, although Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez this week refused to commit to releasing the full results on the day of the vote. He said a number of factors, including early voting and potentially high turnout, could affect the tabulation and timing of results. In addition, Nevada, like Iowa, reports three sets of data from the multistage caucus process.

“We’re going to do our best to release results as soon as possible, but our North Star, again, is accuracy,” Perez told The Associated Press this week.

One potential complication: Early voting.

The state party has added to its responsibilities by offering early voting – something Iowa did not attempt. Nevada voters have been eager to partake, given the alternative is to spend significantly more time voting at a chaotic caucus site.

The party said nearly 75,000 Democrats cast early ballots, and a majority were first-time caucus-goers. In 2016, a total of 84,000 Nevada voters participated in the Democratic caucuses.

A small, but significant number of the ballots cast early were disqualified.

Of the more than 36,000 ballots that were cast through Monday, 1,124 ballots were voided largely because voters forgot to sign them, according to the state party, which did not release the final numbers. Party officials said they were reaching out to these voters and encouraging them to caucus in person on Saturday.

Campaigning in Las Vegas on the eve of the caucuses, Trump sought to raise doubts about the process.

“I hear their computers are all messed up just like they were in Iowa. They’re not going to be able to count their vote,” Trump charged. “They’re going to tell you about health care. They’re going to tell you about our military and jet fighters and the missiles and rockets, but they can’t count votes.”

Amid such concerns, Nevada Democrats tried to stay focused on the candidates and the issues they represent.

Reid, who at 80 years old remains one of the most powerful Democrats in the state, predicted that Sanders’ signature health care policy, “Medicare for All,: could not win support in Congress. Yet he said he thinks the fiery Vermont senator could bring Democrats together.

“I have no doubt that if Bernie Sanders is the nominee, the party will unite behind him and beat Trump,” Reid said. ___

Peoples reported from Washington. AP writers Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta and Nicholas Riccardi contributed.

Roger Stone’s legal team files request for Judge Jackson’s removal from case

The legal team of Roger Stone – the former adviser to President Trump who received a 40-month prison sentence this week – filed court documents Friday to have the judge removed from his case.
Stone’s defense team argues that Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s claim during his Thursday sentencing that the jury in the case had “served with integrity,” should disqualify Jackson from presiding as Stone pursues his bid to receive a new trial.
WHO IS JUDGE AMY BERMAN JACKSON?
They argue that Jackson’s description of the jury as having served with “integrity” was a display of bias on behalf of the judge in a case that has not yet concluded, despite the sentencing, because of the bid for a new trial.
Making the case that the jury’s integrity is in question, the defense lawyers argue that “newly discovered information” suggests “juror misconduct” occurred during the trial, thus depriving Stone of having his case heard before an impartial jury.
The defense lawyers claim the unnamed juror “misled the Court regarding her ability to be unbiased and fair and the juror attempted to cover up evidence that would directly contradict her false claims of impartiality.”
If the claims of “juror misconduct” are true, then Jackson’s description of the jury as having integrity “indicates an inability to reserve judgment on an issue which has yet to be heard,” thus their call for Jackson’s recusal.
Jackson’s remarks about the jury came as Stone was being sentenced Thursday following his conviction last year on charges of lying to investigators and intimidating a witness in connection with the Trump-Russia probe.
“Sure, the defense is free to say: So what? Who cares?” Berman Jackson said during the sentencing hearing. “But, I'll say this: Congress cared. The United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia that prosecuted the case and is still prosecuting the case cared. The jurors who served with integrity under difficult circumstances cared. The American people cared. And I care.”

'Totally tainted'

Although no juror is mentioned by name in the new Stone filing, the papers were submitted after President Trump and others raised concerns about Tomeka Hart, who served as jury forewoman in the Stone case.
WHO IS TOMEKA HART?
Trump argued Thursday that Hart should not have been allowed to serve on the Stone jury because of her past social media posts criticizing the president and his administration. He claimed such posts served to undermine any claim Hart made to serve as an impartial juror in the Stone case.
“It’s my strong opinion that the forewoman of the jury, the woman who was in charge of the jury is totally tainted. When you take a look, how can you have a person like this? She was an anti-Trump activist. Can you imagine this?” Trump said during a speech in Las Vegas, referring to Hart.
During a Friday appearance on Fox Nation’s “Liberty File,” former Democratic Party lawyer David Schoen argued that Jackson injected personal bias into the Stone trial.
"I was shocked with some of the things she said," claimed Schoen. "She was very angry. She's very smart and she knows how to make her record. But she kept on making political statements while disclaiming that this case is not at all about politics."
Stone remains free pending the outcome of the motion for a new trial, made by his defense over claims of juror bias. The judge delayed the implementation of the sentence until she decides whether to grant the motion.