Grasping for straws in the early going of the vote tallying for Monday night’s Iowa caucuses, CNN correspondent Brian Todd exclaimed to viewers about the seemingly simple sorting and counting of votes at one Republican caucus site that he hyped as being beamed “live on international television.”
Todd was reporting from Ankeny, Iowa and admitted at the start of his live shot around the 8:53 p.m. Eastern mark that “[t]he first moment of truth is at hand right now” as the last call for votes had been called with the caucus officials placing ballots “into these popcorn baskets and people are still putting them into these baskets over here.”
He continued by showing the table with the votes in various buckets and baskets and hyped that election workers will be “going to be counting them manually in just a few minutes.”
Todd’s enthusiasm reached a premium as he touting how “exciting” it was that there would be “real time voting and counting live on international television”:
We’re going to be bringing you that count in real time, Wolf. That's what makes this so exciting. Real time voting and counting live on international television. This is what caucusing looks like, folks and again, I just can't emphasize how dynamic the crowd is. It was filled to capacity. Some of them have started leaving but some of them want to see what the count looks like, Wolf. This is where it gets exciting.
In another notable moment on cable television, MSNBC caught Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton caucusgoers arguing on their airwaves at one site that hit a boiling point when a Clinton support used some coarse language to describe the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The relevant portion of the transcript from CNN’s coverage of the Iowa Caucuses on February 1 can be found below.
CNN’s America’s Choice 2016: The Iowa Caucuses
February 1, 2016
8:53 p.m. Eastern
BRIAN TODD: The first moment of truth is at hand right now. This is the balloting. They just did last fall for the ballots. Look, they stuffed them into these popcorn baskets and people are still putting them into these baskets over here. They just did last call, so we’re getting the final ballots, so this is also where the counting will be going on. This table right here in a few minutes — look at them, they’re stuffing — this is what a capacity crowd looks like as the ballots are being put into the baskets. They’re going to be counting them manually in just a few minutes. We’re going to be bringing you that count in real time, Wolf. That's what makes this so exciting. Real time voting and counting live on international television. This is what caucusing looks like, folks and again, I just can't emphasize how dynamic the crowd is. It was filled to capacity. Some of them have started leaving but some of them want to see what the count looks like, Wolf. This is where it gets exciting.
WOLF BLITZER: The first real votes of this, the 2016 campaign, here in the United States.
