Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday called the chaotic Iowa caucuses an “embarrassment,” but doesn’t think the Democratic Party is trying to undermine his campaign.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sanders was unforgiving about the chaos that led to delays in the vote count from the first-in-the-nation primary vote.
“All I can say about Iowa is it was an embarrassment,” he said. “It was a disgrace to the good people of Iowa who take their responsibilities in the caucuses very seriously. They screwed it up badly is what the Iowa Democratic Party did.”
Pressed on whether he believes the Democratic Party is trying to hurt his chances, he added: “We're going to monitor the situation closely but that's not my impression at this point.”
He also said his vote count in Iowa clearly made him the winner, even though the delegate percentage put him second to Pete Buttigieg.
“When you win an election from …2,500 votes, from where I come from, you win the primary or the caucus so we are confident that we, in fact, won the Iowa caucus.”
Sanders also refuted that his position as a democratic socialist would hurt down-ballot Democrats should he be nominated as the Democratic Party nominee.
“Our agenda is precisely the agenda that the overwhelming number of people want,” he said. “Among young people, people under 29 years of age, we increased the voter turnout by some 33%. That's a huge voter turnout. We do that all over the country, I think you're going to see incredible gains for down ballot.”
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.