As Bernie Sanders Surges Ahead of Iowa Caucus, DNC Under Fire for Changing Rules to Help Bloomberg

By Democracy Now

The Iowa caucuses took place yesterday, kicking off the official start of the 2020 presidential election season. Democratic presidential candidates spent the whole day and the weekend before making last-minute pitches to voters at rallies across Iowa. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee is facing criticism for overhauling its rules, opening the door for billionaire former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is running a self-funded campaign, to take part in the next debate. This comes as fear is growing among some Democrats that Bernie Sanders might win the nomination. Politico reports a small group of DNC members have begun discussing a proposal to increase the role of superdelegates to give the party establishment more say in who becomes the nominee. From Des Moines, Iowa, we’re joined by John Nichols, The Nation’s national affairs correspondent and host of the podcast “Next Left.” He’s covering the Iowa caucuses on the ground and recently wrote the piece “The DNC’s Move to Accommodate Bloomberg Stirs Outrage in Iowa.”

AMY GOODMAN: We begin with the Iowa caucuses, the official start of the 2020 presidential election season. Candidates spent the weekend making last-minute pitches to voters. On Saturday, Senator Bernie Sanders addressed 3,000 people at a rally in Cedar Rapids, in one of the largest rallies of the election season in Iowa.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: We are taking on the entire political establishment, both the Republican establishment and the Democratic establishment. We are taking on Wall Street and the insurance companies and the drug companies and the fossil fuel industry and the military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex and the whole damn 1%.

AMY GOODMAN: On Saturday, former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned in North Liberty, Iowa.

JOE BIDEN: Several of my colleagues in this race think it’s naive of me to think we can bring the country together. I refuse to accept the notion that it’s a forever war between Democrats and Republicans. It’s not impossible. I’ve done it my whole career. They say I don’t understand the new Republican Party. Well, you just got a glimpse of it. I understand the new Republican Party. I’ve been the object of their affection for a long while now. I wonder why. I wonder why. Oh god love them, as my mother would say. … Folks, I think it’s pretty simple. They don’t want me to be the nominee because they know I’ll beat him like a drum. We will beat him.

AMY GOODMAN: On Sunday, Senator Elizabeth Warren campaigned in Indianola, Iowa.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Look, I get it in America. There are rich people. There are people who aren’t rich. And rich people, they may own more shoes, they may own more cars, they may own more houses. But they’re not supposed to own a bigger piece of our democracy. If we want to change that, we’re not going to be able to do it with just a little nibble around the edge, one little statute over here, a couple of regulations over there. No, we want to beat back the influence of money. We want to save our democracy. We want to save our country. It’s going to take big structural change. And I got a plan for that.

AMY GOODMAN: In more news about the 2020 elections, the Democratic National Committee is coming under fire after overhauling debate requirements to eliminate the need for candidates to obtain a significant number of small donations, allowing billionaire Mike Bloomberg to take part in upcoming debates. Bernie Sanders’ senior adviser Jeff Weaver, on DNC debate rules, said, “To now change the rules in the middle of the game to accommodate Mike Bloomberg, who is trying to buy his way into the Democratic nomination, is wrong. That’s the definition of a rigged system,” Weaver said.

This comes as fear is growing among some Democrats that Bernie Sanders might win the nomination. Politico reports a small group of DNC members have begun discussing a proposal to increase the role of superdelegates to give the party establishment more say in who becomes the nominee.

We go now to Des Moines, Iowa, where we’re joined by John Nichols, The Nation‘s national affairs correspondent, host of the podcast Next Left. He’s on the ground covering the Iowa caucus, just wrote the piece, “The DNC’s Move to Accommodate Bloomberg Stirs Outrage in Iowa.” His forthcoming book, The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Antifascist, Antiracist Politics.

John, it’s great to have you on the ground in Iowa. So, talk about this latest move of the DNC, the changing of the rules for who can participate in the debate.

JOHN NICHOLS: Yes. The DNC set up some pretty strict rules last year. And there was a structure to it, but essentially you had to have a little bit of poll position, and then you had to raise a substantial number of small contributions, in order to get on the debate stage. And with each step of the process, they raised the number of contributions you needed, and also raised the threshold for polls. That was what all