Axios

Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, has submitted his resignation.

Why it matters: Results from last week's caucuses were delayed due to software failures and reporting errors, leading to calls for an independent investigation and requests by the Buttigieg and Sanders campaigns for a partial recanvass.

Pete Buttigieg is narrowly leading Sen. Bernie Sanders in pledged delegates after the Democratic caucuses in Iowa and primary in New Hampshire.

The White House on Wednesday threatened to veto a resolution making its way through Congress that would curb President Trump's ability to direct military action against Iran without congressional authorization.

Driving the news: The Senate is now holding debates on the resolution after a majority voted 51-45 to advance the measure. Eight Republicans joined Democrats in voting in favor of it, signaling the measure could pass with bipartisan support.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday sent Attorney General Bill Barr a letter confirming he will testify before the panel on March 31st.

Why it matters: The letter comes after President Trump acknowledged in a tweet that Barr had personally overruled career prosecutors to lower the sentencing recommendation for his associate Roger Stone. Democrats in Congress have demanded the intervention be investigated for political interference.

President Trump declined to confirm Wednesday whether he is considering a pardon for his former associate Roger Stone, instead railing against prosecutors for treating Stone "horribly" and attacking former top FBI officials like James Comey and Andrew McCabe.

"I don't want to say that yet, but I will tell you what, people were hurt viciously and badly by these corrupt people. ... Nine years for doing something where nobody can even define what he did. ... We have killers, we have murderers all over the place, nothing happens. And then they put a man in jail and destroy his life.

Traffic accidents did not kill a single pedestrian or cyclist last year in either Helsinki or Oslo.

The big picture: The main ingredient in these cities' successes should not surprise you: They made their streets a lot less accommodating to cars.

City dwellers and rural Americans share many of the same values, despite political and economic polarization that can push the two apart, according to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll.

Why it matters: Sizable minorities from both cities and rural areas said they're worried about how the other perceives them. And partisan politics explains a lot of those divisions.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters Wednesday that he would not ask Attorney General Bill Barr to testify before his committee about the Justice Department's decision to reduce the sentencing recommendation for President Trump's associate Roger Stone.

Why it matters: Democrats in the past 24 hours have demanded that the administration provide answers on why the DOJ overruled career officials who had been handling the Stone prosecution, especially after Trump congratulated Barr on Twitter for "taking charge of a case that was totally out of control."

Editor's Note: Patrick dropped out of the race on February 12th, 2020. Below is our original article on his candidacy.

Democrat Deval Patrick is a businessman and was the first black governor of Massachusetts. He has close personal ties to former President Obama and some of his closest advisers.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick dropped out of the 2020 presidential race on Wednesday, thinning the Democratic field even further after the New Hampshire primary, CNN reports.

The big picture: Patrick was a late entrant to the race, announcing his candidacy in November and missing the filing deadlines for both Alabama and Arkansas. With less than three months to build momentum for the Iowa caucuses, he failed to make a splash in the polls and did not qualify for any debates.

Go deeper: Why Baby Yoda should scare Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick

Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein tweeted late Tuesday that Bernie Sanders should garner the support of Russia in the 2020 presidential election if it wants "to best screw up the U.S."

"If Dems go on to nominate Sanders, the Russians will have to reconsider who to work for to best screw up the US. Sanders is just as polarizing as Trump AND he’ll ruin our economy and doesn’t care about our military. If I’m Russian, I go with Sanders this time around."

There are growing concerns that the Feb. 22 Nevada caucuses could be a repeat of the chaos that hit Iowa's caucus process earlier this month, AP reports.

What's happening: Election volunteers in the state have yet to receive training for the iPads they will use on caucus day — or specific details about what the process' electronic "Caucus Tool" is and how it will ultimately be used.

Amy Klobuchar's campaign on Tuesday said it raised $2.5 million in four hours after New Hampshire polls closed and the Minnesota senator cemented her third-place finish.

Why it matters: The donations demonstrate how momentum from Friday's strong debate performance led into a strong electoral performance to boost her campaign.

The Justice Department submitted a new sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone on Tuesday, overruling career prosecutors who requested in a court filing Monday that the former Trump adviser serve 7–9 years in prison.

Driving the news: President Trump acknowledged in a Wednesday morning tweet that Attorney General Bill Barr had intervened in the matter, congratulating him for "taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday that Senate Republicans are divided on bipartisan bills to address both drug costs and surprise bills, The Hill reports.

The big picture: The White House vocally supports the bipartisan drug pricing bill by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Wyden.

Some top Democrats tell Axios that if the split 2020 field persists through Super Tuesday, Bernie Sanders could build an insurmountable delegate lead while the moderates eat each other up.

Why it matters: With California's massive delegate trove as part of Super Tuesday on March 3, whoever winds up as the survivor against Sanders could be in a deep delegate hole by the time the field thins.

The week of President Trump's impeachment acquittal was Fox News' fifth most-watched week and its highest since the weeks surrounding the 2016 election and the president's inauguration, AP reports.

Why it matters: Fox News averaged 4.27 million viewers in prime time last week. The basic cable network was bested only by major networks ABC, which televised the Academy Awards, and CBS.

Incidents of white supremacist propaganda distributed across the U.S. jumped more than 120% from 2018 to 2019, the Anti-Defamation League found, per the AP.

The big picture: Oren Segal, director of the group's Center on Extremism told the AP that there has been greater use of more subtly biased rhetoric — including a focus on "patriotism" — "to make their hate more palatable for a 2020 audience."

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Bernie Sanders' victory in the New Hampshire primary was real, but he had two moderates close on his heels — suggesting that Democrats aren't ready to hand the nomination to a socialist without a longer fight.

The big picture: Amy Klobuchar's surprisingly strong showing, along with the close margin between Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, was a reality check on the idea that the moderate wing of the Democratic Party has disappeared.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is leading calls for an investigation after the Department of Justice made a downgraded sentencing recommendation for President Trump's associate Roger Stone.

"By tweet @realDonaldTrump engaged in political interference in the sentencing of Roger Stone. It is outrageous that DOJ has deeply damaged the rule of law by withdrawing its recommendation. Stepping down of prosecutors should be commended & actions of DOJ should be investigated."

President Trump railed on Twitter against Department of Justice prosecutors who recommended Roger Stone serve 7–9 years in prison Tuesday night — and he later tweeted, "Prosecutorial Misconduct?"

"Who are the four prosecutors (Mueller people?) who cut and ran after being exposed for recommending a ridiculous 9 year prison sentence to a man that got caught up in an investigation that was illegal, the Mueller Scam, and shouldn't ever even have started? 13 Angry Democrats?"

Sen. Bernie Sanders is projected to win the New Hampshire Democratic primary, according to NBC News, ABC News and Decision Desk HQ.

State of play: Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg narrowly trails Sanders, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 3rd.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is projected to win the New Hampshire primary, followed by former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, according to multiple media reports.

The big picture: Businessman Andrew Yang and Sen. Michael Bennet have dropped out of the race, with early returns showing disappointing results for former VP Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is set to finish in fifth place in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, AP projects, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren in fourth.

Why it matters: The 2020 race has long been a four-way fight that includes Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg. But Sen. Amy Klobuchar has been inching upward.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) dropped out of the 2020 presidential race on Tuesday evening, per AP.

The big picture: Bennet brought a moderate tilt to the Democratic stage, favoring incremental steps to broaden health care coverage versus Medicare for All, and working with a group of Senate Democrats that moved to deregulate banks.

Former tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang announced on Tuesday night that he has dropped out of the 2020 presidential race.

The big picture: Yang, who's never held public office, centered his campaign on universal basic income, wherein he proposed giving all Americans over 18 years of age $1,000 every month.

MANCHESTER, N.H. —  After the mess and delays of Iowa, Democrats are looking to tonight's presidential primary for some clarity as to whether Bernie Sanders emerges as a clear front-runner — or whether this remains a crowded field through Super Tuesday.

Why it matters: It's unlikely that Pete Buttigieg pulls off a surprise victory, but if he's a close second to the Vermont senator with the regional advantage, that would be a huge boost for the 38-year-old former mayor of a town around 100,000 whose prospects skyrocketed after his performance in Iowa.

National security adviser Robert O'Brien said Tuesday that President Trump did not ask him to remove Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman nor his brother Yevgeny from the National Security Council, insisting the brothers were “absolutely not retaliated against.”

Why it matters: Vindman was a key witness during House impeachment hearings, and Trump justified his ouster by calling him "insubordinate."

President Trump is withdrawing his nomination for former U.S. attorney for D.C. Jessie Liu to serve as the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes, a top position overseeing economic sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge.

The big picture: Liu was confirmed in September 2017 to lead the largest U.S. attorney's office in the country, overseeing a number of politically charged prosecutions that included the case against Trump associates Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and other spinoffs from the Mueller investigation.