Supporters of President Donald Trump reportedly flooded a telephone hotline used by Democratic precinct chairs to report results following Monday’s Iowa Caucus. This was after the hotline number was posted on the right-wing message board 4chan along with a plea to “clog the lines.”
Bloomberg News reports: On Thursday morning, the Iowa Democratic Party confirmed it “experienced an unusually high volume of inbound phone calls to its caucus hotline,” which included “supporters of President Trump who called to express their displeasure with the Democratic Party.” “The unexplained, and at times hostile, calls contributed to the delay in the Iowa Democratic Party’s collection of results, but in no way affected the integrity of information gathered or the accuracy of data sets reported,“ the party statement said. The Trump campaign said Wednesday night it had no knowledge of its supporters calling the hotline.
More from NBC News: An Iowa Democratic Party official said the influx of calls to the reporting hotline included “supporters of President Trump who called to express their displeasure with the Democratic Party.” The party official’s comments were first reported late Wednesday by Bloomberg News. Users on a politics-focused section of the fringe 4chan message board repeatedly posted the phone number for the Iowa Democratic Party, which was found by a simple Google search, both as screenshots and in plain text, alongside instructions. “They have to call in the results now. Very long hold times being reported. Phone line being clogged,” one user posted at about 11 p.m. ET on Monday, two hours after the caucuses began. “Uh oh how unfortunate it would be for a bunch of mischief makers to start clogging the lines,” responded another anonymous user, sarcastically. Some users chimed in, posting alleged wait times on hold, imploring others to “clog the lines [and] make the call lads.”
