Trump’s State of the Union address: How to watch and what to expect

President Trump will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday, February 4, at 9 pm ET in the Capitol. The speech comes just one day after the Iowa caucuses and in the midst of the president’s impeachment trial, promising to make it an especially fraught event.

Trump will likely use this occasion to focus on his reelection campaign, emphasizing his achievements — like low unemployment rates and a pair of new trade deals — rather than his grievances. Senior officials in his administration say he plans to avoid the topic of his impeachment trial, which is expected to …

Why Gretchen Whitmer was the Democrats’ pick to respond to Trump’s State of the Union

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

The State of the Union response is notoriously a mixed blessing for the speaker. No one who follows politics will soon forget Marco Rubio’s lunge for his water bottle; Bobby Jindal went from presumed future presidential frontrunner to watercooler joke overnight. But the politician selected to give it still serves an important totemic role for their party.

As the woman who won the governorship of a Midwestern battleground state with her “fix the damn roads” slogan, Whitmer …

Every candidate gave a victory speech on caucus night

In Iowa, everyone is a winner.

At least, that’s what it seemed like Monday evening as the Democratic candidates leading in pre-caucus Iowa polls — Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — as well as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, each gave their own version of a glowing victory speech. They did so without having any official numbers to back their optimism.

There’s been a long delay in the release of the Iowa caucus results due to technical difficulties, and the Iowa Democratic Party has announced …

Why the Iowa results are taking so long

The Iowa caucuses, the first contest of the 2020 Democratic primary, have been going for hours, and at this point it’s clear that results are badly delayed. As of 11:40 pm, not a single precinct’s votes have been publicly reported by the state party; at this point in 2016, 90 percent of precincts had reported their totals.

In a statement at 11:30 pm Monday, the Iowa Democratic Party said the delay was due to “inconsistencies” between multiple sets of results, saying they were trying to “validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the …

Why some of the Iowa caucuses are being decided by coin toss

A few times on Monday night, at some of the Iowa caucuses, candidates ended up with the same number of votes. There was a tie when it came time to hand out delegates.

So the Iowa voters resolved it with a time-honored election tradition: the coin toss.

As the Des Moines Register explained in 2016, there are a few circumstances when a coin toss becomes necessary, but it usually means the caucus has gotten to the point where it’s ready to award delegates but two or more candidates have the same number of supporters. The winner of the …