Iowa caucus: News pundit caught calling Democrat event 'effing disaster' on hot mic

A delayed final count prompted the complaint

An MSNBC pundit was caught on air expressing that the Iowa caucus had turned into an “effing disaster” Monday night.

The moment was captured in a clip widely spread around social media on Tuesday. In the video, a male voice can be heard over the voice of another MSNBC presenter as they give an update on the caucus.

“Oh my god, what an effing disaster,” the voice said.

Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Brian Williams were anchoring for the network at the time of the broadcast, as well as numerous pundits who appeared during the night.

While the slip up on live TV wasn’t a hallmark of professionalism, the sentiment of the disembodied voice wasn't unwarranted.

Issues with a voting app used by the state Democratic party are reportedly to blame for the delay in results coming out of Iowa.

During Monday night’s chaos, precinct captains took to Twitter, reporting that they’d been on hold with the state Democratic party for hours waiting to report their results. Many of them posted the results on the social media site, including explanations of how the delegate splits work.

Several of the candidates gave something resembling victory speeches as it became clear there would be no official results that evening.

Senators Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, along with Andrew Yang, former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, made speeches that suggested victory was just around the corner. For each of them.

Of all the speeches, Mr Buttigieg’s - which was the last to be delivered - was the most brazenly evocative of a victory speech.

“We don’t know all the results, but we know by the time it’s all said and done, Iowa you have shocked the nation," Mr Buttigieg said. “By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.”

Mr Buttigieg walked back the comments on MSNBC the next day, suggesting instead that the evening was a “victory for the campaign” rather than an outright campaign victory.