5 years ago / 12:51 AM EST
5 years ago / 12:35 AM EST
5 years ago / 12:31 AM EST

Voters waited at least 5 hours in one Texas polling station

5 years ago / 12:30 AM EST

Pizza plus a long wait well after polls close

5 years ago / 12:22 AM EST

Trump camp publicly batting down Joe-mentum but privately concerned

Hallie Jackson
Hallie Jackson and Monica Alba

We know President Donald Trump has been watching the Super Tuesday returns roll in — he predicted earlier that it would be an "interesting evening of television" — as he goes after both Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren on Twitter.

The self-styled political pundit-in-chief has acknowledged that Joe Biden has been looking better than observers initially expected before South Carolina, but his campaign is working to bat down any Joe-mentum.

"Everyone should remember that he is just as terrible a candidate right now as he was a few days ago," Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said tonight, also echoing the president's accusation today that "establishment Democrats" are trying to rig the nomination against Bernie Sanders.

Despite the public bravado, those close to the president have long been concerned privately about a head-to-head matchup against Biden in the general election, specifically in key Rust Belt states, and that remains the case this evening, though of course we're a long way off from knowing whom the Democratic nominee will be.

And that's something Team Trump is seizing on — the expected chaos if, in fact, Democrats end up barreling into a contested convention. The longer the Democratic fight plays out, the better it is for the president in the eyes of his advisers, who tonight are seizing on a "splintered" Democratic Party. Watch for Trump allies to start to concentrate their fire on Sanders and Biden moving forward.

As we talk about what's next, keep this in mind: For the first time in a while, there are no rallies or events on the campaign schedule right now. That's after weeks of counterprogramming with trolling (his word, not just ours) of Democrats by the president as he visited states critical to Democrats' chances to try to draw crowds and attention.

Still, the Trump camp is counting its cash after hitting some big fundraising goals in the last six months: The Republican National Committee's touting $86 million that it brought in last month, plus $60 million more in January.

It's something first daughter and senior White House aide Ivanka Trump touched on in a recent New York Times interview, suggesting that she can out-raise Biden at events: "As an example, she pointed to a rare donor event that she headlined in Houston last November, where she said she raised $2 million in 45 minutes."

And now, Team Trump plans to deploy what it considers its secret weapons — Ivanka and first lady Melania Trump — later this month to raise money more aggressively than at any other point of the campaign.

5 years ago / 12:14 AM EST

NBC News Exit Poll: Young Democrats prioritize a candidate who agrees with them on issues over beating Trump

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Younger and older Democratic primary voters do not see eye to eye when it comes to the type of candidate they want their party to nominate.

According to the NBC News Exit Poll in Super Tuesday states, a majority of Democratic voters under age 30 say that, if they had to choose, they would rather see the party nominate a candidate who agrees with them on major issues than a candidate who can beat President Donald Trump.

Older Democratic primary voters disagree. Roughly 6 in 10 primary voters ages 30 to 59 and 73 percent of voters ages 60 and over would rather have a candidate who can beat Trump than one who agrees with them on major issues.

5 years ago / 12:08 AM EST

As Super Tuesday becomes Wednesday, here's where things stand

Here's where things stand right around midnight on the East Coast:

  • Biden is projected to win Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Minnesota.
  • Sanders is projected to take Utah, Colorado and Vermont.
  • Bloomberg won American Samoa.
  • Texas, Maine and California are too close to call.
5 years ago / 12:01 AM EST

Bloomberg to huddle with advisers in NY, reassess staying in race

Josh Lederman

Bloomberg is reassessing whether to stay in the race. The former mayor is flying from Florida to New York late Tuesday to huddle with top advisers in the morning to make that decision.

Senior campaign officials tell NBC News that no decision had been made yet.

Bloomberg has no public events scheduled for Wednesday.

5 years ago / 11:57 PM EST

A quiet night for disinformation watchdogs

The Department of Homeland Security and disinformation experts monitoring social media had a relatively quiet night on Super Tuesday. 

A senior official with Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said disinformation campaigns from foreign influencers appeared to maintain their usual daily level, with little primary day uptick. 

Twitter removed a handful of accounts that spread false claims that coronavirus fears were disrupting or delaying voting. When NBC News reported several accounts to Twitter, the company confirmed that it took enforcement actions against the tweets and also said it took action against a small amount of other content violating its election integrity policies.

Facebook confirmed that it removed a small number of posts that violated its election content policies. Google didn't respond to a request for comment.

The fear of election interference from foreign and domestic actors following the well-documented Russian interference in 2016 has led to a state of heightened alert among election and security officials, social media platforms and researchers.

Though noise appeared low this primary day, that doesn't mean it can't perpetuate negative sentiment, said Joan Donovan, director of the Shorenstein Center's Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard University.

"Some aspects of trolling rely on hyping up particular emotions, and outrage and fear are two motivating emotions that may increase a claim's believability," Donovan said. "It's becoming increasingly apparent that the only group that can stop this kind of misinformation are platforms themselves." — Kevin Collier contributed reporting.

5 years ago / 11:52 PM EST

NBC News Exit Poll: Biden wins Democratic primary in Massachusetts, Warren's home turf

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Joe Biden beat Elizabeth Warren on her home turf of Massachusetts in Tuesday's Democratic primary. Biden captured the lion's share of support from late-deciding voters. Roughly 4 in 10 voters who made up their minds in the last few days broke for Biden, according to NBC News Exit Poll results.

Biden does well with voters in the state who are looking for a candidate who can unite the country, and he wins nearly half of moderate or conservative voters there, as well as those ages 65 and older.

Biden also won strong support from voters who consider health care the top issue. But in contrast to Bernie Sanders' voters, a majority of those who voted for Biden in the Massachusetts primary oppose a single-payer plan.