(CNN) Supporters of President Donald Trump worsened this week's Iowa caucus breakdown by placing prank phone calls that hindered the reporting of results, the Iowa Democratic Party said on Thursday. The malicious calls were part of what Mandy McClure, a state party spokeswoman, said was an "unusually high volume of inbound calls" to the party's caucus hotline. The party's claims were bolstered by a number of social media posts viewed by CNN that proclaimed a desire to disrupt the caucuses. Due to the anonymous nature of the posts, CNN was unable to independently verify that the social media users in fact made the phone calls they claimed to have placed. At least two phone numbers linked to the Iowa Democratic Party were posted this week on 4chan, the online message board associated with the right wing.

Source: CNN February 06, 2020 19:07 UTC