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In the lead-up to Monday’s Iowa caucuses and the Feb. 11 New Hampshire primary, I’ll offer my analysis while on the ground in those two states about who won the last 24 hours in the 2020 presidential contest. It’s crunch time, and every day in the primary race really matters. Many voters are finally tuning in, and history is filled with examples of how one late move made the difference. Some winners in this feature will be obvious, others will be contrarian, and sometimes the victor of the last 24 hours might not be a presidential candidate at all. — James Pindell

Who won the 24 hours between Sunday morning and Monday morning?

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Winner: John Kerry

DES MOINES — With a little over 24 hours before the Iowa caucuses, John Kerry, the former US secretary of state, former US senator from Massachusetts, and winner of the caucuses 16 years ago was in one of the nicer hotels in downtown Des Moines. He was on his way to serving as a surrogate for Joe Biden.

But first, he had a few things to say in the Renaissance Des Moines Savery Hotel.

An NBC News analyst overheard him saying that, “maybe I’m f---ing deluding myself here” before walking, step by step, through what he would have to do in order to run, including scaling back his involvement with Bank of America, where he is chairman of the bank’s global advisory council.

Something needed to be done to prevent “the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party — down whole," NBC quoted him as saying.

He reportedly said all this loudly into his phone.

When asked about it by NBC News later, Kerry, 76, was adamant that he wasn’t considering running for president at all.

“This is a complete and total misinterpretation based on overhearing only one side of a phone conversation. A friend who watches too much cable called me wondering whether I’d ever jump into the race late in the game if Democrats were choosing an unelectable nominee. I listed all the reasons I could not possibly do that and would not — and will not under any circumstances — do that,” NBC quoted Kerry as saying.

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He even used vulgar language on Twitter to double down on the idea that his focus is on helping Biden win the presidency.

There is no doubt that Kerry had to clean up the political mess for Biden this close to the Iowa caucuses. After all, the premise of Kerry’s alleged phone call was that Biden wouldn’t win Iowa and New Hampshire.

Yet, you know, it isn’t all that bad that his name was floated as someone who might be interested in some kind of political comeback.

To be sure, in Iowa and elsewhere there is a lot of concern from establishment Democrats about Sanders grabbing the nomination. Politico reported that some Democratic National Committee members were exploring bringing back superdelegates on the first ballot at the convention to stop Sanders.

And, really, no one has a clue how this primary contest will play out. But if there is chaos, at least Kerry’s name will come up.


James Pindell can be reached at james.pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell.