Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday she isn’t worried that missing time on the presidential campaign trail for a potential Senate impeachment trial will place her at a disadvantage in the primary race.
“I meet whatever obstacle is put in front of me,” Klobuchar said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” after host Dana Bash asked the Senate Judiciary Committee member if she thinks she’ll be at a disadvantage if she has to spend more time in Washington than on the campaign trail.
“And this is more than an obstacle. It’s my constitutional obligation,” Klobuchar added. {mosads}
She said supporters who have endorsed her as well as her husband and daughter can continue to campaign for her.
Klobuchar said on on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that lawmakers’ “first obligation is a constitutional one” and that they “don’t have a choice” but to push forward with impeachment proceedings.
“This is something where the Founding Fathers themselves — James Madison said that the reason we needed impeachment provisions is that he feared that a president would betray the trust of the American people to a foreign power. That’s why this is proceeding. I see it simply as a global Watergate,” Klobuchar said.
“Back then, you had a president in Richard Nixon who was paranoid, and he delegated to some people to go break into the headquarters and get into a file cabinet to get dirt on a political opponent. That’s basically what this president has done on a global basis. Yes, it’s a public trial, and the public will be able to see more and will be able to reach their own decisions, but in the end it’s our constitutional obligation, and I can do two things at once,” she added.
A potential impeachment trial in the Senate, which could take place in January, threatens to ground several presidential candidates during the crucial stretch heading into the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kamala Harris, (Calif.), Klobuchar and Cory Booker (N.J.) would all need to leave the campaign trail for the trial, which could benefit former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.