Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Friday said President Trump was “basically threatening execution” when he invoked treason in talking about a whistleblower who alleged that the president improperly pressed Ukraine for dirt on a political opponent.

“Well, he’s basically there threatening execution,” Ms. Klobuchar said on CNN’s “New Day.” “He is calling someone that works for him and the whistleblower a spy, right?”

At a private event on Thursday, Mr. Trump mentioned treason amid the ongoing firestorm over the whistleblower complaint, which helped prompt Speaker Nancy Pelosi to announce that the House is formally opening an impeachment investigation.

“I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy,” the president said. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”

Ms. Klobuchar, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said Mr. Trump was trying to raise a “chilling effect” with the comments.

“We just have to call on the patriotism of people that used to work in that White House or work there now to come forward and tell the truth,” she said.

Ms. Klobuchar said the chain of events made sense to her and cited news reports in referring to the whistleblower as a “CIA agent.”

“He has a very disturbing conversation about getting dirt [on] one of his opponents for the 2020 election, and then, of course, someone that heard about it talks to a trusted CIA agent … who has expertise on Ukraine, and that’s how he finds it,” she said. “This is legitimate discussions between security people who are involved [who] care about our country.”

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