Legal Klobuchar backs impeachment proceedings 'beginning now'

Sen. Amy Klobuchar shifted further into the pro-impeachment camp, saying Friday she would support the House starting proceedings to remove the president “beginning now.”

Klobuchar had previously been more ambivalent on the issue, as recently as several weeks ago reiterating that she saw impeachment as “one way to investigate and hold this administration accountable if the White House keeps stonewalling.”


But in an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Klobuchar confirmed that she would back impeachment proceedings beginning immediately.

“I would support an impeachment proceeding beginning now, but I also understand they may be wanting to do investigations leading up to it and I think they should be given the time to do that,” she said, calling the move a “possibility” in the House.

The Minnesota Democrat is just the latest 2020 Democrat to back impeaching the president, and her shift comes days after Trump said in an interview he would likely accept dirt on a political opponent from a foreign national or government, and wouldn’t necessarily alert the FBI about it.

But while the senator said she had seen evidence that could lead to Trump’s impeachment, she emphasized that the House is on the right path with its investigations into Trump. She appeared hopeful that Hope Hicks, former White House communications director and one of Trump’s greatest confidants, had agreed to testify behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee, where impeachment proceedings would initiate.

Still, she said, “the point is you have the obstruction of justice which I think you've seen a bit of again today with what he said about Don McGahn , but then you also have going on this interference in our election, where he is blatantly engaging in this and asking people to interfere in the election. And remember, it’s a foreign country that didn't do it with missiles or tanks but they did it with cyberwarfare.”

Klobuchar has spoken out forcefully in favor of shoring up the country’s election systems, a priority she argued should take on greater urgency in light of Trump’s comments.

She again dinged the White House, which she has repeatedly accused of torpedoing a bipartisan election security bill, saying Trump’s recent comments provided a moment of clarity.

“And now we know why” the White House intervened, she said. “The president of the United States has said it. Come on, bring your dirt. We don't care how clean these elections are. And they don't even care if it is hacked into. They stopped the bill for backup paper ballots.”