At a CNN town hall in New Hampshire on Monday, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren broke down her argument for why impeachment proceedings should be started against President Donald Trump.

The 2020 presidential candidate first issued the call for the House of Representatives to take up the action on Friday. At the Monday event hosted by Saint Anselm College, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked what the senator’s response was to her colleagues in the Democratic Party, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying that it might not be the time to begin the proceedings.

“There is no political inconvenience exception to the United States Constitution,” Warren replied.


The senator went on to break down her argument for starting up the process, based on her takeaways from the report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

“If any other human being in this country had done what’s documented in the Mueller report, they would be arrested and put in jail,” she said.

Warren said senators and members of the House of Representatives should have to vote on the question of impeachment based on the information in the report, knowing they have sworn to uphold the Constitution, and “live with it for the rest of their lives.”

“This is not about politics,” she said. “This about principle. This is about what kind of democracy we have. In a dictatorship, everything in government revolves around protecting the one person at the center. But not in our democracy, and not under our Constitution. We have checks and balances, and we have to proceed in a way here understanding our place in history. That not only protects democracy now, but protects democracy when the next president comes in and the next president and the president after that. That’s our responsibility.”

Warren wasn’t the only candidate during the series of town halls who was asked about whether impeachment proceedings should begin against Trump.


Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was asked directly about Warren’s remarks on impeachment, said Congress has to take “a hard look” and conduct an investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. But he said he is concerned that if all the focus is on impeachment, nothing will get done on any other issues that “concern ordinary Americans.”

“What I worry about is that works to Trump’s advantage,” he said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders argues that a focus on impeachment of President Trump means that we're not talking about "the issues that concern ordinary Americans. What I worry about is that works to Trump’s advantage" #SandersTownHall https://t.co/v5yBgmWdpV pic.twitter.com/jkRbvpxyPP — CNN (@CNN) April 23, 2019

California Sen. Kamala Harris said she believes Congress should take the steps toward impeachment, even though she hasn’t seen evidence that the Republican-controlled Senate “will weigh on the facts instead of on partisan adherence to being protective of this president.”

“We have to be realistic about what might be the end result, but that doesn’t mean the process should not take hold,” she said.

“I believe Congress should take the steps towards impeachment.” Sen. Kamala Harris says the Mueller report points toward obstruction, but adds she is a “realist” and doubts her Republican colleagues in the Senate will vote to remove President Trump from office. #HarrisTownhall pic.twitter.com/k1B154bzql — CNN (@CNN) April 23, 2019

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said during his town hall that he is also in favor of proceedings getting underway.

“I think [Trump’s] made it pretty clear that he deserves impeachment,” Buttigieg told Cooper. “But I’m also going to leave it to the House and Senate to figure that out because my role in the process is trying to relegate Trumpism to the dustbin of history.”

Mayor Buttigieg says Trump has “made it pretty clear that he deserves impeachment,” but he'll leave it to Congress to figure it out because his role is to “relegate Trumpism to the dustbin of history” via a “thumping at the ballot box” #ButtigiegTownHall https://t.co/Kh0NtJDSL4 pic.twitter.com/MRhXir27op — CNN (@CNN) April 23, 2019

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said that while she believes “very strongly that President Trump should be held accountable,” she said impeachment proceedings would be up to the House.