Amy Klobuchar not worried about stepping away from campaign for Senate impeachment trial
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said she isn't worried that stepping away from her presidential campaign to serve her role in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump will hurt her in the Iowa caucuses, in just 17 days. Though she trails in fifth place in the state, she said her plans set her apart from the "pie-in-the-sky ideas" of the other candidates.
"I'm a mom. I can do two things at once," she said on "CBS This Morning" Friday. Klobuchar serves as ranking member of the Senate rules committee, which will have a big part in the impeachment trial that's expected to begin next week.
"It is my constitutional duty, and when I can go campaign in those early states, including Nevada and South Carolina, I will, but when I have to be there I will," she said. "One of the great things about having these early states is the voters get to know you, and I think they're going to understand that I have a constitutional duty to be there."
While her polling has inched up in Iowa in the past few months, she is polling fifth behind Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Asked if her moderate position is "out of step" with a progressive vision that's working for other candidates, Klobuchar argued that she has more realistic plans than other Democrats.
"I have different proposals than my colleagues. I think they are more practical yet progressive and the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is you can actually get a plan done," she said. "I've passed over 100 bills as a lead Democrat. I know how to do this."
The senator added that she has showed how she will pay for everything she wants to do as president. "I think that's really important to have a president, someone that doesn't just have pie-in-the-sky ideas but actually shows how they're going to pay for things," she said.
Comparing herself to Biden and Buttigieg, leading candidates who also are considered more moderate, Klobuchar said her record in Minnesota sets her apart.
"I am the one that just won 42 Trump counties in my state," she said. "I actually have the receipts ... No one else has led a ticket where they have won repeatedly in rural and suburban districts and brought in independents and moderate Republicans."