Mueller report: 2020 Democratic candidates' reaction
The Democratic presidential hopefuls on Thursday criticized Attorney General William Barr and called for voters to remove President Trump through the ballot box after special counsel Robert Mueller's report was made public. Here are their statements. tweets and comments on the campaign trail.
Sen. Bernie Sanders
In a statement to CBS News, Sanders said:
"It is clear that Donald Trump wanted nothing more than to shut down the Mueller investigation. While we have more detail from today's report than before, Congress must continue its investigation into Trump's conduct and any foreign attempts to influence our election. We must also work to do everything we can to protect our future elections from the significant threat of foreign interference, and I call on President Trump and Republican leadership to stop obstructing the necessary work to protect our democracy."
Sen. Kamala Harris
On Twitter, Harris wrote:
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke
At a campaign stop in New Hampshire, O'Rourke told reporters:
"I think the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, must maintain a significant level of independence if they are going to be able to uphold the law in a country that defines itself as a nation of laws and says that no person, including those in the highest positions of power, are above the law."
O'Rourke also tweeted a video of his response at a town hall in New Hampshire:
Mayor Pete Buttigieg
On Twitter Thursday morning, Buttigieg wrote:
At an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyer," Buttigieg said:
"It confirmed a lot of things that we were worried about – that we have a president who acts in a self-serving way that there was a lot of behavior that was at best, unethical, and legally problematic to put it charitably. And the way the Attorney General conducted himself as though he were the personal attorney of the president was incredibly troubling too. At the same time politically, I'm not sure it will change much. And it's one more reminder that if we really want to send Trumpism into the history books, the best thing we can do is defeat it decisively at the ballot box in 2020."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
On Twitter, Warren posted:
Sen. Amy Klobuchar
On Twitter, Klobuchar wrote:
Klobuchar also appeared on MSNBC's "All In on Chris Hayes," where she said:
"This is an intense part of the report and I hope people read it. If you are not into getting into every single legal detail, you can get into this because this shows Russia – maybe they didn't use tanks, maybe they didn't use missiles – but they invaded our election. They invaded our democracy. And my problem is when you look at what they did – with all the propaganda they put out and tried to sew discord among people, about what they did when they tried to break into our election equipment and then actually did break into Hillary Clinton's campaign and leaked those emails everywhere to try to stop their momentum. All of that happened. But what I want to know now is why the Trump administration has been stopping the bipartisan bill – the Secure Elections Act – that can fix this going forward with backup paper ballots and audits of our election. We were ready to go. I had that bill ready with Sen. Lankford – he's a conservative Republican. And the White House made calls and stopped that bill from advancing. That's wrong."
Sen. Cory Booker
On Twitter, Booker posted:
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
On Twitter, Gillibrand wrote:
Sen. Jay Inslee
On Twitter, Inslee wrote:
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
On Twitter, Gabbard wrote:
Former Gov. John Hickenlooper
On Twitter, Hickenlooper wrote:
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro
On Twitter, Castro wrote:
Andrew Yang
On Twitter, Yang wrote
