Four Democratic senators seeking their partys nomination are facing a new tribulation: How to schedule their campaigns around the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, which started Thursday.
“I would rather be in Iowa today. Theres a caucus there in two-and-a-half weeks. Id rather be in New Hampshire and Nevada and so forth. But I swore a constitutional oath as a United States senator to do my job and Im here to do my job,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told The Hill after the senators were sworn in on Thursday.
The Iowa caucuses are slated for Feb. 3, and the New Hampshire primary is eight days later.
Other than Sanders, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are required by the Constitution to sit in their seats without any electronic devices during the trial. They will also have to work six days per week in Washington, allowing for only Sundays off.
That means candidates such as Vice President Joe Biden, a frontrunner in several polls, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Andrew Yang will be able to take advantage of being the only candidates on the ground.
Klobuchar, who has been trying to emerge from the single digits in polling, said that “we really dont have a choice.”
“I have a constitutional duty, but I can do two things at once,” she told CNN in October. “There [are] many ways to reach out to people.”
Warren made a similar statement to reporters last year, saying that its part of her Constitutional duty. In recent weeks, her campaign has lulled and she has dropped to third place and is behind Sanders and Biden in several polls.
“There are some things that are more important than politics, and if we have an impeachment proceeding going on, I will be there,” Warren told reporters in New Hampshire. “Impeachment is something I take very seriously. I take no joy in this. But this is about a constitutional oath that every single member of the Senate took to—uphold the Constitution of the United States,” she added.
Bennet, who hasnt had favorable poll numbers throughout his campaign, offered the bluntest response among the crop of Democratic candidates.
“I think it is going to be disruptive,” he told “Read More – Source
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