USA TODAY International Edition
Candidates on jury duty forced to get creative
WASHINGTON – Hours after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed rules Tuesday for the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Sen. Bernie Sanders canceled a planned rally Wednesday at the University of Northern Iowa.
With the impeachment trial officially underway, the four Democratic senators turned impeachment jurors who also are running for president will find themselves relying on surrogates keep their campaigns moving.
Under McConnell’s plan, trial arguments would begin at 1 p. m. Wednesday, Thursday and possibly Friday – likely lasting until the early morning hours and hindering evening travel. Arguments were scheduled to last until Saturday and resume Monday, leaving Sunday as the only possible day for candidates to campaign.
Adding even more pressure, the Iowa caucuses – which kick off the 2020 primary elections and often winnow the presidential field – are only 13 days away.
Sens. Michael Bennet, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have repeatedly said that although they would like to be out on the campaign trail, they have a constitutional duty to be on Capitol Hill.
Klobuchar’s husband and daughter, John and Abigail Bessler, U. S. Rep. Angie Craig and Iowa state Rep. Karin Derry are all campaigning for the Minnesota senator in Iowa this week.
“I have a fantastic operation with people who are incredible – in every
major town in Iowa. I’ve got my husband and daughter out this weekend in New Hampshire and then on their way to Iowa,” Klobuchar said on “CBS This Morning” on Friday. “You know, it is my constitutional duty ( to be a juror in an impeachment trial). And when I can go campaign in those early states, including Nevada and South Carolina, I will.
“I am a mom. I can do two things at once,” Klobuchar quipped.
Sanders and Warren also have deployed surrogates to early voting states to campaign while they’re stuck in Washington.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez of New York will be hitting the campaign trail in Iowa for Sanders on Saturday and Sunday. Sanders’ wife, Jane, will be campaigning Saturday in Nevada.
On Monday, Sanders made a plea to his voters at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, saying that “us, not me” – a reference to his campaign slogan, “Not me. Us.” – “is becoming very much a reality in the last two weeks of this campaign, because I’m not going to be able to be here as much as I would like.
“So you guys are going to have to carry the ball,” Sanders said. “We need your help now more than ever. I’m going to be stuck in Washington for God knows how long.”
Warren has plans to return to Iowa Saturday and Sunday, where she is scheduled to host four town halls over two days. But she also has deployed surrogates in several states, including all four early voting states.
Rep. Joaquin Castro and Julián Castro, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and former 2020 presidential candidate, were campaigning for Warren in Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday. Julián Castro also will campaign for Warren in Nevada on Saturday and Sunday. U. S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley will head to South Carolina for the senator on Friday. Warren’s husband, Bruce Mann, will be in New Hampshire over the weekend.
After a rally in Des Moines earlier this week, Warren said she hopes to continue to campaign in Iowa as much as she can before the Feb. 3 caucuses, adding that “the good people of Iowa have really taught me core parts of democracy.”
“I’ll miss all the questions I get from people, the unfiltered questions, folks who get to stand up and say: ‘ This is what matters to me. Talk to me about it,’ ” Warren told reporters. “I truly have loved this part of the campaign.”
Bennet’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Some candidates could reap the benefits of the four senators being off the campaign trail, especially former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Biden, who has led national polls for months, is battling for the top spot in Iowa with Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren. The former vice president was hosting at least two events a day in Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to New Hampshire Friday and Saturday. Biden’s wife, Jill, will join him in Iowa for numerous events this week.
Buttigieg was hosting four events in Iowa on Tuesday alone. He is also hosting a town hall Wednesday morning before heading to Washington for a private fundraiser.
Buttigieg told Iowans Tuesday, as the Senate impeachment trial got underway, “you are the answer to that sense of exhaust” when it comes to watching the news, including what is happening in the Senate.
“If you feel that sense of exhaustion, remember that you yourself the answer to it, because in 2020 no matter what happens on the floor of the Senate, it’s actually up to us,” he said. “This begins right here, and a sense of hope about what we could do together that propels.”