Impeachment Trial Pulls Some 2020 Candidates off the Trail
MICHAEL STENGER, SENATE SERGEANT AT ARMS: All persons are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprisonment while the House of Representatives are exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump, president of the United States.</s>JOHN KING, CNN HOST: That oath applies to all 100 senators but perhaps says added meaning to four who just happened to be Democratic presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Michael Bennet. The Iowa caucuses are in 17 days, the New Hampshire primary in 25. But the impeachment trial begins in earnest Tuesday. It will take at least two weeks. Some senators think it could go three or four. If so, keeping those senators off the trail at a very pivotal time.</s>SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not optimal but there's nothing to do about it. I'm going to go up to New Hampshire this weekend. I think I've got a constitutional responsibility to fulfill, and I feel privileged to have the chance to do it.</s>SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a mom. I can do two things at once. 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. I have a constitutional duty to be there. We can Skype in, we can phone in.</s>KING: It sound like they can go on TV and say this is terrible, this is horrible, I hate it. But it's -- you know, just to be human about it, they're ambitious, they're running for president especially in Iowa and New Hampshire, the voters -- you know this well from your experience, the voters like to see you. TV ads can help, you can phone it in, you can Skype it in, but they want to see you and touch you.</s>CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: They'd rather be in Iowa. And also, Iowa voters tend to break late. We have a very close race with the top four. And you have Amy Klobuchar who is really trying to break in Iowa and so this is sort of a key time. They can't be there. I was just talking to someone from Klobuchar's camp who is saying they're doing all the things they can. She is there every weekend doing, you know, multiple events a day. They have surrogates. Her husband, her daughter will be out there. She's going to Skype in, but certainly that's not the same thing as being in diners and pizza ranches across the state.</s>KING: Yes, take a quick look as you jump in just as this</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, this morning Michael Bennet was on CNN and he was talking to me while he was literally running to the elevator to get on a plane to get to New Hampshire because he knows the time is limited. The good news for these senators is that it turns out we have TV cameras in the capitol. And I was really struck yesterday -- I think it was yesterday, when Bernie Sanders who -- I don't even think I'd ever seen him at a stakeout camera ever on Capitol Hill, made a beeline for that camera and started talking to reporters. I think we're going to see a lot of that.</s>MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And there are breaks during the trial, so there will be opportunities for them to come out, and it won't meet during the morning, so they'll have the mornings. But, you know, it is interesting, normally to be the senators in the Senate as an opportunity for grandstanding, and for -- they could actually in a normal Senate session, make actual news. They will have to sit there quietly.</s>KING: And again, back to calendar, as you jump in, I just want to show you the calendar because this collision is just -- I've covered campaigns that are crazy, I've covered impeachment before. Never do you have this collision like this. Martin Luther King Day -- Martin Luther Jr. Day is on Monday. First day of impeachment trial, Tuesday. the Iowa caucus moving around the corner on February 3rd. The state of the union the next day of February 4th. There supposed to be a Democratic debate on February 7th. And then New Hampshire primary on February 11th. We expect the trial to be over before the New Hampshire primary but we can't be certain.</s>LUCEY: No, we don't know. And I think the other thing to think about here is this really tests the organizations that these candidates have in both these early states. Iowa, especially with the caucus, it is so organization-driven in terms of having people coming out, building that energy and building those operations. And so it really will -- that will really put a lot of pressure on that on the last couple of weeks.</s>KING: And we know the president loves to stoke a good conspiracy theory, he just does. And so he has one today that the Democrats are doing this on purpose to keep Bernie Sanders off the campaign trail. "They're rigging the election again, against Bernie Sanders just last time, only even more obviously. They're bringing him out of so important Iowa in order that, as a senator, he sits through the impeachment hoax trial. Crazy Nancy thereby gives the strong edge to sleepy Joe Biden, and Bernie is shut out again." He likes mixing it up in the other guy's garden.</s>BASH: He's doing that but he's also -- that's also a part of another storyline which is the Trump campaign trying to boost Bernie Sanders. Yes.</s>KING: Right. Yes.</s>LUCEY: They would like to run against Bernie.</s>BASH: Yes.</s>KING: Up next, President Trump having some fun, and of course, can't forget impeachment at a White House celebration with the LSU Tigers.