MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Amy Klobuchar tore in to Pete Buttigieg for trying to capitalize on his rivals’ absence of the campaign trail by downplaying the importance of the Senate impeachment trial.
“What you said, Pete, as you were campaigning through Iowa — as three of us were jurors in that impeachment hearing — you said it was exhausting to watch and that you wanted to turn the channel and watch cartoons,” the Minnesota senator, 59, said Friday in a Democratic presidential debate. “It is easy to go after Washington, because that’s a popular thing to do,” she added, but said that it is “much harder to take those difficult positions.”
Klobuchar, along with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, was stuck in Washington, D.C., in the weeks before this week’s Iowa caucuses rather than on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.
“It’s popular to say and makes you look like a cool newcomer, but I just — I don’t think that’s what people want right now,” Klobuchar added.
Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, did talk about impeachment exhaustion while his rivals were stuck in President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, but primarily argued that the process is designed to make the public want to tune out. His “cartoons” comment came during a town hall in Indianola, Iowa.
The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor clarified his statements later in the debate.
“The American people from outside of Washington feel a sense of exhaustion, watching the division and the dysfunction. It is not to take anything away from the very good work that you and our other Democratic members of Congress and the Senate are doing,” Buttigieg said.
