Andrew Yang: Senators Running for President Should ‘Feel Free’ to Campaign During Impeachment Trial

Andrew Yang (D) said on Thursday that the Democrat senators running for president should “feel free” to campaign if impeachment moves to a trial in the Senate because the lawmakers already “know enough to know which way they would vote and can always get briefed on new findings.”

As the debate over the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — heats up in the House Judiciary Committee, Yang is leaping ahead and giving senators running for president the green light to campaign instead of focusing on impeachment. He argues that the senators — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) — already “know enough to know which way they would vote and can always get briefed on new findings.”

“I think Bernie, Cory, and the other senators should feel free to campaign during the impeachment trial if it comes to that,” he tweeted:

I think Bernie, Cory, and the other senators should feel free to campaign during the impeachment trial if it comes to that. They know enough to know which way they would vote and can always get briefed on new findings.

— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) December 12, 2019

The House is expected to introduce the articles of impeachment next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blasted Democrats for pushing an impeachment “based on the least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history” on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

“If the House continues this destructive road and sends us articles of impeachment, the Senate will take them up in the New Year and proceed to a fair trial,” McConnell stated.

Two senators told CNN on Wednesday that McConnell will likely move to acquit Trump:

Republicans want to have a vote on acquittal — to clear the President of the charges against him — not simply rely on a 51-vote threshold procedural motion to dismiss the hotly disputed case.

The Constitution mandates 67 votes are required to convict the President and remove him from office, a barrier widely considered too high to be reached in this case.

McConnell previously told reporters that he would be “totally surprised if there were 67 senators to remove the President.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell: "I would be totally surprised if there were 67 senators to remove the President." pic.twitter.com/F9W8g6wOIN

— The Hill (@thehill) December 11, 2019