Klobuchar: Impeachment trial ‘was about not hiding history’

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Sunday expressed confidence that former President Trump’s second impeachment trial would confer the judgment of history on him, despite his acquittal.

“It’s not what we accomplished… it’s what our republic accomplished,” Klobuchar said of the trial on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’ve got to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. What this was about to me was about not hiding history.”

Klobuchar added that the documentation cited by House impeachment managers would be “seared into” Americans’ memories as a result.

The Minnesota senator added that while she was “disappointed with the results,” the impeachment vote was the  most bipartisan in history. Klobuchar hailed the “seven courageous Republicans” who voted to convict, noting that some of them represent deeply Republican states, such as Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Fox’s Chris Wallace asked Klobuchar why witnesses were not called, given the importance of the trial. Klobuchar responded that “I voted for allowing witnesses, but I think in the end it wasn’t going to be more witnesses that was going to change their minds.”

“What happened here was a bunch of Republicans used what I would call an excuse,” she said, citing numerous GOP senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), arguing it was unconstitutional to try a president after leaving office.

This argument, she said, “is just not correct in the plain language of the Constitution.”

As a result, she said, witnesses “would not have changed their minds … that’s obvious or Mitch McConnell would not have given the speech that he gave.”

Following the acquittal, McConnell made a floor speech in which he reiterated his belief that Trump bore responsibility for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Trump was acquitted in a 57-43 Senate vote on Saturday, shy of the two-thirds majority necessary to convict.