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Monday night was truly a marathon for CNN as they aired five back-to-back town halls with 2020 Democratic candidates. Yet, despite it being only one day after the massive coordinated terrorist attack in Sri Lanka by Islamic extremists that mainly targeted Christians with almost 300 dead and 500 injured, CNN offered zero questions about anti-Christian bigotry. Instead, CNN asked those candidates nine combined questions on impeaching President Trump.
For the town halls for Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Senator Kamala Harris (CA), Trump’s impeachment was at the top of the docket. “You serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Should the House — should the House Judiciary Committee move forward with impeachment proceedings against President Trump,” one student asked Klobuchar. The second question she received on the topic came in the form of a follow up from moderator Chris Cuomo.
“In light of Mueller's report do you believe the Democrats in Congress should reconsider their position on impeachment,” was the question that kicked off Harris’s town hall.
Since Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) was the first Democratic candidate to openly call for Trump’s impeachment, moderator Anderson Cooper pressed her on how that battle could hurt Democratic chances to beat him (click "expand"):
I do just want to ask you, you have called for impeachment proceedings to be initiated against President Trump. What do you say to those Democrats that say, look, this is not the time. It’s going to take away the focus from the election in 2020. Speaker Pelosi told her caucus again today she has no plans to immediately initiate impeachment proceedings.
(…)
Doesn't putting a lot of people's focus on impeaching the President, which is not going to pass in the Senate, it’s not really going to go anywhere in that sense, doesn't that take away focus from the tabletop issues that you and other Democrats say they want to run on?
Using Warren’s answer as the preface, Cuomo wanted to know if Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) wanted to go as far as she did: putting Trump in prison.
“Doesn't putting a lot of people's focus on impeaching the President, which is not going to pass in the Senate, it’s not really going to go anywhere in that sense, doesn't that take away focus from the tabletop issues that you and other Democrats say they want to run on,” Cuomo wondered.
Cuomo followed up by pressing Sanders on "why look again" when both the Special Counsel and the heads of the Justice Department found nothing prosecutable regarding Trump:
All right, so you don't know where you are on impeachment yet, but what if you reverse your argument and say you just had that answered twice. Mueller said he couldn't come to a conclusion. He can't exonerate but he can't prosecute and then you had the AG and the Deputy AG look at it and say no obstruction. You got your answer twice. Why look again?
Rounding out the candidates, Cooper asked South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg two questions about impeachment as well. “If you were in the House or Senate, would you vote to impeach President Trump? Do you think the House should move for impeachment?” The follow up was about impeachment possibly distracting from other Democratic issues.
In addition to those eight questions about impeachment, CNN took advantage of Earth Day to sprinkle in five questions about climate change and the Green New Deal. To CNN’s credit, some of those questions involved the serious concerns of those policies hurting rural Americans and folks who work in high carbon industries.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Amy Klobuchar: A CNN Town Hall Event
04/22/19
7:02:15 p.m.JOHN OUR: You serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Should the House — should the House Judiciary Committee move forward with impeachment proceedings against President Trump?
(...)
7:03:47 p.m.
CHRIS CUOMO: Senator, just to give them a quick sense, do you believe that anything you've read and processed in that report could have the word impeachable attached to it?
(…)
Elizabeth Warren: A CNN Town Hall Event
04/22/19
8:26:27 p.m.ANDERSON COOPER: I do just want to ask you, you have called for impeachment proceedings to be initiated against president trump. What do you say to those Democrats that say, look, this is not the time. It’s going to take away the focus from the election in 2020. Speaker Pelosi told her caucus again today she has no plans to immediately initiate impeachment proceedings.
(...)
8:31:28 p.m.
COOPER: But you —
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): That's our responsibility. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
COOPER: — but you started off by saying -- by talking about some of your travels and people talking about climate change, their concerns, tabletop issues.
WARREN: Yes. Yes.
COOPER: Doesn't putting a lot of people's focus on impeaching the President, which is not going to pass in the Senate, it’s not really going to go anywhere in that sense, doesn't that take away focus from the tabletop issues that you and other Democrats say they want to run on?
Bernie Sanders: A CNN Town Hall Event
04/22/19
9:22:27 p.m.CUOMO: Question about the Mueller investigation. It was interesting to hear your colleague Senator Elizabeth Warren say on this stage earlier, you know, there is no political inconvenience exception to the United States Constitution. Her argument was “if any other human being in this country had done what is documented in the Mueller report they would be arrested and put in jail” and he’s obviously referencing this president. Do you agree that it is time for impeachment proceedings as she says?
(...)
CUOMO: All right, so you don't know where you are on impeachment yet, but what if you reverse your argument and say you just had that answered twice. Mueller said he couldn't come to a conclusion. He can't exonerate but he can't prosecute and then you had the AG and the Deputy AG look at it and say no obstruction. You got your answer twice. Why look again?
Kamala Harris: A CNN Town Hall Event
04/22/19
10:00:52 p.m.KARLA ALVARDO: In light of Mueller's report do you believe the Democrats in Congress should reconsider their position on impeachment?
(…)
Pete Buttigieg: A CNN Town Hall Event
04/22/19
11:48:19 p.m. EasternANDERSON COOPER: If you were in the House or Senate, would you vote to impeach President Trump? Do you think the House should move for impeachment?
(...)
11:48:58 p.m. Eastern
COOPER: Do you worry that if Democrats focus on this, though, it's going to take away time from tabletop issues that -
