I have the experience of actually getting the things done that he talks about. Will it work . President ial candidate Amy Klobuchar joins us next. Plus, strike a pose. Candidates modern way of connecting with voters. Selfie how the art of the selfie is changing the way president ial hopefuls campaign. Hello, im dana bash in for jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is at a stalemate. President trump impeached by the house of representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of congress, but the process is at a standstill. Congress went home for the holiday break, and House Speaker nancy pelosi is Still Holding the articles of impeachment and will, she says, until the senate agrees on what the trial will look like. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell says no skin off my back. Hes in no rush for an impeachment trial. Hes holding off senators calling for a trial. Assuming a senate trial does happen. Senators running for president will have to balance serving as impeachment jurors with precious time on the campaign trail. The Iowa Caucuses are around the corner. With me is one of those senators working hard in iowa hoping her debate performance helps there. Amy klobuchar is democratic candidate for president , also a member of the Judiciary Committee in the senate. So, senator, you have said that you and your fellow democrats should do whatever it takes to push for witnesses in the senate trial, but as you know, the Senate Majority leader, mitch mccobblm mcconnell, isnt on board. I think there will be an agreement and this trial will go forward. I think what is shocking to me is right now, despite the president claiming his innocence, claiming that he wants to present witnesses, hes the one blocking the witnesses, dahna. Hes the one he could have his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, testify. We just found out this weekend that someone who works for mulvaney, michael duffy, had sent an email 90 minutes after the president made the critical call to the ukrainian president. This guy sent an email, i have it here, we just found it, it says given the sensitive nature of the request, i appreciate your keeping this information closely held. He said, dont release any of the funds. This man should testify, and i will add one more thing. When Richard Nixon when those hearings were held, Richard Nixon had all the president s men testify. He had major people testify from his administration and theyre being blocked. And dont be surprised, the polls show 64 of republicans think these witnesses should testify. Just to follow up quickly, you think there will be an agreement soon, but it sounds like there will probably be votes on whether these witnesses will be asked to come forward . You know, i dont know exactly how well will this will go down. I know we have a constitutional duty to take on this important case. Okay. The president betrayed the trust of the American People. I have been saying the same thing as i say in public behind closed doors with our leadership in the senate. Im in the Leadership Team and ive made very clear, we should do whatever it takes and i can still run for president. Im a mom. I can do two things at once. Lets talk about that, running for president. At this weeks debate, one of the biggest moments was your criticism of mayor Pete Buttigieg over what you said was his lack of experience. Listen to how he responded on cnn. Well, i think the suggestion is that i dont understand the ways of washington. As reality is, i understand them, i just dont accept them. The American People are fed up with the way things are going in washington and i think we need to bring change. Might just be a good idea from that change to come outside the beltway. So hes basically saying hes an outsider, youre an insider. Your response . My response is what i said on that stage, is that he basically had condemned the experience, he said 100 years of experience on this stage in the previous debate, and i pointed out to him that experience does matter. That is how we got the Consumer Financial protection bureau, because of elizabeth work or two people who werent on that stage last time, cory bookers work on the First Step Act which is going to help get a lot of people out of prison that shouldnt have been there, or Kamala Harriss work helping consumers in california. I just think that someone has experience can be a really good thing right now. And we have a president who went in there with no experience and has done nothing when it comes to helping regular people. What do i hear in iowa . I hear about people who are struggling to pay for insulin, people who are struggling to send their kids to college and when he passed that tax bill, he could have helped regular people. Instead, he went down to maralago and said to his friends, hey, we just made you a lot richer. Guess what, none of the people from iowa were sitting in that room. Senator, also as the debate you were asked a question about your vote to confirm a trump appointed federal judge who further dismantled obamacare this week. You acknowledged that, quote, there are some of these judges that you think are going to be okay and they arent. So youve actually voted for dozens of trump nominated judges. Was that a mistake . Ive actually voted against dozens of those judges. Its about half and half. I have a pretty good record. You can, yes, but i am somewhere in the middle of our caucus on these judge votes. I think everyone tries to make their best determination. I think what i pointed out is the person that actually wrote that decision was a judge that had been supported by president obama and ted kennedy and Bernie Sanders and many other people, including myself. So my point here is whats really going on is that the Trump Administration brought this case. Theyre trying to dismantle the Affordable Care act and some of my colleagues on that debate stage want to actually start over with medicare for all. And as i said, i go ahead. Just to button up. I just want to ask the original question, which is on the trump judges, yes, you voted against a lot, but you also voted aye on 29 of the judges and 26 others were approved by voice vote so you gave tacit approval. Do you regret that now . I would have to look at each of those judges. I dont Carte Blanche make a decision about each judge based on whether or not trump nominated them. I think most of my if it went by voice vote, then every other president ial candidate thats up there in the senate voted for them as well. You make your best judgment. I think the bigger case is as president i will be able to appoint the kind of judges that we see right now that i admire like elena kagan and Sonya Sotomayor and justice ginsburg. Barack obama took every suggestion i made have been excellent, excellent judges. Thats what you look at as well as my experience. When justice kavanaugh, then nominee kavanaugh took me on i didnt back down. I strongly opposed him and made a point to the American People. Weve been talking about the debate and what happened there. Looking ahead to the debate in january, you say youve already qualified for that debate. So far only yes. Five white candidates have qualified. Why do you think that is . You have to look at each individual campaign. I am hopeful that that wont be the end. My friend cory bookers out here in iowa campaigning as well. I know that andrew yang has qualified, at least partway, toward making that debate. We will see what happens as this campaign keeps going. Theres been a lot of twists and turns. All i know is this, dahna, we have a huge momentum going on right now. Every one of our events in tiny, tiny towns, weve just done 15 counties, have had record crowds. Weve raised over a Million Dollars from regular people at amyklobuchar. Com after that debate. Weve doubled our offices in iowa, doubled our staff in New Hampshire and in nbc north caro and south carolina. You know what else you have, you have a Dopple Ganger on snl. Take a look. Yes. Yes. No, i the only cave i ever go to is a man cave. I call it the senate. There are more of these classic zingars only on costco plus streaming services. Standup Amy Klobuchar special coming soon . Thats pretty good. Yes. Well, that was a pretty fun part of the debate, actually, when i pointed out there the discussion had gone so long so i suggested that maybe we should go to the wind cave in south dakota which is a national park. What youd like to know, dahna, now i have a number of spelunkers that are excited about my candidacy. You never know. In a close primary you one constituency at a time. That is exactly how i am going to win this. Thanks for joining me. Appreciate it. Speaker nancy pelosi says she wont hand over the articles of impeachment until the senate outlines its plan for a trial. Will that work . Top republican senator roy blunt joins me next. Can you even be a true political junkie if you dont post a selfie with your candidate . Stay with us. Searching for a way to help stop your cold sore . Only abreva can get rid of it in. As little as 2 1 2 days when used at the first sign. Abreva starts to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. Abreva acts on it. So you can too. vo the flock blindly flying south for the winter. They never stray from their predetermined path. But this season, a more thrilling journey is calling. Defy the laws of human nature. At the season of audi sales event. Woman friction points, those obstacles that limit a companys growth. I try to find companies that turn these challenges into opportunities. Its these unique companies with Creative Business models that will generate value for our investors. Thats why i go beyond the numbers. Welcome back to state of the uni union, im dana bash. Joining me now is a member of the republican leadership, senator roy bluntd. Thank you so much for coming in this morning. Youve been in congress a long time. I have. You have relationships across the aisle. What is your sense, are you going to come up with a deal so that this trial will start early january . I think a deal is easy to come up with. Weve even got the plan in place from what happened in the clinton impeachment and i think thats ultimately where we wind up, where we start down this path. Let both sides make their case. Let the house impeachment managers make their case. Let the president for what i would argue as the first time make his case publicly, for his defenders do that, and see where we are. Thats what happened with clinton. I think thats the best way to approach this. My guess is thats what we do, otherwise, we just sort of start down the path where 51 senators decide every issue as it comes up. I dont know that anyone either wants to have that happen or take the time that would take on either side for us to get this out before the American People, both sides having a chance to present their case. As you well know, the standoff right now is that the speaker is holding the articles of impeachment at the house until the parameters of the trial are done. The wall street Journal Editorial Board said that the senate could and even should hold a trial. Youre the chair of the rules committee. Is that possible . Have you looked into that . I dont know that thats possible. Thats very unlikely. I frankly dont think the speaker has the right to do this or the power to do this. The speaker has a lot of power. Once the house has spoken, the speaker doesnt get the decision as to whether or not she transmits that decision to the senate in my view. I think well have this all handled by the time we get back in january. Im sure everybody is beginning to figure out how to present their case. Frankly, i think its a mistake on the speakers part. I think this is pretty political anyway and this is sort of the icing on the political cake. Were at the end. The speaker still cant let go of this as an issue to try to ring the last vest stage of politics out of. I mean, the outcome here is virtually certain as ive been saying for weeks, a partisan vote in the house would almost certainly result in a partisan vote in the senate so that the outcome is certain. Trying to get that last thing out of it rather than move on as the speaker appeared to want to do one day last week and then suddenly she decides to involve herself in what the senate wanted to do. You say the outcome is almost certain. I want you to listen to what a couple of your republican colleagues have said. Im not an impartial juror. This is a political process. This is not anything judicial about it. Impeachment is a political decision. I am trying to give a pretty clear signal i have made up my mind. Have you made up your mind . Well, based on what i know right now, i just dont think they made the case. I dont think they came close to making the case. This is called a trial because theres really in the constitution i think no better thing to call it, but its a very political process. Five of the socalled jurors running for president. Not a single republican in the house convinced that they should vote for either the articles of impeachment and a couple of democrats convinced that they shouldnt vote for the articles of impeachment. So its not a classic i was talking to a federal judge one day this week and he said, how could you call this really a trial . He was a federal judge for a decade or more where half of the jurors can overrule what the judge decides ought to happen next. Its not a trial in any classic sense, it is a political decision to do it and at the end of the day every Single Member of the senate has considerations that are pretty obvious skbl okay. So you dont think that the house made its case, but lets just talk about one of the basic things, which is the president asking a foreign country, the leader of a foreign country, to investigate a man who is a polite ral rival of his. Is that appropriate . Well, at the same time you had the attorney general asking leaders of other countries to help them look into the 2016 elections. Whether its which is to benefit the United States. This is a specific ask specifically about his political opponent. So do you feel that thats appropriate . Well, the president and the secretary of state and the retired Lieutenant General whos a Foreign Policy advisor all feel like that call was within the bounds what do you think . What does roy blunt think . Ive never been happy with any of the ukraine decisions since the russians invaded crimea. We told president obama in december of 2015 to provide lethal aid, which he never did. You know, ive never been happy with the way any of this has been handled regarding ukraine and were trying to do what we can now to be helpful. So your colleagues, ben sass, called it very troubling, the call, to help dig up dirt on joe biden. Lamar alexander said it was totally inappropriate. Any other president would have said, ill have the attorney general call you about some things were looking into. This one didnt. Did he make a mistake . The president s make mistakes. Was this call a mistake . I think there were plenty of mistakes made by both president obama and trump regarding ukraine and how to deal with the russian aggression in ukraine just like how to deal with the russian aggression in our elections. So lets talk about potential witnesses in the senate trial. Some key figures like former National Security advisor john bolton havent testified. Boltons lawyer said that bolton was involved in, quote, many relevant meetings and conversations that have not yet been discussed in the testimonies thus far. As a juror, dont you want to hear from him. You know, as a senator and as a person who believes the constitution is there for a purpose, i think its the job of the house to make the case. Only a majority of the house can send a case over to the senate. For 180 years we only dealt we only one time touched the idea of president ial impeachment. Here now three times in 46 years the congress has moved through the process of impeaching a president. I dont think you want to make that so easy that the house thats of a Different Party can send over the vaguest set of charges and expect the senate then to do the houses job. I think they should have gone to court just like the house did with clinton. Just like the house did with nixon. It would have taken some time, but thats the they had plenty of time. Theyve been wanting to impeach the president. Its the houses job. You will not vote to hear from any witnesses . Lets let them present their case and then see if we need to hear from witnesses. Thats the way it was done in 1999. I think thats the way we should do it this time. Senator, i want to ask you about an article from christianity today. He called for the president s removal from office. None of the president s positives can balance the moral and political dangers we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character. Going on to say that he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the creator of the ten commandments. So hes saying that he cant reconcile his Christian Faith and values, kindness, generosity, integrity with the president s, quote, immoral actions in business, relationships, with women and habitual strain of lies, slanders. I know your Christian Faith is important to you and im wondering, especially since like i think its almost six in ten of your constituents are like christians, is this something thats familiar . Do you wrestwell this . I think that person looking at the president versus what the president s done as president has got to be an outlier in everything i hear from the christian com