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Harris: 'I Believe Congress Should Take The Steps Towards Impeachment'

(CBS SF / CNN) -- Sen. Kamala Harris of California said Monday that she supports Congress moving towards impeachment, a step further than the Democrat from the Bay Area has gone in the past on whether President Donald Trump should be impeached.

Harris' comment at a CNN town hall in New Hampshire comes amid a growing debate among Democrats over whether the House should move to impeach the President in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller releasing his report on Russian intervention in the 2016 election and Trump's efforts to obstruct the investigation.

"I think we have very good reason to believe that there is an investigation that has been conducted which has produced evidence that tells us that this President and his administration engaged in obstruction of justice," Harris said. "I believe Congress should take the steps towards impeachment."

Harris added: "I believe that we need to get rid of this President. That's why I'm running to become president of the United States. That is part of the premise, obviously, of my plan."

For months, Democrats have not made impeachment a premier issue in their pitch to voters. But Mueller's report has upped the ante on the issue, causing candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro to call for impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Warren first announced her support of impeachment proceedings last week. But she said during her hour-long CNN town hall on Monday that if anyone else did what Trump did, according to the Mueller report, "they would be arrested and put in jail."

"He serves the whole thing up to the United States Congress and says in effect, if there's going to be any accountability, that accountability has to come from the Congress," Warren said of Mueller. "And the tool that we are given for that accountability is the impeachment process. This is not about politics; this is about principle."

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar took a more wait-and-see approach to the issue Monday night, refusing to go as far as Warren, Castro or Harris.

"Here is my concern: At the end of the day, what is most important to me is to see that Donald Trump is not re-elected President, and I intend to do everything I can to make sure that that doesn't happen," Sanders said.

Klobuchar told the audience in New Hampshire that she doesn't want to "predispose things." The senator also pushed the decision on impeaching Trump to her colleagues in the House, noting that it is their decision.

"The impeachment proceedings are up to the House. They're going to have to make that decision. I am in the Senate," Klobuchar said, adding that she "believe(s) very strongly that President Trump should be held accountable."

© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten. CNN contributed to this report.

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