By Scott Eisen/Getty Images.

The 2020 candidates are starting to join the growing calls for Trump’s impeachment, as the release of the redacted Mueller report has inspired some Democrats to start embracing the “i-word.” Following a statement by candidate Julián Castro Friday that starting impeachment proceedings would be “perfectly reasonable,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren became the first of 2020’s top tier candidates to officially throw her support behind the House finally taking action against Trump.

In a Twitter thread Friday afternoon, Warren explained her rationale for supporting impeachment, acknowledging that the Mueller report “lays out facts” about how the Trump administration “welcomed” Russia’s help in the 2016 election and the president obstructed justice, and ”put the next step in the hands of Congress.” “To ignore a President’s repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country,” Warren wrote, calling on lawmakers from both parties to “set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty.” “That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.”

Warren’s Friday tweets were the strongest statement yet among the 2020 candidates, who so far have largely avoided giving a straight answer on Trump’s impeachment post-Mueller. Warren’s female Senate colleagues have mostly taken the “wait-and-see” approach: Sen. Kamala Harris told MSNBC Thursday that “that there is definitely a conversation to be had” about impeachment, “but first I want to hear from Bob Mueller,” while Sen. Amy Klobuchar acknowledged Friday that senators “are very cautious about talking about” impeachment. Sen. Cory Booker, meanwhile, said “no” point-blank when asked Thursday whether impeachment was on the table, and Sen. Bernie Sanders seemed to dodge the question entirely.

Over in the House, House Judiciary member and 2020 candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell told MSNBC Friday that impeachment is “a conversation we have to have as far as holding this president accountable,” but would only say he’s “for bringing Bob Mueller in and see[ing] what the evidence is.” Some 2020 candidates outside the Beltway seem to be taking a more open-minded view on impeachment: in addition to Castro’s “reasonable” comment, Pete Buttegieg said Friday there’s “evidence that this president deserves to be impeached,” though he noted he is not in Congress and would leave the matter to their judgement.

The scattered responses among the 2020 field are indicative of Democrats’ broader divide on impeachment in the wake of the Mueller report, as lawmakers try to navigate how to hold Trump accountable while avoiding the potential political pitfalls of a failed impeachment attempt. The idea of impeachment has gained some steam since the report’s release—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of several lawmakers to officially throw her support behind the move—but party leaders have remained tentative.

While some of the trepidation seems to be based around impeachment’s relative unpopularity with the general electorate, however, the idea still has broad support with the Democratic base—which means Warren’s impeachment call may help her voter enthusiasm in the primary, not to mention the individual donations on which her campaign relies. A Warren aide emphasized to CNN that impeachment will not become a focus of her campaign, though—and while impeachment may be catnip to primary voters, how that translates to general election votes remains to be seen. “For the core of the Democratic base, [the Mueller investigation] is insatiable red meat. For nonpartisan voters, it’s not clear how much they care anymore,” Democratic political strategist Chris Kofinis told the Los Angeles Times. “The reality is that being anti-Trump, no matter how justified, is not a winning strategy, because if it was, Hillary Clinton would have been elected.“

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